Eleven months of haggling between striking voice actors and video game producers appear to finally be over, according to an announcement from acting union SAG-AFTRA issued on Monday. The strike's biggest sticking point, regarding "secondary compensation" (aka royalties or residuals), appears to favor game publishers, not actors.

SAG-AFTRA's statement confirmed that the two sides have tentatively agreed to a "new bonus structure" that will pay games' union-member voice actors additional cash if the game they worked on sees commerical release. This sliding-scale bonus payment appears to be firm for all actors, with a single voice-acting "session" earning an actor an additional $75 and up to $2,100 if the actor worked at least 10 sessions for the game in question. (The meaning of "session" was not clarified.)

This differs from SAG-AFTRA's original demand of royalty payments based on a game's sales. The union's proposal sought a royalty for voice actors whose games exceeded 2 million copies of sales, with more royalties kicking in at the 4, 6, and 8 million sales levels. SAG-AFTRA never went public with the payment amounts they sought for those sales levels, so it's unclear how much less (or more) game publishers will pay out for this flatter, "if a game comes out at all" bonus system.

On the other hand, other demands about project transparency and vocal stress worked out more in actors' favor. Game voice actors have traditionally been given zero information about the games they're performing for, with even Mass Effect's voice actors being given zero guidance beyond "here's a line, read it a few times." Now, union-member voice actors will be given some perspective before accepting or beginning a voice-acting session, including: a game's code name, its genre, its ties to existing IP, whether the character being voiced has appeared in prior games, any profanity or racial slurs in the script, any sexual or violent content, and whether stunts will be required.

The two sides' agreement about vocal stress is not as clear, however, with SAG-AFTRA simply mentioning "employer commitment" to the issue. SAG-AFTRA had previously decried vocal stress issues such as "fainting in sessions, tasting blood, vomiting, losing their voice for a day up to several weeks, and permanently losing their vocal range."

SAG-AFTRA concluded its statement by pointing out publishers' original demands that the actors' side did not concede, including the idea of fining voice actors for being tardy to sessions. No other statements have been issued to clarify what concessions the actors' union may have agreed to. We have sent questions to SAG-AFTRA seeking clarification, and we will update this report with any response.

This concludes progress made by SAG-AFTRA regarding piecemeal deals with individual game producers and companies, but it might be cold comfort to those whose favorite series switched voice actors during the 11-month strike.