SAG-AFTRA, Video Game Producers End Contract Talks; Sides Vow to Make ‘Final Efforts to Reach a Deal’

Luc Bernard Can video games tell stories about the Holocaust?Can this medium encourage the audience to relate and care more? I absolutely believe so. That’s why I self-funded, directed and released the Holocaust videogame “The Light in the Darkness,” which is currently available on PS5, PS4 and PC. One of my core issues with education on the Holocaust is that those murdered are treated as numbers, not human beings.

EXCLUSIVE: Some of Hollywood’s biggest names met with the leadership of SAG-AFTRA today to get the lowdown on the breakdown of talks with the studios and streamers last week.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor CANNES – Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish delivered a testimonial to the power of “new age” local and regional content licensing partnerships during a wide-ranging Q&A held Tuesday after the Viacom veteran was feted as Mipcom’s Personality of the Year. During a wide-ranging Q&A that followed the award presentation, Bakish batted down industry speculation about Paramount’s financial health (“To say we were saved by the strikes is totally an overstatement”) and his hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike will soon be in Hollywood’s rear-view mirror (“We’ll get there”). Paramount Global unveiled a multi-year pact with Greek pay TV service Cosmote TV just before Bakish sat for a Q&A with Variety co-editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA announced Monday that it will schedule more bargaining sessions on a new video game contract, in hopes of averting a second strike. The talks broke off last month without an agreement, but both sides indicated at the time that they would continue to negotiate. SAG-AFTRA members remain on strike against the major film and TV companies.

It’s been nearly three weeks since SAG-AFTRA‘s talks with the video game industry broke off, but a power-up is on the horizon. The union said today that negotiations for a new Interactive Media Agreement will continue. But as for when — stay tuned.

Ever since video games became a mainstream form of entertainment, so many games and characters have reached icon status, many of which have later been adapted to live-action movies and TV shows.

After a winding road of regulatory challenges, Microsoft today closed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, creating a video game behemoth.

Jaden Thompson The Polish video game developer CD Projekt SA has used artificial intelligence to replicate the voice of the late Polish actor Miłogost Reczek, who died in 2021. His voice will be simulated in “Phantom Liberty,” an extension of the dystopian video game series “Cyberpunk 2077.” Per Bloomberg, the company reached out to Reczek’s family, which gave permission to recreate his voice using AI.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor NBCUniversal content chief Donna Langley has vowed that the top executives involved in contract negotiations with SAG-AFTRA will devote the time it takes to reach a new deal. Langley, who is chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer of NBCUniversal, declined to say much about the state of talks with the performers union during her address Wednesday evening at Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference in Hollywood. But she did express that her executive counterparts in the negotiating room — Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros.

Rudie Obias editor If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Looking for the most popular games in 2023? According to Futbin.com, an online resource for FIFA Ultimate Team gamers, the most popular video game of the year is “Hogwarts Legacy” — based on Google Search volume from the past 12 months in nearly 90 countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Brazil and much more. Released back in February, “Hogwarts Legacy” — which sold more than 12 million copies within its first two weeks — launched for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.

Bad Bunny opened up in a new interview with Italian Vanity Fair, and he seemingly made several references to rumored girlfriend Kendall Jenner in the process.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Alexander Kiesl and Steffen Hacker have been tapped to direct a film adaptation of Home Sweet Home, a popular action-horror video game. Casting is currently underway for the movie, titled “Home Sweet Home Rebirth.” Principle photography is set to begin in Bangkok, Thailand, this fall.

SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, is attending New York Comic Con on Oct. 14 for the panel “AI in Entertainment: The Performer’s Perspective”.

One down, and more to come.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor AI, streaming residuals and minimum rate hikes will be among the key issues on the table when SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s largest employers sit down Monday for the first formal bargaining talks since the performers union went on strike July 14. SAG-AFTRA and negotiators for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to meet around midday at the union’s Miracle Mile headquarters at SAG-AFTRA Plaza. The talks follow the settlement the AMPTP reached last week with the Writers Guild of America after a 148-day strike.

SAG-AFTRA said today that its scheduled talks with the video game industry, which began Tuesday, have ended with no agreement.

Netflix has been hit with a lawsuit for axing a game development contract based on Zack Snyder‘s widely anticipated Rebel Moon franchise

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor David Goodman, Chris Keyser and Meredith Stiehm have spent this year in warrior mode on behalf of their fellow 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America. Goodman and Keyser, both past presidents of the WGA West, were co-chairs of the WGA’s 25-member negotiating committee. Stiehm was re-elected earlier this month to her second two-year term as WGA West president.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The WGA emerges from the long slog of a strike and difficult contract talks with a deal that is far richer and more comprehensive than most industry observers would have predicted last spring when the fitful negotiations began. In short, the scribe tribe’s sacrifice of mounting a 148-day work stoppage — coupled with the extra pressure heaped on when SAG-AFTRA went out on strike July 14 — gave the WGA the leverage it needed to power through its agenda. Here’s a rundown of the key issues that have been settled in the tentative agreement that the Writers Guild of America reached Sept.