SAG-AFTRA Welcomes the Release of ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’
Notes that Voice and Performance Capture Actors Received 0.03% — Three One-Hundredths Percent — of Activision’s $15 Billion ‘Call of Duty’ Franchise
LOS ANGELES (November 4, 2016) – SAG-AFTRA today welcomed the release of Activision’s latest “Call of Duty” installment “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” by noting that dialogue by voice performers appears in 100 percent of the blockbuster franchise’s gameplay.
SAG-AFTRA believes that performance matters and its members who are heard on Activision’s “Call of Duty” franchise have helped make these games international bestsellers. In fact, “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” is the top game on current-generation consoles, according to the company’s own figures. That helps explain why Activision has reported record third-quarter revenue of $1.57 billion, up from $990 million the previous year. The company now expects to finish 2016 with $6.45 billion in revenue — exceeding its earlier forecasts.
Meanwhile, voice and performance capture actors who have performed all roles on all titles of the epic “Call of Duty” series since 2003 earned roughly 0.03 percent of the franchise’s $15 billion in total sales, according to public reports and SAG-AFTRA figures.
“SAG-AFTRA understands that the great majority of work done on the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise was done by committed teams of animators, coders and developers — workers who were often required to put in twelve-fourteen hour days, seven days a week for months at a time,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “While we applaud these herculean efforts, we believe that the culture of exploitation that exists in all aspects of the video game industry must come to an end.”
As of Oct. 21, 2016, SAG-AFTRA is on strike against 11 video game corporations, including Activision Publishing, Inc. For more information on the strike, please visit SAG-AFTRA’s Interactive Strike Center.
