Video Game Voice Actor Strike Finally Ends After 11 Months

It has been nearly a year since the union representing voice actors in the video game industry, SAG-AFTRA, decided to go on a strike. The goal was to provide talents with a better deal in terms of wages. After a long and contentious period, it would seem that the two sides have finally come to some type of agreement. It’s only a “tentative” one, however.

The strike by SAG-AFTRA began in October 2016, which was intended to force video game giants like Activision, EA, and Warner Bros. to give voice actors better compensation. On Saturday, the companies and the union finally reached some form of agreement on such matters as a new bonus structure and its payment method, Gamespot reports.

On top of the bonus, the union also managed to negotiate a back-end payment, which would give voice actors extra "full-scale payment" for every 500,000 copies of a title sold. This can only be stacked up four times, however, in case a video game surpasses two million copies sold. This is a huge deal for voice actors, as SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris noted in a statement.

"This is an important advance in this critical industry space. We secured a number of gains including for the first time, a secondary payment structure which was one of the members' key concerns," Carteris said. "The courage of our members and their fortitude these many months has been admirable and I salute them. We are always stronger together."

As great as this news is for members of the union, the strike still did a lot of damage to many of the voice actors involved. A prominent example is Ashly Burch, who had to give up her role as Chloe in the prequel to Life Is Strange, Kotaku reports. The same goes for Alyson Court, who played Claire Redfield in the Resident Evil franchise.