Achievement Unlocked: SAG-AFTRA’s New Video Game Contracts Deliver Two-Hit Combo

When the arcade game Berzerk first uttered the words “Intruder Alert!” in 1980, few could have guessed that the video game business would grow to become a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry that provides significant employment opportunities for union actors.

Over the years, as technology improved, games went from croaking a few robotic phrases to telling deeper and more meaningful stories, and performers became a big part of popularizing video games.

“Since the 1990s, our members’ performances have helped propel video games from a niche pastime to a mainstream storytelling medium to a bona fide cultural phenomenon,” said National Director, Voiceover Katie Watson. “With members showing increasing interest in working in this area, we are significantly expanding our outreach and presence in the industry.”

As part of that effort, SAG-AFTRA has introduced two new agreements, the Low Budget Video Game Agreement and the Interactive Localization Agreement. From consoles to mobile phones to computers, there is an explosion of innovative indie games. Some of the most influential games of the past decade began with individuals or small teams taking a chance on doing something different.

With the Low Budget Video Game Agreement, those developers have a valuable tool at their disposal that will allow them to incorporate professional talent into their creations.

The agreement provides a lot of flexibility for games with budgets under $1.5 million, and it is one of the union’s easiest to navigate. Also, staff is on hand to answer questions for those new to the process. With the depth of talent among SAG-AFTRA members, it can make it easy for developers to find the perfect actor, even when they have specific needs.

“When you decide to go union, you have access to the broadest possible pool of talent, and not just in terms of acting ability, but in terms of representation and diversity,” said voice actor Crispin Freeman, who portrays scientist Winston in Overwatch. “If you are looking for performers of color, if you are looking for young performers, if you are looking for performers from any corner of the globe, the union not only has a huge pool of actors to pull from, but also the systems in place to access them.”

That was the case for Sam Butin, a partner at iNK Stories, who sought Iranian-American voice and performance capture artists for his studio’s game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. Butin was easily able to find the right performers for the parts and found the entire process of working with the union to be simple and straightforward.

“It was important for us to use the best talent available, so obviously that meant working with [SAG-AFTRA],” he said. “The people at [SAG-AFTRA] were super-helpful; the process was super-painless.”

For actors, the contract provides guaranteed minimums, health and retirement contributions and secondary payments for bestselling games, so that performers can share in the success of the creations they helped to make. It also requires developers to divulge ahead of time whether the role will include the use of offensive language, extreme vocal stress or, for performance capture, demanding physical action.

Many actors embrace the creativity of indie games, and for them, the Low Budget Agreement is a great way to work on trailblazing projects while ensuring their interests are protected.

Sarah Elmaleh, an actor whose credits include Anthem, Final Fantasy XV and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, said she deeply values her work with indie developers.

“I came up in indie games. I find them immensely inspiring, creative and imaginative. The idea of progressing in my career and getting to work on games that have more resources at hand and larger-scale triple-A games mattered to me — there are companies that I think are doing inspiring work at that level — but I never wanted to lose the small, scrappy experimental collaborators,” she said.

SAG-AFTRA’s other new video game contract, the Interactive Localization Agreement, was created to cover games that were originally made in a foreign language but are being translated into English for the American market. Like the union’s other agreements, it sets minimum scale wages, requires contributions to health and retirement, and puts limits on vocally stressful sessions.

The contract has already received positive responses from the industry. In addition to signing a major video game franchise, a number of large Japanese video game producers have approached the union about utilizing the agreement.

Meanwhile, the climate for actors who work in larger domestic games is also improving. The aftermath of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike, which ended in September 2017, was, ironically, better relations with the industry. At the end of the protracted conflict, developers were left with a deeper understanding of the issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, such as vocal stress, and have shown a willingness to work with the union to improve working conditions. In addition, members got an additional form of compensation in lieu of traditional residuals, an amount beyond the base rate that scales based on the number of sessions. That helped to bring the contract in line with SAG-AFTRA’s other agreements so that performers’ contributions are recognized and treated with the respect they deserve.

SAG-AFTRA is also redoubling its outreach by nurturing relationships in the industry and attending more conferences and expos to meet developers, introduce them to the Low Budget Agreement and answer their questions.

Actor Cissy Jones, who has worked on Destiny 2, encourages smaller developers to consider union talent on their next project.

“So often, independent developers feel like they don’t have the money or the clout to approach a union actor. And we’re here to dispel that myth,” she said. “We’re here. We want to work with you. We love bringing your stories to life. Let’s find a way to work together.”

Photo: Member Dee Bradley Baker, right, hams it up while members Sarah Elmaleh, left, and America Young share a laugh at the Level Up on Video Game Work panel presented by the NextGen Performers Committee on Feb. 27.

This story was originally featured in the summer 2019 issue of SAG-AFTRA magazine.