GTA 6 release date won't be affected by video game voice actor strike
Take-Two has been talking about why GTA 6 should release on time, in its latest quarterly earnings report to investors, despite the video game actor strike.
The internet collectively exploded yesterday after Rockstar Games confirmed in a tweet that GTA 6 is real and that a trailer for the highly anticipated crime-em-up would be released sometime in December. This news was swiftly followed by an earnings call held by parent company Take-Two Interactive late yesterday evening, where it dug more into the details about what investors should expect both before and after GTA 6 releases – including the effects of a potential voice actors strike that could be incoming.
It all comes in the wake of SAG-AFTRA members granting video game voice actors the ability to strike back in September, after union members ruled with an overwhelming 98.32% yes vote. This essentially means that any voice actor – video game or otherwise – with a SAG-AFTRA membership will have to withdraw their labour should a strike occur. A full-on strike hasn’t been called yet, but it’s clearly rattled some major publishers to the degree that Take-Two CEO Struss Zelnick felt the need to address in the wake of GTA 6’s announcement.
In the follow-up Q&A session Zelnick was asked “would it slow down the production of the next Grand Theft Auto at Rockstar” if video game voice actors went on strike? (beginning around 33:30 on the call) Zelnick responded by saying that “negotiations are expected to resume next week” before further reinforcing the belief that a strike can most likely be avoided. “I’ve been involved with labour negotiations in every entertainment industry there is”, he said, “and they’ve always worked out just fine. In the event that they don’t work out just fine, we are completely protected.”
Voice any concern
Zelnick clearly has a lot of confidence that GTA 6 development won’t be negatively impacted by a video game voice actor strike should one be called, even if it’s not exactly clear why. Obviously, the Take-Two CEO won’t want to scare investors by casting any doubt, but it seems that, for as far along into production GTA 6 is, there’s still work to be done on the voice actor side of things. And considering that a strike could be called at any moment by SAG-AFTRA, his response is surprisingly chilled.
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The likes of Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard and EA have been in deep negotiations with SAG-AFTRA since October of last year, trying to win voice actors a fairer deal in a similar move to what we saw with Hollywood writers and actors. In SAG-AFTRA’s last update, things didn’t look like they were going so smoothly. “Some of the issues most critical to our members, including wages that keep up with inflation, protections around exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, and basic safety precautions” are yet to be addressed, according to the union’s spokesperson.
Concerns over voice actor’s rights continue to be called into question, especially in the wake of companies like Microsoft doubling down on AI partnerships for use in characters, storylines and settings as it did in a post on Monday. Still, there’s been no mention of AI voice-acting being used in GTA 6. The only thing that could potentially disrupt GTA 6 development is the SAG-AFTRA strike which, much like Zelnick, we hope doesn’t have to be triggered.
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