Over 250 people showed up at Electronic Arts’ Playa Vista, CA office today to peacefully demonstrate in support of U.S. actors guild SAG-AFTRA after it went on strike against EA and 10 other game companies.
This is notable because (as Deadline reports) it’s the first public, physical action taken in support of the strike, which SAG-AFTRA called on Friday after failing to negotiate a satisfactory deal with said companies on behalf of its video game voice actor constituency.
“This is a strike unlike any we’ve done before,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris told Deadline, alluding to plans to protest other targeted game companies besides EA as the strike rolls on. “We have different actions planned as we roll it out.”
Among the 11 game companies targeted by the strike are Activision, Insomniac, Take Two and Warner Brothers Games. SAG-AFTRA’s chief points of interest are garnering guarantees of greater employer transparency (i.e. allowing voice actors to know the names of games they’re working on) as well as a “reasonable performance bonus” when games surpass certain sales milestones (every 2 million sales, subscribers, etc.)
For more from SAG-AFTRA on why it’s striking, check out the organization’s official strike notice.
Meanwhile, representatives of the game companies targeted by the strike publicly stated today that SAG-AFTRA and said companies “have largely agreed on the significant issues before us” and called on SAG-AFTRA to allow its members to vote on whether or not to accept the video game companies’ proposed contract terms.