Unity to lay off 25% of its staff
Unity is to lay off approximately 25% of its current workforce – around 1,800 jobs in total – as it “restructures and refocuses on its core business”.
The layoffs were revealed in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, with Unity telling the Reuters news agency that they will affect all teams, regions and areas of the business.
The latest and deepest of a recent series of job cuts at Unity
The layoffs are the latest and deepest of the recent series of job cuts at Unity.
The past six months have been a turbulent period in the firm’s history, with the controversial new runtime fee for the Unity game engine having prompted a backlash among game developers, which was followed by a fall in share price and sudden retirement of CEO John Riccitiello.
In November, the firm ended its professional services agreement with VFX facility Wētā FX, laying off 265 staff involved in developing Weta’s in-house tools, which Unity acquired in 2021.
Part of a move to refocus on Unity’s core business in the game development market
When we spoke to Unity at the time, the firm referred us to a shareholder letter issued by interim CEO Jim Whitehurst, in which he described Unity as “currently doing too much” and announcing the intention to “focus on those products that are most valuable to our customers”.
The letter noted that the company ‘reset’, which it expects to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2024 will “likely include discontinuing certain product offerings” as well as job cuts.
We’ve contacted Unity to ask if the layoffs will affect development of the other DCC tools it has acquired from outside its core market of game development, and will update if we hear back.
Updated: Unity provided a general statement confirming the layoffs, but declined to comment on how or whether the latest job cuts would affect specific products.
Read Unity’s SEC filing announcing its plans to lay off approximately 25% of its workforce
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