VA Strike Effect On ME:A DLC?

No. EA is a big company that is very able to make a projection on costs and profit of DLC. They can see how many people are playing the game right now, this week and the past month. And the answer clearly is that it's way too little to justify putting money in DLC.

sigh

While I'd agree that EA have that ability thanks to the way Origin, PSN and XB work, describing it as 'clear' when we've never even seen the data is being silly.

For voice actors not used in the original game, there would be no previous contract, however; and, depending on how SAG-AFTRA looks at it, signing new VAs to do just the DLC may not fall under the provisions they made for games on the "unstruck" list.  Also, if EA's plan was not to create a quarian DLC; but to move quickly towards producing a sequel game (and so did not make a provision for it in the Interactive Contract for ME:A1), that 2nd game is clearly not on the "unstruck" list.  So, if say, they want to now abandon the thought of a sequel game because the first didn't quite live up to their expectations, they could not just repurpose that into a DLC without, I'm sure, SAG-AFTRA at least trying to block it.

It also does not preclude the idea that they might want to sign a particular newn voice and just because the game is on the unstruck list doesn't mean that a staunch strike supporter would not be willing to sign on until after the strike is over... (i.e. hold out for a potentially much better deal).

This is from the FAQ section of the SAG-AFTRA website on the strike in response to the question "What work is struck":


It seems plenty ambiguous to me.

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure the majority of voice actors that EA would use would all be part of the union. As far as "backroom deals" I don't think that would happen for if a union member crosses a picket line it can cause a lot of problems for them, unless the company tries to protect them generally they are removed from the union.

As far as impacting Andromeda directly it is an unknown unless you see the contract for there could be a clause indicated "additional content" and the union has stated that they will abide by any contract prior to February 2015 and if they are making DLC I would think BioWare/EA would want to make sure they have the actors locked in before making any new content.

You're exactly right. It's not like the old days. Employers can circumvent strikes a lot easier these days and the end result is usually just bad publicity for the striking side. I love unions because it does overcome horrible, management issues. Now, without unions, managers like to team up in "cliques" and it's an unfair advantage especially since HR follows management's lead. Today's HR isn't the middle ground anymore. They're there to keep companies out of courtrooms and enforce the "bottom line." I will go on to say that it's because of this, unions have made such a comeback in the past decade here in the US. I never saw a union banner in front of buildings until the past few years and it's getting common all over again. When I went home to visit relatives in New York... union banners and union signs everywhere. I'm not a fan of unions because a strong HR that holds the middle ground is the best solution, in my humble opinion. Also, with unions, getting rid of a problematic person becomes almost a legal issue. However, bad HR can't figure out who to hire or retain and that in itself becomes an issue of competence. That reflects on the whole company as well. Just saying... 

Doubtful, I'm certain voice actors signed a contract to return for whatever new updates and DLC's are made relating to ME:A.

This is what BioWare did with ME3, after with ME2 they had no contract with VA's to do voice lines for DLC's and couldn't come due to schedule conflicts.

The original VA's contract would probably include all work on ME:A, including DLC. Now it could impact any actors they've attempted to hire after the strike started to work on DLC, but I suspect they covered that contingency as well. From what I read the SAG-AFTRA strike wasn't a sudden surprise.

Sources are evil.

We should kill a lot of sources. With air strikes.