Earlier in the year, SEGA of America employees announced their intention to form union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Today, the National Labor Relations Board counted the group’s mailed-in votes with the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS) winning the vote. The AEGIS includes more than 200 roles at SEGA of America’s Irvine, California office and spans several different departments. With the win, AEGIS becomes the first and largest video game union at a major company that spans multiple departments.
117 votes were counted. 91 votes voted in favor of the union with 26 votes against. Several votes were challenged and not counted. The departments part of the union include Marketing, Games as a Service, Localization, Product Development, and Quality Assurance. The Irvine office opened in 2002 and houses up to 235 workers.
“We are overjoyed to celebrate our union election win as members of AEGIS-CWA,” Sega of America translator Ángel Gómez said in a statement to press. “From the start of this campaign, it has been clear that we all care deeply about our work at SEGA. Now, through our union, we’ll be able to protect the parts of our jobs we love, and strengthen the benefits, pay, and job stability available to all workers. Together we can build an even better SEGA. We hope our victory today is an inspiration to other workers across the gaming industry. Together, we can raise standards for all workers across the industry.”
SEGA workers of America are the latest in the fight to unionize within the video game industry. The efforts started back in 2021 when the developers at Vodeo Games became the first certified video game studio union in North America. After that, Raven Software workers unionized, becoming the first union within major AAA company. BioWare workers, Blizzard Albany QA workers, and most recently, Zenimax QA workers followed suit.