Unity, the company behind the popular game development engine of the same name, has recently laid off hundreds of workers, several sources told Kotaku.
Founded in the mid-2000s, Unity is used by thousands of developers; You’ve almost certainly seen their logo appear on the loading screens of some of your favorite (or least favorite) games. In 2014, former EA chief John Riccitiello took over as CEO. (In 2020, Riccitiello saw its compensation increase by 160 percent to $ 22 million.) The company employed 3,300 people in June 2020, according to its IPO on the Stock Exchange Commission. and Values, though the company’s LinkedIn and Glassdoor pages point to that figure. north of 5,000.
The layoffs have affected Unity offices around the world. Sources tell Kotaku that almost every corner of the company has had some sort of impact, although there is a concentration in the AI and engineering departments. At Blind, the anonymous messaging board commonly used by technology industry employees, Unit employees say about 300 or 400 people have been laid off and layoffs are still ongoing. Kotaku sources have said the same.
Their bosses asked those who lost their jobs this week to suddenly start a video call, without warning of what the call was about. But for some of those calls, a member of Unity’s human resources department also logged into the meeting. (In these situations, it’s usually pretty clear what that means.)
If you know of the layoffs at Unity and would like to chat, either on or off the register, my inbox is always open: anotis@kotaku.com (Signal and Proton on request).
Unity continues to pay those who have been fired for a month and offers one more month of compensation and COBRA health coverage after that. Affected staff are also eligible to apply for other jobs open to the company. But here’s the problem: the company has enacted a freeze on hiring in all departments.
Unity has been a “shit show” lately, a person familiar with the situation told Kotaku, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals. Wear. Bad management. Strategic pivots at a fast and unpredictable pace. Unity has also been doing some acquisition lately. Last year, Unity bought the Weta digital effects studio, founded by film director Peter Jackson and known for his work in the films Avatar and The Lord of the Rings, for $ 1.62 billion. In August, Unity acquired Parsec, which leverages cloud technology to allow users to play video games, for $ 320 million.
Two weeks ago, during a plenary session in front of about 3,000 full-time Unity employees, Riccitiello assured employees that the company had no financial problems and that Unity would not fire anyone, according to sources who attended.
Unit representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Even after all the chaos, some of us chose to be loyal to the job,” a source told Kotaku. “It looks like our loyalty became a responsibility.”