Last year’s Hollywood strikes reminded us of the importance of defending the interests of screenwriters, actors and, in short, all workers in the film and television industry. For 118 days they paralysed practically the entire American film industry, and we will still feel the consequences in the coming years, due to delays in the production of films and series. Now it is the turn of the actors in the video game industry to defend themselves, and since 25 July SAG-AFTRA has been on a strike, where all projects with actors that have been in development for less than a year will be deprived of them until an agreement is reached, which revolves around the use of AI.
However, it seems that video game companies are not planning to drag out the strike as long as the major film and TV production companies did. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson responded to a question during the presentation of the first quarter results of fiscal year 2025, in which he assured that the strike will not have an impact on their operations in the short term, and that they are moving forward with negotiations directly:
“Let me first say that we deeply value our talent and players, who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences enjoyed by our players around the world (…) This is not an EA-specific situation, it’s an industry-specific situation, and we are working diligently to negotiate at the table.”
“We are committed to continuing to negotiate in good faith and hope that the parties can quickly resolve our issues at the negotiating table. But we do not anticipate any significant short-term impact on EA.”
Moreover, there are also exceptions to the strike, such as Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto VI contract, which will not see its development affected either.