Key issues up for negotiation include pay and conditions, but also “protections against unrestrained use of artificial intelligence”, specifically the impact upon performance capture artists.
The companies involved in the negotiations include Activision, Disney, EA, Epic Games, Insomniac, Take 2, and Warner Bros.
“It has been nearly a year since SAG-AFTRA’s video game contract, the Interactive Media Agreement, was extended beyond the original expiration date as we negotiated with the companies for critical terms SAG-AFTRA members need,” the statement explains.
“Unfortunately, throughout the negotiations, the companies have failed to address those needs. For this reason, the negotiating committee and National Board unanimously agreed that the union should have a member-approved strike authorisation in hand when bargaining resumes on 26th September.”
Nice nice, worker rights and less AI in video games. Win win.
Workers rights absolutely. Pay your human workers even while using ai to make a great product. AI didn’t do anything to me, it’s how the companies decide to use it.
Oh yeah I’m sure they will use the ai to pay human workers as well. You definitely know that if they are allowed to use ai they won’t use it in a way that means they can stop paying humans and can just have ais generate everything all whist delivering a lower quality product to the customer.
It’s a win win, as long as you are an executive or a shareholder.
I don’t know… this is a development industry. I think this will just accelerate the move to AI.
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So this is slightly misleading. The board approved a strike authorization vote which will run from 9/5 to 9/25. If the impacted members authorize a strike the negotiation team will have that as leverage day one of contact negotiations.
I agree. Once I realized the distinction, tho, I’m still happy. Having the authorization in hand when negotiating, especially after taking into account the current double strike, will presumably give them more leverage than ever. I’m cool not having any new media for a couple years if it saves the industry.
Indie Developers right now: Oh no… anyways.
Sad to say, but the union probably won’t get many meaningful concessions from this one. The technologies to fully generate model movement (motion capture) and emotive voice (voice acting) are already reasonably mature and constantly improving.
The artists will (rightfully) get strong control over their own likenesses, but if they think they’re going to stop mass adoption of AI in video games they’re dreaming.
Don’t underestimate the power of celebrity actors in games in terms of sales. There are people who buy games specifically because certain actors are in them.
That’s true, and there are people who go see movies specifically because of whom appears in them. But I’d hesitate to call that the majority, especially in gaming. The set of people that play games and the set of people who follow the industry are certainly overlapping, but are far from identical.
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Sweet.
Good for them. More power to them!
Question: why was Disney involved in the negotiation regarding video games? afaik they currently don’t own any studios nor publishers.
Disney has been involved with video games since the late 80s. Recently they were involved with Disney Dreamlight Valley and the new Illusion Island.
Not even to mention the Star Wars games, any Marvel games, the new indie game, the Avatar game from Ubi. They might not have any active in-house studios but they are quite active in giving the rights to studios for their franchises.
All I want for Disney is to conclude Split/Second.
Oh wow, I totally forgot about that game until now. Loved it, though! Now I need to dig it back up and play it…
I’m okay with this, the quality of game writing has been stagnant lately with a few exceptions each year
Actors are not writers.
