Game engine provider Unity is moving to reduce its workforce by laying off a quarter of its staff just days into 2024.
The move that will see 1,800 employees left jobless was first revealed in a regulatory filing and internal company memo as shared by Reuters on Monday, Jan. 8. The decision comes as part of a “company reset” months after the company received huge backlash for a failed pricing model change in September. In November, Unity shared that layoffs were likely coming—and now it seems they have.
The controversial pricing change that was proposed would have seen developers charged each time purchasers installed their game, rather than the annual fee for Unity’s services which is in place today. As you’d expect this was met with heavy backlash and ultimately was scrapped shortly after its announcement. During this time many devs spoke up against Unity for this proposal with some voicing their decision to move away from the service completely.
This round of firings is expected to be completed by April. Despite layoffs in the gaming industry becoming more common and this being the fourth for Unity since 2022, this will be the biggest that the company has had in its history. It’s set to impact all teams and regions across the company.
In the internal memo shared Monday, as cited by Reuters, Unity CEO Jim Whitehurst says the company will be shifting its focus to the core business to “drive long-term success and profitability,” but no specifics were shared as to what this change will look like structurally. That being the case, Reuters confirmed with a spokesperson from Unity that there are additional changes on the way.
The sad news of these upcoming layoffs at Unity adds to the growing number of talents in the video game industry left jobless. During 2023 around 9,000 workers in the industry lost their jobs across a variety of companies.
