SAG-AFTRA Talks With Video Game Industry End With No Deal

SAG-AFTRA‘s scheduled talks with the video game industry, which began Tuesday, have ended with no agreement.

In a terse joint statement tonight, the union and the vidgame producers said: “SAG-AFTRA and video game employers concluded scheduled negotiations for the Interactive Media Agreement. No deal was reached and the current agreement will remain in effect while the parties make final efforts to reach a deal.”

The news comes days after SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000-strong membership voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against 10 of the major video game companies; the vote was 98.32% in favor.  

Many of the issues involved in the union’s 11-week film and TV strike are common to those in the video game contract, including wages and artificial intelligence.

The 10 companies facing a possible strike are:

Activision Productions Inc.,
Blindlight LLC,
Disney Character Voices Inc.,
Electronic Arts Productions Inc.,
Epic Games, Inc.,
Formosa Interactive LLC,
Insomniac Games Inc.,
Take 2 Productions Inc.,
VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and
WB Games Inc.

It’s been nearly a year since the guild’s video game contract, known as the Interactive Media Agreement, was extended beyond its original expiration date. SAG-AFTRA’s last strike against the gaming companies, in 2016-17, lasted 183 days. The guild, meanwhile, has been on strike against the film and TV industry since July 14.

David Robb and Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.