Video game voice actors are striking after a year of negotiations with major video game publishers, including Activision and Epic Games, following the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes in 2023. As with those strikes, a central issue for video game voice actors is protection from the increasingly prevalent use of generative AI technology.
Among the familiar voices leading the union negotiations is Jennifer Hale, the talented voice actress known for her iconic roles in video games and animation, including Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series, Ash in Overwatch 2, and Jean Grey in X-Men ’97. We spoke with Hale to learn about the current state of the video game voice actors’ strike, her thoughts on AI technology, misconceptions about how the industry’s royalties work (or don’t), and her hopes for the future.
Voice actor strikes and measures against AI
© Marvel
This isn’t the first time Hale has gone on strike with her colleagues: she was part of the games contract committee during the 2017 strike, which she recalls as the longest strike in the company’s history, lasting 11 months. While actors won some protections during the 2023 strike, many voice actors felt cornered when it came to AI protections.
“All of us performers were the canaries in the coal mine, because AI is going to hit us all,” Hale said.
As a result, voice actors went on strike on July 25th, with the goal of forcing new gaming contracts to be signed that would protect them from having their likeness reproduced without their consent for commercial purposes using AI technology, under the guise of “efficiency gains.” According to Hale, these efficiencies are predicted to lead to 40% unemployment among voice actors across industries over the next 15 years, as AI is integrated into business deals like a lawless zone, money flows only to the top 1%, and voice actors are left in the lurch.
While Hale believes most video game developers would never use AI to recreate the voices of actors, the same can’t be said for the executives who mandate its use in their work. At the heart of Hale’s concern about AI is that those in charge of game development will always prioritize profits over the people behind the work.
“I think the top C-suite people forget about the people and think, ‘This is what I have on the shelf here that will generate this much revenue,'” Hale said.
Negotiating room filibusters and vital languages lost in translation
© Bioware
One of the main hurdles facing video game voice actor strike negotiations is the formal language that would be drafted by lawyers on behalf of the companies. Not only does this make drafting language for burgeoning precedents like AI protections relatively unexplored territory, it also leaves room for vague language written into contracts, and hasty signings leave loopholes that Hale says continue to put voice actors at risk. These loopholes are especially dangerous for voice actors, because their likenesses are not interpreted in the same way as their on-screen actors.
“One of the great things that gets accomplished in theater contracts is that if it’s your likeness – your look and your voice – they have to pay you. That’s fair. If they’re creating it with an AI, they can’t use the same language for the voice acting, because sometimes I sound like this and sometimes I sound like ahh,” Hale said, veering whimsically from a high-pitched squeal to a gruff baritone.
“We’re paid to look like something we’re not, most of the time. That doesn’t serve us. So CEOs try to preserve their options for the future, and actors try to protect their ability to live in the future. I think some CEOs are losing sight of humanity and real impact, because all this profit-gathering, profit-maximizing, asset-holding is strangling workers,” Hale continued. “They’re burning the platform we stand on and leading us into the abyss with nothing. I don’t know if any of you have read history, but it generally doesn’t work, and I don’t want to see it happen.”
How AI will impact voice acting and game development contracts
©Konami
One of the scariest AI stories Hale has heard is about an actor who was hired to do a voiceover job for Google, but the company never hired him because another Google employee found his audio file and blindsided him in another project. Because the worker’s contract had no AI protections, the actor was not paid or compensated for the use of his likeness.
“Nobody had any bad intentions in this calculation, but that actor certainly lost the ability to provide for his family that month,” Hale said. “And this is really important. That (AI) eligibility doesn’t cost you your entire ability to provide for your family, but when those violations pile up, that’s when we get to a dead end.”
While the strike signals to the public that voice actors are not being included in upcoming video games, the reality is that there are plenty of games being made with unionized actors even during the strike. That’s thanks to two proposals put forward by the union: a tiered budget agreement and an interim agreement. Hale said the former was aimed at smaller developers — the kind of people making games in their living rooms — and gave SAG-AFTRA the option to work with unionized talent; the latter would allow developers to work with SAG’s version of whatever they wanted in their negotiated contracts.
“In the weeks since the strike began, we already have 80 games that have signed contracts and are in production, which shows that developers and people who work in this industry every day understand.”
“Unfortunately, it’s the big-budget, high-level, enterprise-level[publishers]that are the problem. Some of these companies oversee smaller companies that are doing the actual development. So even if the companies that are doing the actual development want to work with us, their bosses say, ‘That doesn’t line up with our corporate philosophy, so we can’t find you,'” Hale continued. “Everyone wants the work. Everyone values and respects each other. They just have to get through the lawyers and high-ranking CEOs who may not understand how the work is actually done on the ground.”
