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SAG, AFTRA Decline to Strike Games Industry
Dachannien writes "The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have voted against going on strike against the video and computer games industry. The agreement reached between the unions and several participating companies, including Electronic Arts and Activision, increases minimum pay for voice actors to $695 per hour immediately, and increases contributions to the unions' benefits funds. Voice actors will not receive residuals on games that sell well, which was a major sticking point for publishers. While the vote turned out with a majority voting in favor of striking, supermajorities of three-fourths of SAG members and two-thirds of AFTRA members were required in order to cause a strike."
They totally deserve $700/hour for this.
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I hope we'll see more coders voicing their games then. Can't be worse than professional voice acting and leaves budget for QA and stuff like that.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
W-w-w-what!? $695 an hour? That seems a bit high for pretty much any job, especially one where you're not subject to extreme amounts of overtime and rushing at the end of every project.
This sig is only here so people stop skipping the last lines of my posts.
Fine, I'll be the third to say it. Whatever. Screw you all.
This sig is only here so people stop skipping the last lines of my posts.
Is that $695 per hour RECORDED (ie sound that will be used) or is that per WORKED hour?
I can understand if it's per recorded hour, but $695 per worked hour?
Although I don't agree with the outrages salaries and guarantees that people in the entertainment and sports businesses receive, residuals are very similar to profit sharing. I'm sure many of these game companies have some type of profit sharing plan for their employees. So yes, it is not fair to give residuals to actors when programmers don't receive the same, but then shouldn't the actors be able to participate in the same profit sharing? Maybe it comes down to private contractors vs. employees. So if I'm an actor, I'd shoot for a W2 position rather than 1099 consulting pay.
Still, I'd take those wages. Of course, if you're a struggling actor, that might be all you make that month.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Good news mom; you can stop paying for college. I'm giving up my career as a programmer and becoming a voice actor!
But it doesn't mean anything unless you can tell us how many hours they work per week. The bit about voice actors demanding residuals on sold copies, however, is big. The argument goes, that if they get residuals, then why shouldn't the programmers, the artists, the script writers etc. also not get this? This could cost EA and the others a lot of money.
Use computer generated voices in games. Problem solved...
Really, though, it is interesting that there has been so much focus on virtualizing the imagery in games and not so much in virtualizing the speech.
Game purchasers have been willing to accept less-than-lifelike imagery since the beginning of video games; why is live voice-over so important?
In the first section of Revenge of the Sith, during the battle scene, the scenery seemed indistinguishable from film of actual places. I think that movie production is not far from being able to dispense with human actors and real sets completely.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
...can go to hell. can't wait for the technology to make these voiceover idiots obsolete.
sigs suck
Your headline is Wrong guys & dolls! No way $695 an hour!! Dont I wish (as a regular voice on medal of Honor) It should read----per session (four hours) remember that during that session of four hours you can be screaming orders and deqth cries until no voice left to
FWIW, Wil Wheaton has posted an insightful article on this topic. Personally I didn't understand the difference between royalties and residuals, the difference in reasoning behind them, and agree with the criticism he raises about the divisive way this was handled between two ranks of creative professionals.
I'm working on the videogame industry. After spending several years with a lot of unpaid overtime and weekends on a project, a whole team of about 45 people gets about a dollar of the sale of each copy that will be split among them. And your management will still calculate some of that away for "expenses", and a lot of the rest goes away for taxes.
So how much "royalties" do these dickheads deserve for their 4 hour recording session?
Let them go on strike. We'll go back recording the voices ourselves.