A new deal with voice actors will see a pay increase up front for game vocals, but no long-term residual payments.
The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have struck a three-and-a-half year agreement with videogame publishers to see that voice actors used in videogames are fairly compensated for their work. The previous deal expired at the end of 2004.
In the deal, publishers will increase minimum pay to the actors who lend their voices to games by 36%. SAG and AFTRA were pushing for a residual payment system, wherein voice actors would have been paid per copy sold of the game they were featured in, similar to how payment is rendered in the TV and movie industries. In the end, the two unions reluctantly dropped the demand from the negotiations, and a deal with the over 70 publishers involved was reached.
Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2, as well as many of Nintendo's games, feature voice work from actors from the big screen and television. Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda, and Keith David are just some of the actors featured in new games. This new deal assures they can continue voice work if they so desire.