As we reported yesterday, EA’s offices were picketed early this morning. It’s all part of the voice actors’ guild strike, which is targeting 11 companies that includes Activision, Insomniac Games, Disney, and more.
But the strike doesn’t affect every game, only those that went into production after February 17, 2015. And as you’d expect, quite a few of those projects haven’t been announced yet.
Some of the projects hit by the strike are games you’ll know and recognise off the bat. It’s all listed in a document on SAG-AFTRA’s website.
Some of the prominent and more obvious titles include Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; the Crash Bandicoot Remaster Project; Fifa 17; Hockey 17 and Hockey 18, which you’d presume to be the NHL series given that EA is marked as the publisher; LEGO Star Wars; Injustice 2; marketing trailers for the Uncharted Collection; Shadowrun: Hong Kong; the Oculus Rift bundled title, Lucky’s Tale; Brothers In Arms and Kingdom Hearts 2.8.
But there’s also a string of codenames for projects that, quite clearly, haven’t been announced yet.
Here’s some of the projects EA has got in the can, for instance:
Nut. What is Nut?
Insomniac has got four projects affected by the strike as well:
Of course, these projects might have been announced already — but the voice actors won’t know, since studios often don’t tell them. It’s one of the points of contention between the voice actors’ guild and the video game companies: if the voice actors and their agents don’t know what projects they’re working on, they’re unable to adequately prepare, schedule, or negotiate their remuneration.
But what’s just as interesting as the games affected by the strike is the ones that aren’t, which is also listed on the SAG-AFTRA site:
It’s good to see that Mass Effect 4 is continuing apace, although the inclusion of Call of Duty 2016 is … interesting. It could mean that the Call of Duty 4 remaster didn’t begin production until February 17, 2015, although the inclusion of IW7 & COD 2016 would indicate two games, not one.
It’s also nice to see that the Saints Row project isn’t affected, although that’s probably just Agents of Mayhem, a new project from Volition due out next year. And I’d love to know what the hell Walrus is. Anyone want to take any bets?
Comments
17 responses to “Some Of Your Favourite Games Are Affected By The Voice Actors Strike”
Interesting to note ShadowRun is in there.
That (iteration) began life as a Kickstarter game did it not? Yes I know the history of the franchise.
I didn’t back it, but have been picking up the various chapters in Steam sales.
The developers reached their crowd-funding goal, perhaps a stretch goal was for voice acting? What happens next is absolutely private business dealings you and I don’t hear about. Other sources of money and silent partners get involved with these kickstarted games and franchises begin (anew, in ShadowRun’s case).
As I have said before, this is a dispute which I hope can be resolved, by whatever means possible.
But if through this process we learn that games such as ShadowRun – not quite AAA, not quite indie, and of course not-quite-kickstarter success stories – could be in jeopardy, then I would hope the games media sheds some light on that.
I was surprised to see SR: HK on there too, as it has already been released.
Could be another expansion to the expansion?
Console port?
I was hoping for an Android port. Vanilla and Dragonfall were great
Didn’t we get the first-ever news of Destiny being in development from Mark due to the Infinity Ward/Activision stoush?
Games in gestation, currently un-announced, are central to some very lucrative deals so that’s probably what will come to light more.
I could care less.
What I am interesting in however is how middle-tiered game development by those that don’t have lawyers or ninjas at their disposal would still be able to operate under some or all of the changes imposed by the SAG-AFTRA union.
What is the current law in regards to ‘residuals’ in Hollywood? I can’t fathom the video-game industry taking too kindly to the request that voice actors get compensated years down the track for work they already produced.
Nah, Bungie hadn’t made it much of a secret that they were working on Destiny. First hints about it started dropping around ODST. The Infinity Ward / Activision legal documents just disclosed how much Acti was pitching in and the details about their deal with Bungie for expansions and sequels for a 10 year period or so.
Well, RDJ got payed less for the first Avengers movie than the rest of them, BUT he also got a cut of total money made from it too, and easily made way WAY more than the rest of the cast, who got payed on a flat fee. So, it really comes down to individual contracts I think in HWoo, and I would have thought it would have been the same with voice acting.
Remember, some of the stuff they want could be just there so it can be taken off the table in negotiations.
Or it could be a just list of games started after the date, whether released or not.
Weird that Lucky’s Tale is there, given it’s released. Wonder if they’re expanding it with more content.
I remember the negotiating from theme park, little did i know what i was doing, “what do you mean i agreed to a 45% staff pay rise”
Can’t wait for Project Timbits! I’m calling donut chain simulator
Lego Zeus?
I read the pdf, it doesn’t say Lego Zeus, but it does say Lego Marvel 2.
Um, yeah it does.
https://www.sagaftra.org/files/non-struck_video_game_productions_list_10.23.16.pdf
Code for a Lego Thor game is my guess?
TF2 is on the list, new work I assume. I’m glad Battletech wasn’t on the list.
Formosa Interactive’s Project Nagano aka Project 013 is interesting. As a company they have form for coordinating dubs for Japanese games, including Square Enix titles, most recently FFXIV ARR. Now, the last Dissidia PSP game’s full title was “Dissidia 012: [duodecim] Final Fantasy”.
Officially we know nothing about a console OR Western release of the new Dissidia arcade game, so this strike might’ve let the cat out of the bag.
I wonder if the ongoing Insomniac game (I-20 aka Sleepless) is their upcoming Spidey game – it’d be about their 20th console game overall and the other Insomniac listings suggest that the numbers are sequential, and New York is the city that never sleeps.