The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Screen Actors Guild have formally declared a strike against League of Legends. The union claims that Formosa Interactive LLC, the game’s producer, attempted to undermine the current video game strike.
SAG-AFTRA accused Formosa of “a gross violation of labor law” in a highly-worded statement that it placed on its website today. The statement claims that shortly after the strike began, Formosa attempted to “cancel” one of the affected video games. SAG-AFTRA claims that Formosa “secretly transferred the game to a shell business and sent out casting notices for ‘NON-UNION’ talent only” after being informed that this was not feasible.
SAG-AFTRA called the alleged conduct by Formosa “egregious violations of key precepts of labor law,” and has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the corporation with the National Labor Relations Board in retaliation. In addition, the National Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA has declared a strike against League of Legends, one of Formosa’s most well-liked games. As a result, all SAG-AFTRA members are required to stop offering any union-covered services related to the game.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement, “It is bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to agree to the fair A.I. terms that have been agreed to by the film, television, streaming, and music industries, as well as more than 90 other game developers.” “To engage in unlawful, unfair labor practices is unacceptable, and SAG-AFTRA members will not put up with it. League of Legends will immediately launch an urgent strike as part of Formosa’s accountability.
“The game League of Legends is one of champions.” The Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair, Sarah Elmaleh, continued, “Deciders at Formosa have chosen to try to escape and abandon the union artists who contribute their enormous talent and experience to beloved characters, instead of championing them.” It is quite disheartening to witness such deceitful actions from a devoted and long-standing union member. Such unfortunate decisions are needless when our union committee and employees are eager to collaborate and produce protected work in the same way that our performers enjoy working with game developers.
We will hold Formosa responsible, beginning with an instant League of Legends strike.
The primary reason why SAG-AFTRA called the video game strike in July was because the video game industry and actors could not agree on how to regulate generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the industry’s initiatives. Formosa is “one of the bargaining group members that has refused to agree to defend our people against the unethical use of A.I.” according to a statement released by the union today.
However, earlier this month, when Last Sentinel developer Lightspeed LA signed SAG-AFTRA’s pact pledging stronger actor rights and protections against artificial intelligence, the strike gained some support. Following that revelation, the union announced that 80 games signed their tiered budget or interim agreement, “proving that the union’s provisions — which include common sense A.I. protections — are fair and achievable.”
Riot Games, the company that publishes League of Legends, and Formosa have been contacted by Gamexta for comments. In the interim, read our analysis of the video game strike’s implications for players for additional information.
