As announced yesterday by the American labour union Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, video game actors across the country will be going on strike today following disputes with several different publishers regarding AI-related protections.
As specified in their announcement, SAG-AFTRA is particularly upset with the likes of "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 even "WB Games Inc."
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted the name of one specific publisher amongst those listed, one which briefly sent the internet into a frenzy. Take-Two Interactive are best known as the owners of Rockstar Games, who are set to publish this little unknown indie title next year called Grand Theft Auto: VI.
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For a short moment, there was panic in the streets. Riots across the world. Fear gripped the nation. And then one user on Reddit pointed everyone towards the write up from Inverse's Shannon Liao (the same article that initially scared them all) that specified "Games that began production before late last year will not be impacted by the strike".
Whilst that does confirm that GTA 6 is out of the crosshairs, it does mean some high profile titles will definitely be impacted by the strikes if actor's AI-related qualms aren't put to rest quickly.
That being said, if any publishers who have been using AI in their games affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike - good. AI content has no place in the video game industry, especially within voice acting roles.
If your game has been delayed or is going to take some kind of financial hit because of these strikes, then that's just karma. Start paying real people to work on video games, ACTIVISION. Call of Duty makes like a billion dollars a minute you muppets. Stop cutting corners and jobs just because some dork in a boardroom told you it'd save you twenty quid a year.
Topics: Rockstar Games, Activision, Grand Theft Auto