The newly announced SAG-AFTRA strike won't impact GTA 6, or indeed any other game that started development before September 2023. That's due to a prior stipulation, although SAG-AFTRA isn't happy about this, as Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez explained to Aftermath:
We're obviously not happy about that. That language was bargained into one of the legacy Interactive Media Agreements before the merger of SAG and AFTRA. It's language that the merged union basically inherited, that I think is insane. But it’s there.
We do believe that there are certain titles that we can challenge, and we are preparing ourselves to bring a challenge with respect to the application of this language with respect to some of the titles. So we are doing our best to wage the strike as effectively and as strongly as we can – even in spite of that language being there.
In theory, the exemption also applies to live service games since all those have obviously started development way before September 2023. However, SAG-AFTRA isn't too keen on letting this slide. Rodriguez added:
If you apply this language that we're talking about to live-service games, they become contracts of unlimited duration, and there is a law that a contract of unlimited duration can be terminated on reasonable notice. So that's what we've done: We have provided reasonable notice that we are terminating our contract with respect to those live-service games.
SAG-AFTRA voted on the strike mainly because it couldn't reach an agreement to protect its workers from the dangers of AI utilization in the industry. We'll keep you updated if there's any news on the ongoing strike.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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