Video game actors are currently on strike, in hopes that withholding their work from video game companies will push those companies to agree to better actor protections around the use of AI. However, at least one video game CEO — Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts — doesn't think the strike is going to impact his company, at least in the short-term.
In today's EA earnings call, Wilson answered a question from an investor about the impact of the strike on the business. Put simply, he's not worried for now. Here's the full quote:
We deeply value our talented actors who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world. We're working very closely; this is not an EA-specific situation, this is an industry-specific stuation, and we're working diligently to negotiate at the table. The way it works now in terms of our product specifically is that the strike is limited to games commencing production after September 2023, including live service games. So we don't expect any near-term disruption to any of the games we have in development or any of the live services we're currently running. That being said, we're committed to continuing to bargain in good faith and are hopeful that the parties can expediently resolve our issues at the bargaining table. But we're not anticipating any significant short-term impact at EA.
Wilson's confidence likely comes from the fact that EA's portfolio is almost entirely live service games right now, and games whose development began prior to September 2023 (so, basically every live service game) are not impacted by the strike. The company's $1.26 billion in net bookings for the quarter was driven by Madden NFL 24, FC Mobile, and FC Online, all live service games, and the rest of its coming fiscal year is much of the same: Madden NFL 25, EA Sports FC 25, NHL 25, and so forth. The Sims 4 and College Football 25, also unaffected.
Its one single-player offering, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is also fine. And while it's impossible to speak to EA's release slate further out, it's probably a safe bet that next year's release slate likely looks a lot like this year's, and is entirely populated by games that have been in development for three, four, five or more years. EA, at least, is in a position to weather the storm for a long time.
What Wilson doesn't mention is how this will impact the company in the long-term. The longer the strike goes, the more in-progress games will be impacted. Any game the studio greenlit after September of 2023 is going to be slowed down if no SAG voice actors will touch it, and this will impact EA's plans for 2026, 2027, and so on. So while short-term impacts won't be felt, it's possible that a strike will start to have affects we'll see years down the road, especially if a contract is not agreed on soon.
SAG-AFTRA officially called a video game actor strike late last week, beginning at 12:01 am on Friday, July 26. The union has been unable to come to an agreement with video game companies on a new contract for eighteen months, with AI protections being the primary sticking point of negotiations. The union has announced it will hold its first strike picket on Thursday, August 1 at WB Games. We wrote a detailed guide on what the SAG-AFTRA video game strike means for everyday gamers, which you can read right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
