Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Sega of America workers vote to create biggest game industry union yet

sega-logo
Sega

The workers at Sega are the latest game developers to embrace unionization, as employees at Sega of America have just voted to unionize.

We first learned that workers at Sega of America wanted to unionize in April to improve their pay, benefits, and work hours, per Axios. A group of employees from departments like marketing, localization, testing, and product development began working with the Nation Labor Relations Board and Communication Workers of America to unionize then. Sega of America management decided to voluntarily recognize the group, so the decision for unionization went to a vote.

Recommended Videos

Two hundred Sega of America workers were eligible to vote. According to Kotaku, 91 voted yes, 26 voted no, three ballots were voided, and 19 ballots were challenged. Still, that’s enough for the vote to pass in favor of the formation of the union. 

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“Our 200+ member union is now the largest multi-department union of organized workers in the entire gaming industry,” the union stated on Twitter following the vote. “So excited to celebrate this win & head to the bargaining table w/ Sega to continue building this company we love.” It went on the thank various game unionization efforts that came before it at companies like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media before stating, “We can’t wait to see more workers join us in unionizing their workplace — together, we can ensure EVERY worker wins their fair share!”

This Sega of America union is the latest success in an industry where unionization efforts have become a lot more common. Although Sega of America’s union might just simply seem like the latest of many, its success at that larger scale indicates the potential of unionization to take hold of game companies of all sizes.

Tomas Franzese
A former Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese now reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Sega lays off 240 workers and sells Company of Heroes 3 studio
sega lets relic entertainment go independent company of heroes 3 girl

Sega Europe is going through some major restructuring, and as a result, it is laying off about 240 developers and letting Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment spin off as an independent company.

Although Sega's Japanese developers are known for their platformers, action games, and RPGs, its European output is more strategy game-focused. A key component of that was Relic Entertainment, which has made games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, Age of Empires IV, and Company of Heroes 3 over the past decade. With the help of investment company Emona Capital, Relic is buying itself back from Sega and going independent for an undisclosed amount. Relic addressed going independent on X (formerly Twitter) with a message.

Read more
Amy Hennig’s Captain America and Black Panther video game finally has a title
Captain America and Black Panther clash in Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra footage.

We finally learned the title of the Captain America and Black Panther video game that former Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig is making at Skydance New Media. It's titled Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and will come out sometime next year. This was all revealed during Epic Games' State of Unreal presentation at GDC 2024.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra | Story Trailer

Read more
Starfield, The Elder Scrolls Online devs are voting to unionize
The Starfield title screen.

Over 300 quality assurance testers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax Media have begun to vote on whether or not they should form a union, according to a report by The New York Times.

ZeniMax Media is the parent company of developers like Bethesda Game Studios and Arkane Studios, who are working on some of Xbox's biggest upcoming first-party exclusives like Starfield and Redfall. Specifically, Axios' Stephen Totilo confirmed that the following studios are part of this union vote:

Read more