SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has announced that it is striking League of Legends, meaning all union members will be unable to promote or work on Riot Games’ flagship MOBA. Following a press release detailing the strike, the union has also filed an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board. In response, Riot Games has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to refute to SAG-AFTRA’s claims.
The press release from SAG-AFTRA details allegations that Formosa Interactive, a creative services and voiceover company which works with Riot Games on League of Legends attempted to “subvert the videogame strike.” This strike began earlier this year in July with one of its goals to provide protection for its members against the “unethical use of AI.” Riot Games’ MOBA was originally not included in the strike, which has now changed following the release of this notice.
SAG-AFTRA alleges that Formosa attempted to cancel a game shortly after the start of the video game strike which was affected by the action. When informed that this would not be possible, Formosa “secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for ‘NON-UNION’ talent only.” In effect, this would mean that work would continue on the title, circumventing the strike and using non-union workers. The union considers that this action consists of “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,” hence the call to strike.
For its part, Riot Games has responded to the allegations on its official X account. “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,” the post reads. “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.”
This comes at a time when Riot Games is ramping up its activity in preparation for the League of Legends Worlds 2024 tournament, which includes releasing a new song by Linkin Park as well as an array of fan-requested skins. In addition, the Arcane season 2 release date will arrive in November, with promotional activity for this also under threat by the strike.
You can read the full press release from SAG-AFTRA here, and read Riot Games’ response on its X account.
PCGamesN has reached out to Riot Games and Formosa Interactive for comment. Riot Games has since responded with the statement previously posted via X.