Screen Actors Guild thanks videogames that use its contract, almost all Activision

There's a very interesting ad in Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter today from the Screen Actors Guild thanking the "innovative creators" of recent videogames that use SAG talent -- and more importantly to SAG, utilize its contract.

I can't help but assume that the ad is a reaction to last week's New York Times story noting that the voice talent in "Grand Theft Auto 4" are getting no residuals from that game's mega-success, since the current SAG contract doesn't include them. As I noted in a blog post about that story, the Times got a key fact wrong: videogame residuals are not an issue in the current SAG negotiations with the studios. But they will be an issue at the end of this year, when SAG's videogame contract expires.

It's also interesting to me what exact games SAG listed in the ad. I'm currently checking to see whether this is a sample of recent games they've covered, or all the ones in the past few years, but it's odd that seven of the nine -- all of them except "GTA 4" and "Assassin's Creed" -- are Activision games. Is Activision the only publisher that's using the SAG contract on a regular basis? Is it just a coincidence? It's definitely not a good sign for SAG if there aren't any games from Electronic Arts or THQ or Microsoft or Sony, for example, that it can cite as using its current contract.

Regardless, SAG's desire to spend money on this ad reinforces my belief that it's taking videogames pretty seriously and that we can expect a serious fight, and possible strike, when its current contract with publishers ends in December.