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Video game voice actors strike
cloudeagle
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Starting on Friday, October 21, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced a strike against some voice-acting companies, including EA, Activision, Insomniac, Warner Bros., Disney Character Voices and Take-2 Interactive Software.
Edit: Apparently this covers mocap acting too.
Wait, what? Where did this come from?
The strike's been brewing for about 19 months now.
What are they griping about?
Pay, as you'd expect. And then there's the claim about "unsafe working conditions."
Pfft. All they're doing is just talking!
You'd be surprised. There have been reports of actors damaging their vocal chords over strenuous and long recording sessions. Will Wheaton has a pretty good account of just how much work can go into video game voices.
Okay, what do they want?
A bonus for every two million copies of a game sold, upfront conversations with producers about projects they're working on and concerns from actors about working conditions taken seriously.
And how have the targeted companies responded?
They're digging in for a long fight. They say voice actors already get paid at least $100 per hour and that only one voice actor injury has been reported since the last contract with the union.
What does this mean for video game development?
Right now it's unclear. The targeted companies have said only 25 percent of actors are covered by the union, and there are plenty more willing to work. As of now it's also not clear just how many of the big name actors are part of the union. Plus, voice acting frequently happens in numerous sessions throughout development, with last-minute changes not unheard of.
Really, we'll just have to sit back and see what happens.
Edit: Apparently this covers mocap acting too.
Wait, what? Where did this come from?
The strike's been brewing for about 19 months now.
What are they griping about?
Pay, as you'd expect. And then there's the claim about "unsafe working conditions."
Pfft. All they're doing is just talking!
You'd be surprised. There have been reports of actors damaging their vocal chords over strenuous and long recording sessions. Will Wheaton has a pretty good account of just how much work can go into video game voices.
Okay, what do they want?
A bonus for every two million copies of a game sold, upfront conversations with producers about projects they're working on and concerns from actors about working conditions taken seriously.
And how have the targeted companies responded?
They're digging in for a long fight. They say voice actors already get paid at least $100 per hour and that only one voice actor injury has been reported since the last contract with the union.
What does this mean for video game development?
Right now it's unclear. The targeted companies have said only 25 percent of actors are covered by the union, and there are plenty more willing to work. As of now it's also not clear just how many of the big name actors are part of the union. Plus, voice acting frequently happens in numerous sessions throughout development, with last-minute changes not unheard of.
Really, we'll just have to sit back and see what happens.
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cloudeagle on
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As I recall the strike effects games from certain developers that have been in production from Febuary 2015 and on. So if the game started production before then you're in the clear.
Pay is, as with anything, a big deal. The standard rate is about $380 for a four hour block IIRC. If you go in and only spend an hour in the booth you still get paid for that whole four hours. Which is nice, but pretty damn rare.
Many voice actors actually have to do the mocap as well. This is where unsafe conditions come in to play. Voice actors are not trained stuntman and the extra pay is typically not worth it, but if you want the job you don't have much of a choice.
Royalties is another big thing. All the standard fees and such for voice acting in video games was hammered out back in the mid-90s when games where still a fairly niche thing. Now AAA games are making $Texas, but the pay out for voice actors are still working under 90's terms.
Almost every game has, uh, battle noises? Stuff like grunting, screaming in pain, etc. You'll spend hours and hours and hours just doing that and it is incredibly hard on your voice. So one of the things the strike wants is it limit those recording sessions to about 2-4 hours (or something like that.
tl;dr
Voice Actors want work terms and conditions to be updated from the ancient 1990s terms and conditions.
I mean, with more and more big name actors doing roles, I can see why SAG* is getting involved. But... at the same time, other than those major VA people, and the big screen actors... how many VA jobs are actually union?
Yes and no? Depends on the contract between them (the studio) and the publisher.
edit: I think metacritic scores and the like play a larger role in the bonuses though. I remember there was a big thing about how Obisidian didn't get a bonus because they missed their metacritic mark.
@cloudeagle all of the links in your OP are malformed; you have "http://http://" instead of just one http://.
They are typically employees so unless there's a company bonus plan, no way. VA is hourly and devs are salary so it's tough to compare, but game industry salaries suck, particularly when you account for effective hourly earnings because of unpaid overtime
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I thought that they were talking about a one off bonus though, not perpetual residuals off finished products. Can see why that's not flying. Especially given that coders/writers/etc don't get that.
The argument that they should get them because they do in TV/etc doesn't gel either because video games don't have the same financial infrastructure. A movie/syndicated tv show gets licensed to air and ads/subscriptions/etc cover the cost... constantly. Even if a viewer doesn't watch they pay in part for it no matter what. Whereas the money from a game (not counting microtransactions and the like) hits the pot once, and no money is gained from second hand purchases?
How would the pricing structure change for consumers to accommodate this?
Nothing against those guys, but that's their fight to take on. I don't begrudge the VAs residuals since that can go from feast to famine fast. Also, I think the union was going for a cap at 8 mil units sold for stand-alone games. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
Hard to say. It might produce a price floor, but given how slow prices have been falling the past couple of years on hit games I doubt we would see a difference. Used games would exhaust the royalty with first sale like with books so except for PC & digital only versions you'd see that market continue to work as normal. You might also see digital sales being pushed harder than before but with the rules in the EU being what they are, I wouldn't want to push too hard if I were a publisher.
Ah, stupid work Mac. Fixed.
