Video game voice actor union SAG-AFTRA say they’ve reached a “tentative agreement” with a group of games companies that could bring an end to the latest voice actor strike, providing it gets approved by the union’s National Board and members.
This tentative deal “puts in place the necessary AI guardrails that defend performers’ livelihoods in the A.I. age, alongside other important gains,” say SAG-AFTRA. That’s been the key issue at the heart of this strike, with the union citing a desire to push for protections against VAs being replaced or imitated by AI, though it has previously faced some criticism for how it’s handled striking deals with companies that use AI.
The agreement the union have just announced is with a group of companies which includes Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices Inc, Electronic Arts Productions, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, and WB Games.
“Our video game performers stood strong against the biggest employers in one of the world’s most lucrative industries,” said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, “Their incredible courage and persistence, combined with the tireless work of our negotiating committee, has at last secured a deal.”
It’s worth noting that while the union say they expect this tentative deal to bring an end to the voice actor strike that’s rumbled on since July last year, that work stoppage’ll remain in place until it’s formally accepted and set in stone. SAG’s National Board and membership will now review the deal. If they give it a thumbs up and a strike suspension agreement is successfully negotiated with the game companies, then things would be set up for the strike to properly conclude.
We have reached a tentative agreement with the video game bargaining group, which includes some of the largest video game companies in the world, and we are hopeful that our video game strike will be suspended in the coming days. #SagAftraStrong ow.ly/wZzx50W6Lwv
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra.org) 10 June 2025 at 05:31
GenAI’s use in video game voice acting was also at the heart of some recent legal action SAG-AFTRA launched against the sweary (at least-pre-patch) Darth Vader chatbot Epic Games, one of the signatories of this deal, added to Fortnite. The Vader bot was made with the blessing of actor James Earl Jones’ family, but the union took issue with Llama Productions allegedly having chosen “to replace the work of human performers with AI technology” without notifying SAG-AFTRA or bargaining with it. Epic have since revealed that they plan to give players tools to create their own AI-powered NPCs.
We’ll see how all of this plays out, but in an ideal world, hard-working voice actors will hopefully be able to get back to plying their trade without having to worry about being replaced by AI out of the blue because companies want to save some cash.
