Strike Vote Set for Video Game Actors

Actors whose voices, likenesses or performances are used in video games will decide in the next two weeks whether to strike.

The two main actors’ unions are seeking a bigger cut of the burgeoning industry’s profit. On Tuesday, the unions mailed ballots to more than 2,000 members to decide whether to authorize a strike against Electronic Arts Inc., Activision Inc. and several other game publishers.

They are seeking residual payments from game publishers similar to what they receive from movies, commercials and TV shows.

The game publishers pay upfront union fees to actors on some games, but they have resisted giving actors a portion of the profit for each game sold, arguing that voice-overs represent a small part of the video game experience.

The vote comes after talks between game publishers and the two main unions broke down this month. Game companies increasingly are turning to Hollywood stars including Sean Connery and Jessica Alba to create movie-like games.

Last week, some actors picketed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, the game industry’s biggest trade show.

“Last year alone, nine of the top 10-selling video games were produced under union contract and performed by union actors,” said Screen Actors Guild spokesman Seth Oster, who was also speaking on behalf of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. “It’s time for these performers to share in the enormous profits that are being generated by this industry.”

The industry is coming off a record year. Three of the biggest companies, Electronic Arts, Activision, and THQ Inc., saw their combined profit rise 2%, to $704 million, on an 18% sales increase, to a combined $5.3 billion.

Although united on the issue of residuals, actors are divided on whether to call a strike. Some say a strike may be ineffective and would encourage game publishers to replace union workers.

Underscoring the split, ballots mailed by SAG included an endorsement from the union’s national executive committee, whereas AFTRA’s administrative committee chose not to make any recommendation in its ballots.

Actors have been working under a contract developed in the early 1990s. It expired Dec. 31 and was extended three times before negotiations broke down.

Negotiators for the two unions rejected a final offer from the game publishers -- which would have given actors a 31% wage increase over three years -- after the publishers rejected their residual request.

The unions had proposed to apply profit sharing only to games that sold more than 400,000 units, which the unions say would affect fewer than 30 of the titles the industry produced last year.

Ballots are due by June 7. For a strike to be authorized, at least 75% of SAG’s 1,900 members and two-thirds of AFTRA’s 1,000 members must vote in favor of the work stoppage.