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Sega of America's Employees File to Form New AEGIS Union in Irvine, California

Workers at Sega of America's Irvine, California office have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Monday. The new union is named the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS), and it includes 144 employees, a majority of the office's staff, across different departments: quality assurance, localization, live service, marketing, and product development. This makes AEGIS the first video game union in the U.S. featuring workers across several departments.

AEGIS is partnered with Communications Workers of America (CWA) and its Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE).

Sega of America's Irvine, California office opened in 2022.

Sega is known for multiple game franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakuza, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, and Virtua Fighter.

Sega of America finalized its acquisition of Atlus USA in 2016. Sega now publishes all of Atlus USA's games in North America. Although Sega has the publishing rights to Atlus, Sega stated at the time of the acquisition that the the two companies would continue to work independently.

Sega is planning to acquire the Finland-based Rovio Entertainment Oyj mobile game company (Angry Birds) through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sega Europe Limited and Sega Sammy Holdings, with Rovio valued at EUR706 million (about US$776 million). The acquisition is a friendly takeover, and Rovio's board of directors has agreed to and expressed support for the offer. The tender offer will commence on or about May 8.

Update: Updated title.

Sources: AEGIS's Twitter account, The Verge (Ash Parrish)