The reality of voice actor royalties and overtime pay
© Marvel
Contrary to popular belief, voice actors, even well-known actors like Hale, don’t live the lavish lifestyle of making loads of money from their various roles and laughing to the bank with piles of royalties from video games, animation and cartoons.
“We’re not big-money actors,” Hale says, “we’re just average actors working at a set rate, and the volume and regularity of our work allows us to provide for our families, to feed ourselves, and to have a place to live.”
Voiceover work for video games and anime is based on a block rate system, with actors earning $900 to $1,000 per session. While this rate sounds attractive, actors are lucky if they get booked a few times a month. And it doesn’t take into account taxes, agency splits, booking fees, or the cost of ongoing training and honing their craft.
“People forget that you don’t make that much every hour. My average booking rate is 10%, 15% when I’m on a roll, 20% when I’m really on my game. I work for free 80-90% of the time, but some of that work is unpaid and it costs money,” Hale says. “I train continually. I create promotional materials, I get out and I get to meet people, I connect with the community and I get involved in activities that make an impact on people. I’m running a business, and I have to factor in the costs of running a business.”
Anime actors do receive residual income, but that amount has dwindled in the age of streaming. A job that once supported an actor’s family for a year now only lasts a month. The same can’t be said for video game voice actors, whose current contracts don’t provide residual income. Even Hale, who has worked on billion-dollar franchises like Metal Gear Solid, has never received a penny of residual income, forcing him to live frugally.
Actors’ residual income is now much less than it used to be, which is affecting their bottom line and making it harder to get health insurance. With minimum income requirements doubling, it’s no longer possible for actors to earn the money they used to earn by working once or twice a month to get insurance. Meanwhile, Hale said: “If times were tough in any economic sector, that’s fine and I understand that, but this is happening at a time when big corporations are making unprecedented profits. This doesn’t seem right, it’s not humane, and it’s definitely not sustainable.”
The correlation between voice actors, AI, and layoffs in the gaming industry
© Activision Blizzard
While actors are on the front lines fighting for protections against AI, one of Hale’s biggest concerns is that the same train is rolling toward the video game industry. Hale emphasizes that actors don’t see an implicit problem with AI being used as a tool (as is often the case already in video game development), but ultimately, actors would like to see protections put in place against AI being used as a tool.
“AI is a tool in the same way that a hammer is a tool. It can take a hammer and smash your kneecaps and take away your ability to earn a living, or it can build a house for you,” Hale says. “And the decision point is the human being who has the tool. We are never powerless. This is a series of human decisions, and humans have to choose to do what’s best for that 1% of people, not just the 1% of people.”
As Hale points out, it’s not just that executives in both industries are stable: They’re getting unprecedented bonuses and benefits, while rank-and-file workers face the threat of mass layoffs and studio closures no matter how successful a game is. Meanwhile, executives will tout record profits and reassure shareholders that AI implementations will be an essential tool in future projects.
“We’ve shifted from caring about employees to caring about shareholders, and suddenly it’s okay to fire people who work for the company in order to increase profits and prestige,” Hale said. “It used to be that the definition of a good CEO was someone who took care of the whole company, including the people who worked and made the profits.”
She is Commander Shepard and optimistic about the future.
© Bioware
While it’s easy to get caught up in a pessimistic view of AI technology continuing to encroach on creative mediums like comic books and journalistic writing, Hale is optimistic that the video game industry and acting will reach a positive outcome for all, and hopes they can set a precedent for other artistic disciplines to take on AI.
Hale also hopes that fans will join the movement by calling their congressional representatives and urging them to support anti-counterfeiting legislation, and by supporting the Voice Actors Association, which is actively lobbying Congress for legislation that avoids the impasse the union currently faces on the definition of words at the negotiating table with game publishers and their lawyers. Hale also encourages fans to be vocal by not supporting AI-generated content in their everyday digital lives. This includes not reposting AI content on social media, or even talking about how awful something is, because that will in turn raise the profile of that AI-generated content. Or, as Hale so ably put it, to use their attention wisely by “being vocal about not supporting what’s stolen and favoring what’s human.”
“All we want is control over how our voices are used. We want to be able to opt in and say, ‘Yes, I have permission to use my voice,’ and we should be compensated because this is our craft,” Hale said. “I completely believe that we just have to hang in there and get through this.”
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