40
votes
SAG-AFTRA calls strike against major video game companies after nearly two years of contract talks
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Authors
- Katie Campione,Dominic Patten
- Published
- Jul 25 2024
- Word count
- 667 words
Companies involved:
And yeah it's the usual "stop using AI" stuff, which is going to be one hell of a pandora's box for video game voice acting.
I have serious doubts on whether having access to union voice actors is worth killing AI usage. I'm sure the companies are making the same calculations right now.
Unfortunately they don't have very much leverage. Non-union VAs are very prevalent - in fact, it's practically the majority at this point. Neither do English VAs really have the star power to turn heads when they are replaced.
And at this point the ability to massage a voice to sound more or less like you want means that a good vocal performance is less and less needed. The fact that you can fix narration in post is kind of mind blowing, and terrible for anyone who wants to be a professional VA. This short video from There I Ruined It shows how you can take a solid performance and make it magical. Who knows what the next few years will bring, but it's not going to be great for VA as a profession.
Holy crap that video was impressive.
Per Erika Ishii's Instagram, SDCC promo will be permitted due to the timing but after that and other than that, the strike stands.
Small Update:
https://kotaku.com/grand-theft-auto-vi-gta6-voice-actor-strike-saf-aftra-1851606082