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Formosa Interactive rejects SAG-AFTRA’s allegations of wrongdoing and said the strike against League was ‘not appropriate’.
SAG-AFTRA, the US entertainment labour union, yesterday (24 September) called for a strike against popular online video game League of Legends and filed an unfair labour practice charge against Formosa Interactive, a company that provides voiceover services to the game.
The union went on strike against video game employers in July this year after game companies and voice actors could not come to a consensus on consent, compensation and transparency around the use of AI in voice acting. Formosa Interactive provides services to video-game developers and was part of the group negotiating with strikers to reach an agreement.
“The complaint comes after Formosa tried to ‘cancel’ one of its struck video games shortly after the start of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike,” the union’s statement reads.
After the union informed Formosa that the cancellation would not be possible, the company “secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for non-union talent only”, the union claims.
SAG-AFTRA called Formosa’s actions “a flagrant violation of labour law”.
League of Legends is now added to the union’s ‘struck list’, and members have been ordered to stop providing covered services for the video game.
“It’s bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to agree to the fair AI terms,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator. “To commit illegal, unfair labour practices is beyond the pale and won’t be tolerated by SAG-AFTRA members.
“Formosa will be held accountable, starting with an immediate strike of League of Legends.”
In a statement, Formosa said that they reject SAG-AFTRA’s allegations, calling League of Legends’ strike inappropriate. “We fully reject SAG-AFTRA’s allegations and have not acted in any manner to undermine employee or union rights, nor our relationship with the union.
“We believe the strike of League of Legends, a game unrelated to the union’s claims, is not appropriate.”
Riot Games, the owners of League of Legends, denied any part in Formosa’s actions and said in an X statement: “Since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with union performers in the US and has never once suggested doing otherwise.
“In addition, we’ve never asked Formosa to cancel a game that we’ve registered.”
SAG-AFTRA recently struck a deal with talent marketplace platform Narrativ that will allow performers to license their AI voice replicas for use in digital audio. Narrativ agreed to the union’s requirements around AI informed consent, control and compensation.
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