SAG-AFTRA video game actors announced they’d voted to go on strike yesterday, with a near unanimous favor toward doing so, after negotiations for over a year regarding fair compensation and protections against AI usage have not reached a suitable resolution. With the strike comes a work stoppage, of course, which has raised some questions regarding what upcoming titles will have an impacted release date as the SAG-AFTRA members rightfully strike for treatment they deserve, particularly regarding 2025’s most anticipated release – Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6. Per a statement given to Kotaku via email by a spokesperson for the publishers, Rockstar and Take-Two, Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t be impacted – for now, at least. “I can confirm GTA 6 is exempt,” Audrey Cooling, the spokesperson, asserted.
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Cooling’s response aligns with information provided by SAG-AFTRA as well, which can be found by searching their independent database online: “While not struck, this game is produced by a struck company. If you have been engaged under a daily contract for this game, you can show solidarity with your fellow union members by choosing not to sign new contracts on the game. However, you may work the game and will not be disciplined for doing so.”
The reason for this exception is specific language in a previous agreement, the Interactive Media Agreement (IMA), which the actors union has noted their feelings toward. “We’re obviously not happy about that,” SAG-AFTRA chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez said in a report to Aftermath. “That language was bargained into one of the legacy Interactive Media Agreements before merger [of SAG and AFTRA]. It’s language that the merged union basically inherited, that I think is insane. But it’s there.”
Ultimately, the wording allows GTA 6 to continue onward, as well as any other games that entered development before August 25th, 2023, which means a fair few anticipated titles are safe including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and more. As noted, Grand Theft Auto 6 and these titles are only safe from being impacted for now, and should the strike extend past the sixty day mark, the circumstances will change.
It’s also important to note that just because the games are exempt doesn’t mean all of the performers involved will continue to work on them, as they could elect to strike alongside their fellow SAG-AFTRA members in solidarity, a point Rodriguez also touched on to Aftermath. “We’re hopeful that performers, in solidarity with their fellow members – and recognizing that showing solidarity is going to shorten this strike and help us gain critical protections – will exercise their discretion, even with respect to some of those non-struck titles,” he said.
As for live-service games like GTA Online and Fortnite, their continued development is also exempt as they’ve been in development for multiple years due to the IMA, but SAG-AFTRA does ” believe that there are certain titles that [they] can challenge, and [they] are preparing [themselves] to bring a challenge with respect to the application of this language with respect to some of the titles.
Rodriguez also notes SAG-AFTRA is doing their best to “wage the strike as effectively [and] as strongly as [they] can – even in spite of that language[.]”
