SAG-AFTRA, the US actors’ union, went on strike again this week, affecting the gaming industry, but those who have already done the voice work will not be in serious trouble.

We reported on the strike earlier this week. SAG-AFTRA has been negotiating with Activision, Blindlight, Disney, Electronic Arts, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Epic Games, Take-Two, VoiceWorks Productions and Warner since October 2022, almost two years ago, to reach some sort of agreement, but because the actors are protesting, the companies will certainly not be able to hire the union members for voice-over or motion-capture work.

Rockstar Games has already gotten away with it. The Take-Two-owned team has been working on Grand Theft Auto VI for several years now, and they don’t have to worry about voice acting. With a little over a year to go, the studios can now work to keep bugs to a minimum on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, as the long-awaited and sure-to-be blockbuster new Grand Theft Auto episode will be released on those two consoles first.

NEW: A rep for the game companies involved in the actors strike confirms that GTA 6 is NOT one of the struck projects currently in development.

Any SAG-AFTRA performers involved in it (the casting isn't currently public) are allowed to continue working on the Rockstar game. pic.twitter.com/CIr7OlbaXz

— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) July 26, 2024

Ethan Gach, editor of Kotaku, was told by a union representative that those who are recording for GTA VI can finish the project as work has already begun. It’s the NEW projects that will be more problematic. Especially those that started development between 2020-22. Those might be at the point where the characters need to be given their final sounds and movement culture. And who knows how many REAL games might be stuck in development, since we don’t know how many SAG-AFTRA members are actually involved in the games.

The first video for Grand Theft Auto VI had over 90 million views in 24 hours, and that shows the demand for it. And there will be a Grand Theft Auto online component. Now THAT’S going to make some serious money…

Source: VGC