Video game performers prepared to strike for more pay, protections

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By Danielle Broadway

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Cissy Jones isn't asking to be paid millions of dollars to give video games their voice, but the actor, and others like her performing under a Screen Actors Guild's video game contract say they need more money to cope with rising costs of living.

«We haven't had a raise in five years, four years maybe, and prices have gone up. Our rates have not,» said Jones, a BAFTA winner for her voice as Delilah in the Campo Santo video game «Firewatch». Jones is covered under a contract with video game makers negotiated by SAG-AFTRA.

Voice actors and motion capture performers in the multi-billion dollar video game industry voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize a strike if negotiations on a new labor contract set to begin Tuesday fail, setting the stage for another possible work stoppage in Hollywood.

SAG-AFTRA said 34,687 members cast ballots, 27.47% of eligible voters.

SAG-AFTRA is the same union representing film and television actors who went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in more than six decades.

In May, roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members had walked off the job. The writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday.

The SAG-AFTRA agreement covering video game performers expired last November and has been extended on a monthly basis as the union negotiated with major video game companies.

«We all want a fair contract that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in an industry that delivers world-class entertainment to billions of gamers around the world,» spokesperson Audrey Cooling said in a statement issued on behalf of the