SAG-AFTRA inks AI voice deal with Replica Studios

Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski has said that Microsoft would be “smart” to enlist him as a consultant on the franchise.

Cities: Skylines II developer Colossal Order has a uniquely close relationship with its community. The original Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and gobbled up the audience that was left behind by EA’s SimCity, which came out in 2013 and was a busted mess. Cities: Skylines scratched that urban-planning itch, plus it cost just $30. The game came first to PC, Mac and Linux with modest hardware requirements, and it hit consoles within two years. Critically, Cities: Skylines also supported mods through the Steam Workshop, allowing players to add their own tools to the game and share those features with others.

As with many major video game launches these days, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has received a live-action trailer. It stars actors Will Arnett and Ron Funches alongside director Jodi Hill as they play the Suicide Squad and act as the “good guys.” Sort of. Check it out below.

Intel Foundry has announced a "strategic" collaboration with the famous Taiwanese semiconductor firm UMC as they vow to move together in semiconductor development.

The Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 trailerdropped, confirming the return of Asajj Ventress, a beloved character long thought dead. But now, an eagle-eyed viewer may have uncovered another returning character, and this return is downright tragic.

One of the hardest things for gamers to see is a studio that was once on “top of the world” slowly falling apart and becoming a shell of its former self. We’re seeing this happening all over the place nowadays, with companies failing to capitalize on what’s important within the industry, layoffs happening due to “poor sales,” or even “overinvestments,” and so on. But the biggest one that has affected many studios is that they haven’t been able to make quality games like they used to, and Rocksteady Studios is the newest one to do that, which is where our story starts.

Following a recent update, a new weapon bug is ruining matches in The Finals and Embark Studios has acknowledged the issue and provided some insight into plans for dealing with it. This week, The Finals received update 1.5, which was a big step for improving a lot of aspects of the popular online shooter. One of the bigger additions through this update was the first limited time game mode called Solo Bank It, which tweaked the rules by pitting 12 players against one another to see who could acquire and bank 40,000 in cash. Ditching the team strategy, each player in this mode is fighting individually for glory.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

Major actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have raised hackles among a number of voice game performers after striking a deal with a company that wants to create AI replicas of actors’ voices for use in games, among other things. While the union claim that their agreement with Replica will allow for a “fair” and “ethical” approach to creating AI voices, it’s clear that a number of actors with credits in games from Baldur’s Gate 3, Mortal Kombat and Starfield to Apex Legends, World of Warcraft and Genshin Impact don’t agree.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has announced a «groundbreaking AI voice agreement» as per the union's website—and despite its claim that the agreement was «approved by affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community», a lot of industry vets feel like their voices weren't heard.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an American labor union which represents thousands of media professionals, has announced what it describes as a “groundbreaking AI voice agreement” with artificial intelligence voice technology company Replica Studios.