In a seemingly out-of-nowhere announcement, SAG-AFTRA have targeted League of Legends with a strike order, claiming that Formosa Interactive, a producer on the game and dozens of other big titles in the industry, participated in unfair labor practices.
Formosa Interactive is a company that acts as a support team for other developers, one that mainly specializes in audio and art outsourcing. A lot of the biggest game releases have voice acting that’s recorded in their studios, with games as new as Spectre Divide and Once Human being projects they contributed to.
However, SAG-AFTRA claims that Formosa has participated in union busting practices by trying to find a loophole in which they could use to get around unionized workers, as well as claiming they’re one of many within a bargaining group that refuses to enforce protections against AI for working actors.
As a result, they’ve chosen to strike one of the biggest games in Formosa’s catalog: League of Legends.
“The complaint comes after Formosa tried to “cancel” one of its struck video games shortly after the start of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike. When they were told that was not possible, they secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for ‘NON-UNION’ talent only,” the union claimed in a press release.
“SAG-AFTRA charges that these serious actions are egregious violations of core tenets of labor law – that employers cannot interfere with performers’ rights to form or join a union and they cannot discriminate against union performers. The unilateral and surreptitious transfer of union work to a “non-union” shell company is an impermissible and appalling attempt to evade a strike action and destroy performers’ rights under labor law.”
Though it may seem bizarre to call a strike order on one game when their issue is with a company that has industry-wide influence, SAG-AFTRA’s National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland made their intentions clear: This is a warning shot.
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“It’s bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to agree to the fair A.I. terms that have been agreed to by the film, television, streaming, and music industries, as well as more than 90 other game developers. To commit illegal unfair labor practices is beyond the pale and won’t be tolerated by SAG-AFTRA members. Formosa will be held accountable, starting with an immediate strike of League of Legends.”
Their strike against League of Legends is essentially a show of force. Considering how large a production company Formosa is, further action against them from union workers could deal a massive blow to production schedules for some of the biggest games in development.
Riot have since responded, making it clear that Formosa is a partner and that the allegations they raised against the production company have nothing to do with League of Legends or other Riot projects.
League of Legends has nothing to do with the complaint mentioned in SAG-AFTRA’s press release. We want to be clear: since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with Union performers in the US and has never once suggested doing… https://t.co/SH4XvY1qtA
— Riot Games (@riotgames) September 24, 2024
“We want to be clear: since becoming a union project five years ago, League of Legends has only asked Formosa to engage with Union performers in the US and has never once suggested doing otherwise,” Riot Games claimed in their tweet.
Formosa Interactive have yet to comment on the strike order, and it’s not clear the extent to which this will affect League of Legends yet.
This strike follows a SAG-AFTRA order that had union actors walking away from any project started after September 2023, one that’s still in effect at the time of writing.