For months, video games such as “Destiny 2” have lacked English voice acting for certain characters. Skins for characters in “League of Legends” have also replaced custom voiceovers with “base voiceovers,” which means that new skins for characters will not have new lines.
This missing voice acting is not caused by bugs but is instead the result of the 2024 SAG-AFTRA video game strike, not to be confused with the 2023 strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
SAG-AFTRA’s goal with this strike is to secure improved protections for workers over the use of artificial intelligence. Some of the companies being struck are Activision Productions Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Insomniac Games Inc.
However, the strike and its effects have expanded to include HoYoverse, developer of “Genshin Impact,” “Honkai Star Rail” and “Zenless Zone Zero,” among other games. While HoYoverse is a Chinese company, it hires American recording studios for the English voice acting in its games, such as Sound Cadence Studios.
After months of silent English-dubbed characters in HoYoverse’s games, controversy erupted over several English voice actors being replaced in “Zenless Zone Zero” and “Genshin Impact.” Nicholas Thurkettle, voice actor for Von Lycaon, claimed that he had received no notice about being replaced.
Following Thurkettle’s post, Sound Cadence Studios, which is in charge of “Zenless Zone Zero’s” English dub, released their own statement explaining that they always reach out to voice actors before making decisions on recasting their roles, contradicting Thurkettle’s statement.
Emeri Chase, another recast voice actor, explained that she had been replaced because she was unwilling to perform work not covered by a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement. Soon after Chase’s post, Thurkettle said he had been absent for the same reason despite not being in the union.
These comments dragged SAG-AFTRA’s strike into the spotlight, and allegations that SAG-AFTRA wants a monopoly on voice actors followed.
Both voice actors said they were striking to support SAG-AFTRA in improving AI protections for voice actors, and part of that was working on productions covered by a SAG interim agreement. However, Sound Cadence’s response indicates that the studio already has AI protections.
SAG-AFTRA itself later reached out to HoYoverse on X concerning agreements for “Genshin Impact,” “Honkai Star Rail” and “Zenless Zone Zero.”
One of the terms for companies working with the union is concerning. SAG-AFTRA permits non-union actors to work on games that have agreements with the union for only 30 days; then, they must join the union or cannot continue working on the project.
Joining SAG-AFTRA costs $3,000, plus annual dues. Understandably, some actors might not want to join the union – either because of the cost or personal reasons – but then they can’t work on union projects.
For a live-service game like “Zenless Zone Zero,” this is problematic because new voice-acted lines will be added with new content, making it necessary for voice actors to be on call for a much longer period of time than SAG-AFTRA’s grace period. If HoYoverse signed an agreement with SAG-AFTRA, every non-union voice actor would have to be recast like Chase and Thurkettle, such as Courtney Steele, the voice actor of one of the game’s main protagonists.
Between the requirement to join the union and the high entry fee to do so, this seems like extortion. Moreover, the non-union actor requirements are included in SAG’s interim agreements, so non-union actors would still be under threat during the strike.
The purpose of a union is to support workers in various industries, but SAG-AFTRA’s terms hurt workers who aren’t part of their union, even if they secure AI protections. Forcing more workers to join the union would increase the dues it receives from union workers’ paychecks, however.
For that reason, SAG-AFTRA should not be trusted. The terms of its agreements give the union more power, not the workers it represents.
