Some Video Game Producers Want To Steal The Future of Voice Actors
Some Video Game Producers Want To Steal The Future of Voice Actors
It used to be when a voice actor landed a contract with a video game company like Electronic Arts, Activision, or Disney, the results could be career-altering and, sometimes, even life-altering.
Importantly, they were mutually beneficial, especially if the work was ongoing. The company had fantastic performances to build and sell a video game with (think Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, and SO many others!). The actors were part of creative teams that helped create additional chapters in fantastic stories.
Now, these same companies want to screw over the voice actors whose performances helped them make billions.
And that’s why SAG-AFTRA is striking games produced by Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.
You might remember the writers’ and subsequent actors’ strikes recently. The union fought for and won some protection from the unethical practices proposed by some of the companies.
A simplified version of one issue for actors was that various producers wanted the right to use AI to digitally replicate a background performer without consent or compensation and deploy them in additional productions without paying the actor.
What video game companies are proposing is the same unethical garbage the movie studios were: they want the unfettered right to digitally replicate any performer/performance WITHOUT compensating the actor after the initial performance has been captured.
Let’s call this what it is: it’s stealing the future of these voice actors’ careers.
The industry standard arrangement currently holds that when a performer is called back in to add to a game, or recreate a character, they are compensated. The industry wants to use AI to create a digital replica or clone, and NOT pay the performer. Ever again.
Importantly, they don’t even want the performer to KNOW. They want permission to make actors say things they didn’t say, creating new “performances” from their cloned performances without their consent.
Here’s the much more polite SAG-AFTRA language explaining the points above:
“At the bargaining table, the employers have rebuffed our proposals and countered with loophole-filled language that negates any protections they claim to be offering. Employers understand that our members’ performances have value — that’s why they want to use them. It’s only fair that members be protected and paid for the value their performances create.
Among the more egregious loopholes, employers are only willing to obtain your consent and compensate you for the use of your “digital replica” if it is recognizable as you, which carves out nearly all movement work and the majority of voice work too, such as performing in character voices, voice matching and efforts. They want to reserve the right to have your digital replica say or do things that are religious, pejorative of a protected class or that endorse a political position without telling you and obtaining your agreement first. They also claim movement performers are not really performers, but rather data — even though they continue to hire experienced professional actors and stunt performers to do this work. They are using this language because they don’t want to give movement performers the consent, control and compensation they deserve. “
There is absolutely NO way that the people negotiating on the side of these companies don’t know that this is bordering on criminal.
Whether you’re a union performer or not, the union is fighting the good fight in this one.
To read a comparison between what the union is proposing and the counter offer by the video game companies, go to this page.
The shine has been off the shiny new toy of AI for anyone working in a creative field for a long while. These are some of the reasons why.
Know your rights. Understand the issues. Don’t let these companies steal your future.