ShareThis
The layoffs continue to batter the video game industry early in 2024. The latest are coming from SEGA of America, which plans to let go of 61 workers come March. The news was uncovered via a WARN notice filed in Orange County, California on January 8, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. A WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) is a state-mandated 60-day warning given to workers in California whenever there is a facility closure or mass layoffs.
The layoffs are apparently a part of previously-announced efforts by SEGA of America to “phase out temporary workers” by early 2024. Union leaders at Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) are not pleased with the releases and note that they believe these actions “will have a negative impact on the working conditions of those who remain with the company, and in the quality of our future games.” AEGIS was formed just this past July and is one of the largest multi-department unions in the video game industry.
To be clear, these layoffs are impacting SEGA of America employees, which opened its corporate offices in Irvine, California back in December of 2022. At the time, SEGA boasted that the facility can house up to 235 workers—it seems that there will be 61 less of them in the near future. Layoffs continue to be an issue both in the video game industry and the tech sector at large, despite some of these effected companies remaining highly profitable.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
*Shoutout to Liam Wong, whose photograph adorns the masthead of this article. You should totally check out his work.
