The SAG-AFTRA strike will now impact League of Legends — here’s why

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced Tuesday that it’s adding Riot Games’ League of Legends as a struck game — meaning union voice actors currently working on the game must stop. SAG-AFTRA is also filing an unfair labor practice charge against sound company Formosa Interactive over what it alleged was an attempt to circumvent the ongoing strike.

More than 2,500 video game performers went on strike in late July, after nearly two years of negotiation with major video game companies. The big sticking point in the negotiations appears to be related to artificial intelligence protections, but the League of Legends strike is unrelated to AI. Instead, SAG-AFTRA alleged in a news release that Formosa Interactive “tried to ‘cancel’ one of its struck video games shortly after the start of SAG-AFTRA’s video game strike” and then attempted to transfer the game to a “shell company” so it could hire non-union actors.

In the unfair labor charge, obtained by Polygon from a SAG-AFTRA representative, SAG-AFTRA went into further detail: It alleged Formosa transferred work to a company called Formosa Ocean Post, which is not signed to the Interactive Media Agreement. Both Formosa Interactive, LLC and Formosa Ocean Post are listed with the same mailing address in California’s business directory; Formosa Interactive was filed for registration in 2013, while Formosa Ocean Post was filed in 2014. In addition to labeling the casting notices as “non-union,” SAG-AFTRA alleged that Formosa Interactive required in these casting notices “overly broad confidentiality provisions.” Riot Games, which develops League of Legends, is not involved in the dispute.

“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,” a SAG-AFTRA representative wrote in the news release. “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.”

So where does League of Legends come in? League of Legends is developed and published by Riot Games, but it outsources its voiceover work to Formosa Interactive, like many other major companies. (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Helldivers 2, God of War: Ragnarok, Dead Space, Death Stranding, and The Last of Us Part 2 are several other games that Formosa Interactive handled voiceover or sound design work for.) League of Legends is one of Formosa Interactive’s biggest ongoing games — and, crucially, a game that was not previously struck. Ongoing, live service games that entered production before Aug. 25 were still OK for video game performers to work on, as are games by companies that independently signed the updated Interactive Media Agreement. League of Legends, which was released well before Aug. 25, was still fair game, until Tuesday.

Riot Games isn’t necessarily involved in the dispute, save its reliance on Formosa Interactive for voiceovers. Instead, League of Legends was chosen to be struck as one of Formosa Interactive’s biggest clients — and one that is likely still hiring voice actors. As with the rest of the industry, the strike won’t immediately impact League of Legends; production on games happens well in advance of release. But League of Legends is a game that gets regular updates with new character voice lines and cinematics, and the strike could impact cinematics or voiced skins in the future.

A League of Legends representative provided the following statement to Polygon:

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 otherwise. In addition, we’ve never asked Formosa to cancel a game that we’ve registered. All of the allegations in SAG-AFTRA’s press release relating to canceling a game or hiring non-union talent relate to a non-Riot game, and have nothing to do with League or any of our games.

Notably, The League of Legends World Championship 2024 is slated to start on Wednesday. League of Legends Worlds are the pinnacle of the game’s esports scene and will span London, Paris, and Berlin over more than a month. Voice actors are rarely involved in the event, but if any plans were made to include them, the actors would no longer be able to participate while abiding by the strike rules.

Polygon has reached out to SAG-AFTRA, Formosa Interactive, and Riot Games for more information.

Update: This story has been updated to include details from SAG-AFTRA’s unfair labor charge, as well as a statement from Riot Games.