The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists escalated its ongoing strike against video game companies with a picket line outside one of those companies' California headquarters.
SAG-AFTRA members and supporters from other creative arts labor guilds picketed the headquarters of Electronic Arts in Playa Vista, Calif., on Monday afternoon, Deadline reports. EA is the fourth largest company in the industry by revenue and the publisher of such well-known games as FIFA, Madden NFL, The Sims, and Mass Effect.
The SAG-AFTRA strike began on Friday afternoon after a number of industry titans failed to agree to a new contract for voice actors set forth by the guild. These terms addressed a number of issues raised by SAG-AFTRA voice actors, including fair working conditions and adequate compensation for use of their voices.
Per Variety, the strike order asks "all SAG-AFTRA members to withhold performing services and auditioning for work under the Interactive Media Agreement with respect to struck games for the following struck employers effective midnight of October 21. 2016." These performing services include voice acting, motion-capture work, and even allowing the companies in question to reuse prior recorded work in future games and promotions.
I am not Mr. Video Games, nor have I ever claimed to be! But considering how lucrative the holiday season is for the industry and how some games in production right now might be eyeing a December 2017 release…these companies (EA, Insomniac, Activision, etc.) might wanna work this shit out.
Bad at filling out bios seeks same.