Veteran voice actor Jennifer Hale discusses the ongoing strike by video game voice actors against major publishers like Activision and Epic Games. The central issue is protecting voice actors from the use of generative AI technologies that could replicate their voices without consent for profit.
after a year of negotiations with big-time video game publishers like Activision and Epic Games. As with those strikes, the central sticking point for video game voice actors is protection against the ever-pervasive use of generative AI technologies.
This, in turn, led to voice actors going on strike July 25 for new game contracts that would protect them from having their likenesses replicated using AI technology without their consent for profit under the pretense of “greater efficiency.
“One of the things that the theatrical contract accomplished, which was so great, was when it’s your likeness—meaning how you look and how you sound—they’ve got to pay you. That’s just fair. When they create that through AI, you cannot use that same language for voice actors because I can sometimes sound like this or I can sometimes sound like that,” Hale said, changing her voice from a whimsically high-pitched squeak to a gruff rough-and-tumble baritone.
Although a strike would signal to the average person that no voice actors are working on any upcoming video game, the reality is that plenty of games are being produced with union actors while on strike. This is thanks to two union offers: a tiered budget agreement and an interim agreement. According to Hale, the former is for smaller devs—the kind of folks making games in their living rooms; SAG-AFTRA has made an option for them to work with union talent.
Video game and animation voice-over work under a block rate where actors earn between $900 and $1,000 per session. While that rate sounds impressive, actors are lucky to get booked several times a month. And that’s not even considering taxes, splits between agencies, booking rates, and the cost of continually training and honing one’s craft.
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