Upcoming League of Legends skins might ship with base voiceover instead of new lines, but there’s a good reason.
Riot Games announced they will have to use existing voiceovers for new League of Legends skins as they face difficulties amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike.
League of Legends skins affected by SAG-AFTRA strike
The voice actor union SAG-AFTRA announced their video game strike back in July 2024, with League of Legends included as one of the struck titles.
Last Sept. 2024, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Formosa Interactive LLC, a company that works on League of Legends, tried to "subvert the video game strike."
"In light of Formosa’s unfair labor practices, SAG-AFTRA’s National Executive Director, with the advice and consent of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee, has called a strike of League of Legends, one of the company’s most high-profile games," according to a published SAG-AFTRA post.
This means that members of the union cannot record any voiceover content for LoL. Riot Games published an article outlining what this means for their games, particularly for League of Legends and Wild Rift.
The SAG-AFTRA strike for League of Legends
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Riot says that for League of Legends skins that involve actors based in the United States, existing voiceovers from the base skin of the respective champions will be used. Riot will not recast any roles because of the strike, and will not record new lines with different actors.
The SAG-AFTRA strike for LoL: Wild Rift
League of Legends: Wild Rift is not a struck title. However, Riot acknowledges that voice actors may decline roles for the video game in solidarity of the strike. In this case, the skin will go live with the base voiceover.
It's good to note that this will only affect English-language voiceover. Riot emphasizes that skins in all of the other languages will ship with custom VO.
Riot Games also reassured the playerbase that this is not a permanent fixture - just because a cool skin shipped with base VO due to the strike doesn't mean it will stay that way. "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," says the developer-publisher.
"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 bringing you updated VO with the quality you expect as soon as we can," they added.
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