Video game actors are currently on strike, hoping that withholding their work from video game companies will force those companies to agree to better protect actors when it comes to using AI. But at least one video game CEO — Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts — doesn’t think the strike will affect his company, at least in the miniature term.
In today’s earnings call, EA Wilson responded to an investor’s question about the impact of the strike on the business. Simply put, he’s not worried at the moment. Here’s the full quote:
We value our talented actors greatly, and they are an crucial part of what we do to deliver incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world. We are working very closely together; this is not an EA-specific situation, this is an industry-specific situation, and we are working difficult to negotiate at the table. The way it works right now, as far as our product is concerned, is that the strike is circumscribed to games that go into production after September 2023, including games with live services. So we do not anticipate any short-term disruption to any of the games that we have in development or any of the live services that we currently support. That said, we are committed to continuing to negotiate in good faith and hope that the parties can resolve our issues at the table in a timely manner. But we do not anticipate any significant short-term impact to EA.
Wilson’s confidence likely stems from the fact that EA’s portfolio now consists almost entirely of live-services games, and games that began development before September 2023 (which is essentially any live-services game) aren’t affected by the strike. The company’s $1.26 billion in net bookings in the quarter were driven by Madden NFL 24, FC Mobile, and FC Online, all live-services games, and the rest of the upcoming fiscal year is largely the same: Madden NFL 25, EA Sports FC 25, NHL 25, and so on. The Sims 4 and College Football 25 also aren’t affected.
Its only single-player offering, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is also fine. And while there’s not much else to say about EA’s release schedule, it’s probably unthreatening to assume that next year’s release schedule will be very similar to this year’s, and will be filled entirely with games that have been in development for three, four, five, or more years. EA, at least, is able to weather the storm for a long time.
Wilson doesn’t mention how this will affect the company in the long term. The longer the strike lasts, the more games in progress will be affected. Any game the studio approves after September 2023 will be slowed if no SAG voice actors touch it, and that will affect EA’s plans for 2026, 2027, etc. So while the short-term effects won’t be felt, it’s possible the strike will start to have an impact that we’ll see in a few years, especially if a deal isn’t agreed to soon.
SAG-AFTRA officially announced a video game actors’ strike behind schedule last week, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 26. The union has been unable to reach an agreement with video game companies on a recent contract for eighteen months, with AI protections being a major sticking point in the negotiations. The union announced it will hold its first picket line strike on Thursday, August 1 at WB Games. We’ve written a detailed guide on what the SAG-AFTRA video game strike means for regular gamers, which you can read here .
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
