SAG-AFTRA opens a union route for video-game pitch performers

SAG-AFTRA has introduced a Pre-Funding Pitch Interactive Media Agreement allowing game developers to hire union performers for materials used to win backing before a project is fully financed. The framework covers work such as demos, vertical slices, trailers, teasers, sizzle reels and playable prototypes, including material made before a game is pitched to a publisher.

The agreement creates a route for casting professional voice and motion-performance talent at an earlier stage, when developers are trying to show prospective backers what a funded game could become. SAG-AFTRA said the arrangement should streamline hiring and give developers a stronger chance of securing support in a competitive funding environment.

It is restricted to genuinely early-stage projects. A game cannot have secured more than 30% of its initial production funding, appear complete, have been commercially released or made publicly available for gameplay. Crowdfunded projects are also excluded. Developers whose projects meet only some of the criteria may ask the union for a waiver.

The rules address a gap in which union guidelines had not specifically covered performers hired for a publisher-facing pitch. They also ensure that participating developers use union rather than non-union talent for the covered work.

SAG-AFTRA has framed earlier access to performers as a way to improve pitch materials and potentially avoid developers becoming dependent on generative-AI voices during pre-production. That is an intended effect rather than a ban on AI, but it extends the union's broader focus on consent and protections for performers whose voices or likenesses may be used digitally.

The agreement follows the union's 11-month video-game strike in 2024 and 2025, which centred on compensation, safety and unregulated AI use. The subsequent Interactive Media Agreement included pay increases, health and retirement contributions, and AI guardrails; the tentative deal required transparency, consent and compensation for digital replicas and provided wage increases of more than 24%.

During that strike, SAG-AFTRA issued separate agreements permitting members to work with students and on game jams. More than 120 games from 49 companies also signed interim agreements that included added compensation and performers' consent to AI use.

The new pitch framework arrives as SAG-AFTRA continues to raise concerns about AI beyond games. As we reported last month, the union joined three other entertainment unions urging a judge to reject a blanket fair-use rule for AI training in OpenAI's copyright litigation, arguing that synthetic voices were already threatening performers' work.