While I would love to see more games feature text over motion capture/voice stuff myself because the larger the name, the more distracting their other major roles tend to be, and the economics of storage also means text heavy games can offer more dialogue/story... this would not be the way I would want that to happen at all.
And really, VA in games is still a growing thing, and there is a strong demand/expectation of it. If anything, this would give other less famous, non-union voice actors a chance*.
edit: *to say that VA would suck because non-union talent is involved would be an insult to those people too, btw.
I think this will be a good thing for non-union voice actors, hopefully some of that talent pool will have more of a chance to shine. I like Nolan North and Tara Strong as much as the next person, but a little more variety in the industry wouldn't hurt.
Also, on a side note, I am contractually required to post this video anytime the subject of videogame voice acting is brought up:
Maybe if the developers unionized and took the fight to the major publishers too, they could also fix the problems they have with their situation.
Better conditins/hours/etc are things to fight for, totally fine. That those seem to be the rider for the demand for residuals seems to be the issue. Verbage from the strike that I can find presents it more as a matter of the VA medium not following the conventions of other medium and instead following that of what was established 20 years ago.
Posting from my phone, will edit or post to further flesh this out later.
No, I think they do expect to get that, since it's standard for other voice work?
There isn't any reason games should be different there.
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I agree, but were I in the union's shoes I would cynically feel that turning that around would take another decade of pushing back against cold corporate capitalism.
That said, how is this going to affect Destiny 2, I wonder? Could they say that it's been in production since pre-Feb 2015?
Anyways, I hope they get the safety stuff worked out. Pay? Meh. (And that could very well be an ignorant position I'm taking, so my opinion is open to influence.)
As an example, the biggest reason they replaced Micheal Ironside for Splinter Cell blacklist was because they were doing all of the cutscenes with motion capture and they couldn't cast a man in his 60s when the part called for fights and action sequences.
On the flipside though, a lot of roles that would have traditionally gone to popular voice actors are now being given to Hollywood actors, and that has VAs worried as well.
You don't think people should be paid for the work they do?
If the minimum 100$/hour quoted in the OP is correct, they're already getting paid pretty well, even by non salary contract standards.
Where did I say they shouldn't? I'm talking about the changes to their pay. I even said, if they do more than VA, change the deal.
100 per hour is not much in this context, though looking at it from the standard of a 9-5, 40 hour a week employee it seems bonkers high. Most of their recordings sessions might only be 8 hours for the project, and even with frequent projects might not be a considerable amount overall depending upon the seasons.
They are asking for the same rights other actors get from their unions, it seems fair to me especially since their voice (and reputation) live and die by their circulation and characters. A coder can go on to code another project, a voice actor acting in a project without context that gets attached to a game that might be problematically racist, etc. could have their reputation ruined without ever seeing it show up in the script they read (as they usually only get their own lines in a vacuum and only the day they show up).
There are some serious grievances here, and the voice acting community has been pretty heavily preyed upon by the publishers for years. Claiming they shouldn't do this because developers don't have those rights is the wrong perspective here. Developers should be protesting for the same rights as well.
One of the links I mentioned indicated the strike covers mocap as well.
100 per hour is over 3 times what a relatively high end salary would be. If they want to go for better working conditions, that is great. But going for more pay is just ridiculous, because you know there is no way the other positions who actually have a greater impact on the game actually getting made would be able to ask for that.
The idea the job only has so many hours on it, so the company needs to pay them more is kind of ridiculous. It's not the companies fault that the VA can't find more work elsewhere, their time isn't being monopolized to prevent them from looking for more work.
This is some serious crab bucketing.
I'm pretty sure it is.
You don't get paid for auditioning, and that can take a lot of time.
Imagine if you had to go through the interview process for every day of work.
And let me tell ya, voice acting isn't typically the path to wealth. Not counting your Hollywood types, many voice actors (even the more prolific ones) have second jobs. It's not like a VA constantly has work lined up either. You (even the more popular VAs) can go several months without work.
edit- Oh yeah and the auditioning! I almost forgot that! Yeah, you do a lot of auditioning and you typically do not get paid for the travel expenses (gas, plane ticket, hotel). Depending on how far you might have to go for each there is a real chance you'll be broke most of the time.
They are getting paid more.
3x more.
Also, not every position is salary or gets benefits, and can make a 10th or less than that, for more work and time investment.
Regardless, the VA works on a job for maybe a week or two? But once that's done, that's it. Video game VA isn't an entirely unionized field, either. And perpetual residuals are hardly a right though. Better working conditions/training? Absolutely.
That said, according to Forbes this was the compensation offer rejected:
Again though, that's a single payout.
edit:
Lastly... I think that the #performancematters hash tag they're using is pretty grating. Not winning hearts and minds with that one.
I also hope this strike is an ongoing trend in AAA game development. The people that actually make games for these AAA publishers have been treated like crap for ages, putting in assloads of time and getting back relatively little when their projects rake in huge amounts of money. The big-budget game industry really really really needs an overhaul in general.
This is the same thing as saying a typical plumber or drywaller lives in opulent splendour because the billable rates of the trades are often in that range.
As a hint, they do not.
No, it is saying they are already paid far better than a large number of people in the industry for the amount of work they do.
Sure there is, voice acting generally plays a minor role in games, of you had to pick one broad feature to drop that would probably be it for most games
So, would you rather be the person making $640 a week before taxes or the one making $1200 a month if you're really lucky?
That's the comparison. The $100/hour figure is incredibly deceptive because we think of waged labor as a steady job. Voice acting absolutely isn't.
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