Why the SAG-AFTRA strike will now impact League of Legends

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced Tuesday that it is adding Riot Games League of Legends as a game on strike, meaning that union actors currently working on the game must stop. SAG-AFTRA has also filed an unfair labor practice complaint against sound company Formosa Interactive for what it claims is an attempt to circumvent the ongoing strike.

More than 2,500 video game professionals went on strike in late July, after nearly two years of negotiations with major video game companies. The main sticking point in the negotiations appears to be related to the protection of artificial intelligence, but the League of Legends The strike is not AI-related. Instead, SAG-AFTRA alleged in a press release that Formosa Interactive “attempted to cancel one of its video game strikes shortly after the SAG-AFTRA video game strike began” and then attempted to transfer the game to a “shell company” so it could hire non-union actors. The full unfair labor charge is not yet available online; Polygon has requested a copy.

“SAG-AFTRA believes that these serious actions constitute flagrant violations of fundamental principles of labor law: employers may not interfere with the right of artists to form or join a union, and employers may not discriminate against unionized artists,” a SAG-AFTRA representative wrote in the press release. “The unilateral and clandestine transfer of union work to a ‘non-union shell company’ is an unconscionable and appalling attempt to evade a strike and destroy artists’ labor rights.”

So where is it? League of Legends Come in? League of Legends is developed and published by Riot Games, but outsources its voice acting work to Formosa Interactive, like many other large companies.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Helldivers 2, God of War: Ragnarok, Dead space, Fatal groundingAnd The Last of Us Part 2 There are several other games for which Formosa Interactive has provided voice acting or sound design.) League of Legends is one of Formosa Interactive’s largest ongoing games – and, crucially, a game that had not yet launched. Live-production games that entered production before August 25 were still allowed to be worked on by video game interpreters, as were games from companies that independently signed the updated Interactive Media Agreement. League of Legendswhich was published well before August 25, was still a legitimate target until Tuesday.

Riot Games does not appear to be involved in the conflict, except for its reliance on Formosa Interactive for voiceovers. Instead, League of Legends was singled out for the strike as one of Formosa Interactive’s biggest clients – and one that likely still hires voice actors. As with the rest of the industry, the strike will have no immediate impact League of Legends; the production of games takes place well before their release. But League of Legends is a game that receives regular updates with new character voice lines and cutscenes, and the strike may impact cutscenes or voiced skins in the future.

In particular, the League of Legends The 2024 World Championship is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. League of Legends Worlds is the pinnacle of the game’s eSports scene and will take place in London, Paris, and Berlin over the course of over a month. Voice actors are rarely involved in the event, but if plans were made to include them, the actors would no longer be able to participate while still complying with strike rules.

Polygon has reached out to SAG-AFTRA, Formosa Interactive, and Riot Games for further information.