Voice Actors Mulling Strike

It may seem like a trivial part to your gaming experience, but voice acting is an integral part to a games success. The voice actors union works on approximately 15 percent of the games sold, however, 9 out of the top 10 titles are done under union contract.

This leads the actors to strive for a bigger piece of the video game industry’s profits. “To deny working-class performers their fair share of the tremendous profits their labor helps to generate is illogical, unreasonable and unjust,” said John Connolly, president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Voice actors have been working under their current contract with game publishers since 1993. The stipulations of their current deal pay the actors approximately $278 an hour. The industry heads have already agreed to a wage increase to $375 an hour, however the union is seeking a sort of residual payment method as seen in television, commercial, and video sales.

Howard Fabrick, an attorney for the publishers involved responds “The union’s demand for an equity stake, or residual structure, is unreasonable and not fair to the hundreds of people who often spend years developing a game.”

The actors are seeking to be paid for an additional recording session after their game has sold over 400,000 copies. Afterwards, they are looking to see payments after every 100,000 games are sold after that.

With the industry hesitant to respond, the voice actors unions are currently in talks about a massive strike. The two unions represent over 2,000 actors, a large proportion of available voice actors. Union officials have already sent out ballots to their members. The vote is expected to be complete by the middle of June, and the union leaders are committed to following the will of their workers.

Be sure to check back with the Advanced Media Network in the coming weeks for more information regarding this breaking story. A strike involving the voice actors could adversely affect the development cycle of a great deal of games in the works. AMN promises to bring you the latest news about a possible strike as soon as we can confirm it. faiz