Union Actors Could Join Game Pitches Before Funding Is Secured

Video game developers can now hire union actors before they have a publisher, under a new agreement from the performers' union. SAG-AFTRA, the US union that represents screen and game performers, has unveiled what it calls the Pre-Funding Pitch Interactive Media Agreement.

Publishers are the companies that usually pay for, market and release games. A studio trying to win that backing often needs something to show them, such as a short trailer or a playable prototype. Until now, bringing union performers into that early stage was difficult for small teams.

Under the new agreement, union actors can be hired for pitch work ranging from an internal teaser trailer to a vertical slice, which is a polished early section of a game that shows how it plays. The union's contract pages list the pitch material as trailers, teasers, sizzle reels (short highlight videos), playable prototypes, demos and vertical slices. The union says that material exists for one purpose: to win production for a game.

There is one clear limit. The agreement cannot be used for crowdfunded games, which raise money directly from players rather than from publishers, according to Video Games Chronicle.

The deal arrives after a long run of negotiations. Video game performers went on strike in July 2024, with a central issue being protections for performers around artificial intelligence. In June 2025, IGN reported a tentative agreement with major game companies in those talks, including Activision, Blindlight and Disney. A month later, Reuters reported that voice and motion capture actors had passed a new contract with studios.

The new pitch agreement is a separate track from those deals. SAG-AFTRA describes its low-budget interactive agreement as the first of its kind in the union's history. The union's production center, which lists the rules for each agreement, is the place to read the full terms.

For a developer, the practical change is timing. A studio that once had to fund early material before it could afford union talent can now bring that talent into the pitch itself, provided the project is not crowdfunded. For a player, the change is mostly out of view. It affects who works on the material that helps a game secure backing, not the finished game on store shelves.