EA CEO Says Video Game Actor Strikes Won't Have 'Short-Term Impact' on the Company
Video game actors are currently on strike, in hopes that withholding their work from video game companies will push those companies to agree to better actor protections around the use of AI. However, at least one video game CEO — Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts — doesn't think the strike is going to impact his company, at least in the short-term.
In today's EA earnings call, Wilson answered a question from an investor about the impact of the strike on the business. Put simply, he's not worried for now. Here's the full quote:
Wilson's confidence likely comes from the fact that EA's portfolio is almost entirely live service games right now, and games whose development began prior to September 2023 (so, basically every live service game) are not impacted by the strike. The company's $1.26 billion in net bookings for the quarter was driven by Madden NFL 24, FC Mobile, and FC Online, all live service games, and the rest of its coming fiscal year is much of the same: Madden NFL 25, EA Sports FC 25, NHL 25, and so forth. The Sims 4 and College Football 25, also unaffected.
Its one single-player offering, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is also fine. And while it's impossible to speak to EA's release slate further out, it's probably a safe bet that next year's release slate likely looks a lot like this year's, and is entirely populated by games that have been in development for three, four, five or more years. EA, at least, is in a position to weather the storm for a long time.
What Wilson doesn't mention is how this will impact the company in the long-term. The longer the strike goes, the more in-progress games will be impacted. Any game the studio greenlit after September of 2023 is going to be slowed down if no SAG voice actors will touch it, and this will impact EA's plans for 2026, 2027, and so on. So while short-term impacts won't be felt, it's possible that a strike will start to have affects we'll see years down the road, especially if a contract is not agreed on soon.
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