League of Legends hit by SAG-AFTRA union action as Riot delays English VO to 'respect the ongoing strike' over AI, though voice actors think it could be doing more to help

pcgamer.com:

This is the fallout of the SAG-AFTRA strike for ol' Riot: As announced on the studio's X account earlier this week, the Riot Games will «be temporarily using existing (base) VO for some English-language skins in League of Legends & Wild Rift. Other languages will still have custom VO. Once the strike ends, we’ll record new VO with the original actors.»

For context, the actors union has been taking actionover a lack of AI protections for voice actors since July. In September, this strike extended to League of Legends, though Riot maintained its (relative) innocence.

See, Riot Games uses Formosa Interactive for its US voiceover work. Formosa is the named company that SAG-AFTRA was targeting by selecting League of Legends for strike action, rather than any named transgressions from Riot itself. That's not to sanitise Riot, mind—it has still chosen to continue its working relationship with Formosa, despite claims it «asked Formosa to engage with Union performers in the US». Still, Formosa seems primarily at fault for dragging its feet regarding AI protections.

An announcement on Riot's website goes intofurther detail: «During the strike, we’ll have to adjust how we handle English-language VO for certain skins to ensure we can still deliver new content. For League PC skins for champions with U.S.-based voice actors, we’ll temporarily use existing voiceovers (base VO) instead of recording new lines with different actors. While Wild Rift is not a struck video game, if actors decline projects with us because they are standing in solidarity during the labor strike, we will ship with base VO.

»Once the strike ends, we’ll update skins released with English base VO to include new lines recorded by the original actors, as soon as scheduling and studio availability allow. We know this isn’t ideal, and we understand it’s frustrating to have to wait for custom VO, but this approach lets us respect the ongoing strike while continuing to deliver new content. We’re committed to