american-federation-of-television-and-radio-actors posts

Sometimes game companies make a big deal about the Hollywood voice talent they manage to have for their voice casts like BioWare has done for Dragon Age: Origins and the upcoming Mass Effect 2. But at the moment the most well known actors union, the Screen Actors Guild, are no longer discussing a new contract with game publishers. Variety reports this week that after rejecting a new contract proposal last October, talks have stalled and it doesn't look like any new talks are scheduled.

SAG's main issue with the new contract is with the "atmospheric" acting division. Game publishers want to have some actors do 20 voices with a limit of 300 total word for a daily pay rate. SAG doesn't care for that. However, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists did approve the new contract with game publishers. That means AFTRA members may be getting more voice work in the future.

It looks like there won't be any new issues for voice actors getting paid to work in the game industry for the next couple of years. Both the Screen Actor's Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors announced a new deal with game publishers that will cover actors in both unions until March 30, 2011.

The new deal includes a 3 percent pay raise for all SAG members immediately and then a 2.5 percent pay raise for SAG and AFTRA members beginning on April 1, 2010. There's also a new catagory called "atmospheric voices" that will allow game publishers to use actors in several minor roles in one session. The agreement still needs to be approved by both union's committees.