SAG-AFTRA members voted on June 12 to agree to ratify the new terms of the Interactive Media Agreement, which also marked the suspension of a 10-month strike by the SAG-AFTRA union. A tentative agreement was reached with the video game employers on June 9, and the strike was officially suspended on June 11.
“All SAG-AFTRA members are instructed to return to work on productions under the IMA, including work promoting or publicizing projects produced under the IMA,” the union said in its announcement. “The SAG-AFTRA National Board will meet in a special session tomorrow, June 12, 2025, to consider the tentative agreement. If approved, it will be sent out for ratification by the union’s membership in accordance with established policy. Details of the agreement will be released at that time.”
The strike began on July 26 of last year with voice actors asking for “fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the AI use of their faces, voices, and bodies,” according to SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. These negotiations were between the union and a group of videogame publishers, including Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take-Two Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc.
The new contract accomplishes important guardrails and gains around AI, including the requirement of informed consent across various AI uses and the ability for performers to suspend informed consent for Digital Replica use during a strike. Compensation gains include the establishment of collectively-bargained minimums for the use of Digital Replicas created with IMA-covered performances and higher minimums (7.5x scale) for “Real Time Generation,” i.e., embedding a Digital Replica-voiced chatbot in a video game. “Secondary Performance Payments” will also ensure compensation when visual performances are re-used in another videogame.
Essential new safety provisions were also secured, including a requirement for a qualified medical professional to be present or readily available at rehearsals and performances during which hazardous actions or working conditions are planned. Rest periods are now provided for on-camera principal performers, and employers can no longer request that performers complete stunts or other dangerous activity in virtual auditions.
While this is excellent news for voice actors, we must remember that not every project is union. “Just getting this out of the way so folks can share when people inevitably start asking: No, the SAG-AFTRA strike ending does NOT mean that the #Genshin cast strike is also over. Genshin is non-union, and SAG’s contracts have no say on it. The cast strike is an independent Collective Work Refusal,” said the voice actor Sean Chiplock, on BlueSky after the announcement by SAG-AFTRA. Chiplock’s posts were retweeted by fellow Genshin Impact actor Kayli Mills, who voices Keqing.
The full terms of the three-year deal will be released with the ratification materials on Wednesday, June 18.
