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SAG-AFTRA Members Go on Video Game Strike
AI is to blame, like many things nowadays.
Robert Scarpinito
July 26, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
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After a year and a half of negotiating with companies like Activision Productions Inc., Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., and Insomniac Games Inc., SAG-AFTRA could not reach an agreement on whether companies could use AI to replicate its members.
Any game that’s been in development before September 2023 is exempt from the strike, like Grand Theft Auto VI. However, SAG-AFTRA did put up a database of games it’s striking.
As writers, we’ve felt the effects AI has had in our space for quite a while now. While it can have some uses, I think we can all agree that using it to replicate the human voice—especially in regards to acting—should not be one of them.
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A Big Microsoft Roundup
The FTC slammed Xbox over Game Pass, accusing it of making the service an inferior product right after it acquired Activision Blizzard King for nearly $70 billion (monopoly, anyone?). Xbox fought back with “nuh uh” and “no u,” claiming Game Pass Standard isn’t an inferior product because it allows online multiplayer. Ignore the loss of day-one access to games (literally the biggest talking point in every Xbox trailer for the past 5+ years).
Inside the company, more than 500 Blizzard employees banded together to form the World of Warcraft Gamemaker’s Guild. It’s the first wall-to-wall union in Blizzard, and its origins started when California brought up a discrimination lawsuit to Activision Blizzard.
And on the gaming front, Stalker 2, arguably the next big software for Xbox Game Pass, has been delayed from September to November. But the news also came with a big deep-dive video from the developer that you can check out on August 12.
For Gamescom Opening Night Live, studios have to pay €165k (~$178k) for a 60-second spot during Geoff Keighley’s main show. Just two years ago, that was only €125k (~$135k)—which is still a staggering number. But that’s also an inflation rate of 32% over two years.
Humble Games, the publishing arm of Humble Bundle, has gone through some restructuring. In other words, 36 people lost their jobs, adding onto the more than 11,000 that have lost their jobs in the industry this year.
“This decision was not made lightly,” per an official statement, but it was necessary during “these challenging economic times for indie game publishing.” On the developer side of things, Stairway Games said that this news has likely impacted the future of the Coral Island console ports, especially for Switch.
There’s been a lot of different controveries surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadow and how much accurate its portrayal of Yasuke is. At the end of the day, Ubisoft admits to taking some creative license, especially for the sake of entertainment.
Our Dungeons & Dragons correspondent Andrew Stretch interviewed Taliesin Jaffe about his character in the latest Critical Role show. Get all the details behind Downfall, the prequel to Campaign 3, right here.
There’s more news from the Critical Role house this week; the company announced a new experimental miniseries called Moonward: A Midst Roleplaying Journey. It’s a collaboration with Third Person, and it’ll debut on August 7.
And on top of that, a very separate, very different, and very related Dungeons & Dragons podcast was announced this week called Dungeon Masters. It’s a scripted audio drama based on the infamous disappearance of a Michigan State student in 1979—the very same incident that was key to the “Satanic Panic” that surrounded the tabletop game in the ‘80s. Oh, and it stars Jon Hamm.
A Tale of Two Carts
A rare NES cartridge—one of Nintendo World Championships—was put up for auction starting at $10k. There are only 26 in the world, with 13 known about publicly, and the last time one was sold, it went for $26k.
On the flip side, a signed NES cart of Tetris will also be up for auction on August 3, though in better news, the proceeds from that will go to Trans Lifeline, a peer support and crisis hotline for the trans community.
Is this really that important? No. But also? Yes.
And for you dog lovers out there, Rare, the studio behind Sea of Thieves, has a dedicated dog park for all of its developers to bring their furry friends too.