Voice actors have agreed that a strike may be the best option for getting their point across with a almost unanimous vote that was 96.52% in favor of the idea.
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Our favourite games might be significantly different if it wasn’t for the dulcet tones and vocal performances of talented voice actors. While these demands could be met by companies like Electronic Arts, Activision or Ubisoft easily, adding only moderate bloat to their already expansive budgets, this sort of thing would be a death knell for indie and mid-budget studios who are already working on tight finances.
In a message to its members, SAG-AFTRA explains what this vote means.
SAG-AFTRA noted that the Interactive Media Agreement expired on December 31, 2014, with bargaining sessions held in February and June of this year failing to produce an agreement. Only a 75 percent vote was required for SAG-AFTRA to be granted that authority.
Here’s hoping an agreement can be reached, otherwise we’ll be looking at a lot of silent games in the future. “That’s why we positioned our “ask” at 2 million copies – it’s where most games start to turn a profit, and it’s where all the union talent is found”.
Stunt pay when recording sessions are vocally stressful and limitations on how long such sessions can go.
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) now want more talks to try to resolve the dispute.
Transparency. Often, voice actors are not even told the title of the game they will be acting for, their role in the game, or the rating of the game. Actors are frequently recruited for projects knowing little about the context in which their work will be used.
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Prominent voice actors such as David Hayter (Metal Gear Solid), Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect), and Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) have come out in support of the movement, taking to Twitter to voice their solidarity under the #PerformanceMatters hashtag.
