Video Game Voice Actors in the United States Strike for Fair Compensation and Better Working Environment, 2016–2017

When the Interactive Media Agreement expired at the end of 2014, labor union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) sought to negotiate a new term agreement for the video game industry. This contract develops the labor relationship between employers and workers about working conditions, resolves labor conflict, and ensures fair payment in the industry, for workers developing video games, computer games, virtual reality games, and some apps with user interaction. As the gaming industry  developed, it sought new models to ensure fair worker wages. For instance, the Interactive Media Agreement that ran through 2014 for the first time instituted a one-time payment of 15 percent of each session fee for games available on stream services. 

With the growth of the video game industry since 2005, voice actors behind video game characters have sought better working conditions and more reliable compensation. On 2 February and 23 June 2015, SAG-AFTRA had two negotiation meetings with video game employers, asking for new terms for the agreement. These demands included: 

1) Voice actors should receive the “residual” like film and television actors. Residuals are the financial compensation to the entertainment workers, like film actors or directors, for the reuse of their work, such as reruns, DVD sales, and licensing to streaming platforms. In other words, the SAG-AFTRA union proposed secondary and even subsequent payments for voice actors if games reached sufficient sales. 

2) “Vocally stressful” roles, like recording of screaming and shouting in the game, similar to “physically demanding roles,” require restrictions on recording session times. Taking “vocally stressful” roles may cause the vocal cord damage for the actors, so this restriction aims for better working conditions regarding the actor's health. 

3) The SAG-AFTRA demanded transparency during auditions for actor roles. Up to that time, companies usually did not inform voice actors about the details of the roles for which the actors auditioned, even if one received the role. Thus, actors’ could not prepare for the job, and they might unwittingly take on too many  “vocally stressful” roles.

However, this negotiation fell into a deadlock, which lasted for approximately twenty months without any progress, so the union started to plan for a strike. During 15 September to 6 October of 2015, the SAG-AFTRA held a strike authorization vote with 96.55 percent of members’ supporting action. During 17-19 October of 2016, SAG-AFTRA and employers reached an agreement on raising session fees for the voice actors, but employers rejected the  “residual buyout” proposed by the union, in part because tech employees, who designed video games, did not enjoy the same benefits. Consequently, the negotiation broke down, and the strike began. 

On 21 October, 2016, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced their strike against 11 video game employers and producers. These companies are Activision Publishing, Inc.; Blindlight, LLC; Corps of Discovery Films; Disney Character Voices, Inc.; Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.; Formosa Interactive, LLC; Insomniac Games, Inc.; Interactive Associates, Inc.; Take 2 Interactive Software; VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.; and WB Games, Inc. They emphasized three main demands about residual payment, transparency in auditions, as well as better working conditions for “vocal stressful” roles. The members of the union refused to work on the companies’ games until the end of the strike. 

In the subsequent weeks of the strike, several other unions announced their support for the strike. AFL-CIO (The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) President Richard Trumka sent a strong statement in support of SAG-AFTRA on 27 October. On 18 November, the Actors' Equity Association voiced support for their “sister union,” AFTRA.

On 24 October, SAG-AFTRA’s first picket began at the Playa Vista offices of Electronic Artists with 300 people. Picket supporters included members of the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood Boulevard performers, who dressed as famous cartoon and movie characters, like Wolverine and Captain America. The picket spread to other companies, and the alliance for the strike became larger. On 3 November, they picketed Warner Bros’. WB Games unit in Burbank by standing along a cordon of fences erected by the company. Picketers shouted, “Death screams are on strike!” On 17 November, the members of the American Federation of Musicians, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Teamsters, and Unite Here joined the picket line against Insomniac Games in Burbank. The strike continued, and more than 500 people attended a rally and march from Los Angeles headquarters to the park next to the La Brea Tar Pits on 2 February, 2017. 

The strike lasted for 11 months, which officially ended on 23 September when SAG-AFTRA agreed a new contract with employers that went into effect from 8 November to 7 November 2020. The agreement resolved the issue of transparency of roles and auditions, working accommodations for actors who take “vocal stressful roles,” and increased additional compensation per session from $75 for one session to $2100 for 10 sessions. Ninety percent of the SAG-AFTRA members voted to approve the new Interactive Media Video Game Agreement. However, the agreement did not satisfy their demands for residual compensation. Some voice actors criticized the concession of SAG-AFTRA and described the nearly year-long strikes as a “frustratingly permanent” situation. 

At the time, the Video Game Voice Strike was the second longest strike in Hollywood history at 340 days, which also marked the first-ever strike by SAG-AFTRA since the merger of the two unions. It was the first to introduce the term “buyout” into contracts in the game industry. Even though the Interactive Media Video Game Agreement of 2017 resulted in the strike retaining the old payment model, it ensured better working conditions and bonus payments. SAG-AFTRA and employers later extended the contract from 8 November, 2020, and 7 November, 2022, and renewed it yet again until 2023.