On July 26, 2024, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) initiated a labor strike involving the union’s voice actors and motion capture artists against American video game companies signed to the union’s Interactive Media Agreements over failed renegotiation terms of the contract that had expired in November 2022.
[2] In addition to video game performers, there were concerns about companies having the ability to train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness, without consent or fair compensation.
[9] While AI could potentially reduce or even eliminate these costs, this has also led to significant concerns from video game actors of all sectors, including unwanted replication of voice and likeness, job security, and lack of compensation.
[18][19] Crabtree-Ireland affirmed that the strike would become effective at 12:01 am PDT on July 26, 2024, while Drescher stated that "We're not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I.
"[20] Roughly 2,600 people employed in the video game industry in voice acting, motion capture and other work would then go on strike.
[26] According to SAG-AFTRA, Formosa Entertainment "secretly transferred an unrelated title to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only.
[27] In response, Formosa released a statement stating that it has denied the allegations and has not acted in any way to undermine employee or union rights.
[35][36] The same arrangement is also used for League of Legends: Wild Rift in case of voice actor for that game opts to not record in solidarity with the strike.
[37][38] In January 2025, Bungie announced that some voiceover content in the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion Episode: Heresy would be missing as a result of the strike.