Summary
Last year,the voice actors union SAG-AFTRA went on strike, demanding protection from the rampant and increased use of generative artificial intelligence in the video game industry. That strike is still ongoing, as voice actors who are part ofSAG-AFTRAare choosing not to work on future projects, which hasaffected titles such as Hideo Kojima’s ODandCall of Duty: Black Ops 6.
We can now addDestiny 2to that growing list, as developer Bungie revealed today that several of the voice lines in Destiny 2: Heresy will be completely silent. In themost recent Destiny 2 blog poston the Bungie website (thanks VGC), it’s explained that subtitles are being enabled by default in Heresy, as the voices of certain characters will be completely missing.
Destiny 2: Heresy Has Several Silent Voice Lines Due To Striking Actors
“Due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, you may notice certain voice lines being silent in-game,” reads the blog post. “However, we have enabled subtitles by default for this release to ensure players do not miss any narrative content.”
On top of that, Bungie has also included a warning that will appear in-game before activities that include missing voice acting, just in case you don’t have your subtitles switched on. It doesn’t mention how rampant the issue is, or exactly when the voice acting for these activities will be restored, but you can probably assume that it won’t be until the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved.
On that front, very little has changed to suggest that striking actors are close to having their demands met. We have seen SAG-AFTRA strike a deal with an AI company called Ethovox back in October, which included session fees and a revenue share, but that was also followed bythe announcement that strikes would continueafter another failed round of negotiations.
With the strikes now in their seventh month, we’re starting to see the effects in more and more video games. Kojima Productions, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, League of Legends, and now Destiny 2 have all been negatively impacted in recent months, and you have to assume that the list will grow the longer this strike goes on. We haven’t seen any major delays so far, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time.
