Unity announced that it will be laying off 25% of its workforce – approximately 1,800 employees – by March 2024. Read on to learn more about the situation, Unity’s history of layoffs, and this harrowing trend in the video game industry.
Unity to Lay Off 1800 Employees
Refers to it as Part of a "Company Reset"
New year, same old trends. Unity just announced in a regulatory filing published on Monday that it intends to lay off a large portion of its staff in accordance with company restructuring efforts. It’s a move being referred to as a "company reset" in its previous round of layoffs just a few weeks prior. The job cuts will be affecting roughly 25% of the company’s workforce, or a whopping 1,800 jobs across its many facets.
"We are reducing the number of things we are doing in order to focus on our core business and drive our long-term success and profitability," said Unity CEO Jim Whitehurst in an internal memo.
This would be the game engine maker’s fourth and largest round of layoffs so far, following a trend that’s been hounding the company – and the industry as a whole – since 2022. Unity expects to have the layoffs done by March 2024 and, as confirmed by the company, will affect all teams, regions, and areas of the business.
While Whitehurst has not provided additional information regarding the "company reset," a Unity spokesperson has confirmed that there will be more changes coming for the company and its assets.
In The Wake of Unity’s Backlash and Previous Layoffs
Unity Software is no stranger to making headlines for its decisions as of late. In addition to the numerous layoffs it’s announced so far, Unity also rocked the industry in late 2023 when its attempt at changing the monetization scheme for its game engine was met with uproarious disapproval from the gaming community, both developers and gamers.
The company’s current interim CEO, Jim Whitehurst, succeeded Unity’s CEO at the time of controversy, John Riccitiello, who stepped down a month after the entire ordeal. Despite the outcry, Unity stopped short of removing the runtime fees completely, opting instead to roll back its most controversial aspects. This debacle only contributed to the company’s instability, which may have prompted the need for a "company reset," though that much has not been confirmed.
Continuing 2023’s Grim Trend of Sweeping Industry Layoffs
Despite the hopes of many developers, gamers, and game companies, it seems that 2024 brought no shelter from the worrying trend that’s been plaguing the industry for almost 2 years now. 2023 saw sweeping layoffs across the board, even for industry giants like EA, Sony, Riot, Blizzard, and Epic Games. Many lesser-known developers like Ascendant Studios, Crystal Dynamics, Striking Distance, Frontier Developments, and Team17 also followed suit.
Though the reasons for each company’s round of layoffs varied, a few were common among them. One of the more notable reasons is a need to recoup losses from failed releases, as was the case with Ascendant Studios and their flopped release for Immortals of Aveum.
It’s quite clear that this trend will continue through 2024. What remains to be seen now is to what extent it would spread across the industry this time around.
Source:
Exclusive: Unity Software to cut 25% of staff in ‘company reset’ continuation
