Developer Riot has issued a statement distancing itself from a strike by members of the SAG-AFTRA actors' union against its game League of Legends.
Last night, the actors union called for a strike against Riot's online game due to its connection to Formosa Interactive LLC. Formosa Interactive is a production company involved in the creation of League of Legends, and one that SAG-AFTRA has accused of trying to “subvert the video game strike,” which was announced in July.
The union Press release fixed Formosa -who has also worked on the Call of Duty, Zelda and God of War series, among others- attempted to “cancel” one of his games affected by the SAG-AFTRA video game strike so he could continue with non-union actors.
Riot has since issued its own statement, writing “League of Legends has nothing to do with the complaint cited” by SAG-AFTRA.
“We want to be clear: since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with union artists in the US and has never suggested doing otherwise,” Riot wrote on social media platform X.
“Furthermore, we have never asked Formosa to cancel a game we have registered. All of the allegations in SAG-AFTRA's press release related to canceling a game or hiring non-union talent relate to a non-Riot game and have nothing to do with League or any of our games.”
In the press release announcing SAG-AFTRA's League of Legends strike, the union said it believes Formosa's actions are “a flagrant violation of labor law.” SAG-AFTRA has therefore “filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board.”
SAG-AFTRA claims that when Formosa was told it was not possible to “cancel” one of its struck video games, the company “secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices only for ‘non-union’ talent.” In protest, the union called a strike for League of Legends, as this is one of the highest-profile games Formosa has worked on.
“It's bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to accept the fair AI terms that have been agreed to by the film, television, streaming and music industries, as well as more than 90 other game developers,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's national executive director and chief negotiator.
“Committing unfair and illegal labor practices is out of the question and will not be tolerated by SAG-AFTRA members.”
Many video game actors, including Solid Snake actor David Hayter and Commander Shepard actress Jennifer Hale, have shared their concerns about AI and its impact on their work. In April this year, our Ed spoke to several BAFTA-nominated actors from Baldur's Gate 3, who revealed the darker side of success, fueled by AI voice cloning.