An ongoing dispute between the voice actors union SAG-AFTRA and the video game industry, has inadvertently revealed the future projects for a number of game franchises including Activision’s Call of Duty series.
The games named are on the union list, as they are projects that have begun, but no deal has been struck surrounding the issue of back end payment to the voice talent used. Activision is listed alongside the recently released Infinite Warfare, and another project named as “COD Stronghold a/k/a Call of Duty: Stronghold & Lethal Combat.” This is clearly the next game that Activision is working on, although it is probable that they were a long way from revealing this, due to their latest title only just being on the shelves. Activision are also credited to working on the next toys-to-life version of Skylanders, Skylanders 6.
The union is claiming that video game actors should receive a similar pay system to movie actors, whereby if a project is a financial success, the actor/actress should be rewarded with an additional payment. In many cases, the revenue achieved by a hit computer game eclipses that of even a huge blockbuster movie. For example, the best opening weekend for a film of all time, was Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That achieved $247 million. Call of Duty Black Ops III raised $550 million in the course of its opening three days.
The full list also contains the name of the Telltale Games Guardians of the Galaxy game, and a number of Warner Brothers projects. The Batman mobile app game, listed as Batman Arkham Underworld a/k/a Zeppelin is on there, along with Lego Zeus and three code-named titles of Metallica, Kraken and Sabbath. Most of the games are code-named, but those that are not make for quite exciting reading.
So far, none of the developers involved in this accidental reveal have commented, but behind the scenes it is sure that there are a few red faces.