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Jan 8 (Reuters) - Videogame software provider Unity Software (U.N) will target laying off approximately 25% of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs, the company said in a regulatory filing and internal company memo on Monday.

This is the San Francisco-based company’s largest layoff ever, with completion expected by the end of March, the company said. While Unity is not widely recognized outside the gaming industry, over 1.1 million game creators rely on its software toolkit each month, including the maker of the popular “Pokemon Go,” “Beat Saber” and “Hearthstone” games.

Monday’s deep job cut will affect all teams, regions and areas of the business, the company told Reuters.

The layoffs come shortly after interim CEO Jim Whitehurst announced a “company reset” in November.

“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,” Whitehurst wrote in the memo to all Unity employees on Monday.

While Whitehurst provided no specifics on structural changes to come, a company spokesperson confirmed there will be additional changes coming. This is the fourth round of layoffs the company has conducted within the last year.

The layoffs and company reset follow a tumultuous period for Unity.

In September last year, the company tried to impose a new “runtime fee” pricing policy, which charged new fees to its game developers if certain revenue and install thresholds were met. Following a developer revolt and a steep dropoff in share price, the company revamped the new fees.

Following the controversy, then-Unity CEO John Riccitiello retired, and the company appointed former IBM president Whitehurst as interim CEO and president and Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha as board chairman.

In November, Whitehurst announced the first part of the company reset, which included terminating an agreement with a visual effects company founded by the “Lord of the Rings” director, closing offices and no longer mandating employees work from offices. Monday’s layoff is the second part of the company reset.

Unity was founded nearly two decades ago by three Danish engineers, and gained popularity among game developers for its “game engine” that makes it simpler to develop and publish games across different platforms, such as via mobile or virtual reality.

It is also used in other industries like film and automotive for 3D visualization and virtual reality. After its IPO in 2020, Unity's stock reached a peak of around $200 in November 2021, but subsequently fell below $30 last year.

Shares have risen since Whitehurst announced the company reset.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/unity-software-cutting-25-staff-company-reset-continuation-2024-01-08/

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Stock is up after hours! lol

I'm no game engine maker, but when we had some Unity chats before in threads last year some people brought up the same thing...... how can Unity have 7,000 employees? And that's official head count. That doesn't even include any contractors working there since those are never counted as formal employees.

 

[Punished Miku]

Someone needs to warn whoever hires Richtocello next. The man must be stopped.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Again? I thought they have laid some people off in 2023

 

[Mr Moose]

Why do they have over 7k people working for them?

 

[ipukespiders]

John Carmack > 7k unity employees

 

[Myths]

Tech is brutal now. For SWE, DS, MLE, even those with minors in related fields.

 

[rofif]

how are they hiring so many people

 

[Del_X]

Sounds like death rattles

 

[Neilg]

how are they hiring so many people

They did an IPO, and needed year over year growth and perpetual expansion to prop up the over-inflated shares.

I knew someone who worked there in a client liaison role, they left already but said it was just the pure stereotype of tech companies, tons of people slipping through the cracks of having actual work to do, just hanging out playing ping pong and eating free snacks, working on personal things on company time.

They're so fucked. the board got greedy and thought 10x the people meant 10x the profit/work done.

 

[fran.fernandez]

How they fire Japan staff with the labor laws here? Luckily I didn’t accept a job at unity Tokyo but is kinda interesting.
Twitter had same issue, they couldn’t fire Japanese staff. (Only year contracts)

 

[Dane]

Stock is up after hours! lol

I'm no game engine maker, but when we had some Unity chats before in threads last year some people brought up the same thing...... how can Unity have 7,000 employees? And that's official head count. That doesn't even include any contractors working there since those are never counted as formal employees.

Reminds me when back in 2011-14 lots of people in my country, Brazil, were studying for Civil Engineering because of the major public construction boost for the World Cup and Olympics, alongside the heated real estate market, it had even surpassed the number of candidates in Medicine in the country's top university, USP. Then the crisis came in in 2014 and the hyped industry fell from a cliff overnight.

Tech has been really hyperinflated with all the hype, people are 150% in because of money and 0% taste with the field itself, its so easy to get hired that I was even told once its a real "life hack". From what i've heard and read, there's a lot of unecessary bureaucracy such as constant meetings for no reason, and alongside corruption where people who lie about their expertise start to convince their higher ups to bring more unnecessary people to projects and get promoted with that.

 

[Griffon]

Why do they have over 7k people working for them?

Exactly.

The layoffs aren't really a shock, it's more like what the fuck were all those people even doing in there?

 

[StereoVsn]

Exactly.

The layoffs aren't really a shock, it's more like what the fuck were all those people even doing in there?

I think a lot of that was because they merged with that ad company. Sales have to always go up because Wall Street.

So out of 7K people probably half or more are folks in ad business, sales, etc… i.e. overhead.

Plus their business model for mobile especially is just pretty bad hence the last attempt to get that under control which backfired spectacularly.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I think a lot of that was because they merged with that ad company. Sales have to always go up because Wall Street.

So out of 7K people probably half or more are folks in ad business, sales, etc… i.e. overhead.

Plus their business model for mobile especially is just pretty bad hence the last attempt to get that under control which backfired spectacularly.

I had to google his since I didnt know they merged with some company. Called Ironsource. 800 employees.

What Is ironSource: About Us | ironSource

ironSource powers the app economy, helping mobile content creators prosper with a leading business platform designed to turn any app into a business. Learn more here

www.is.com

 

[StereoVsn]

I had to google his since I didnt know they merged with some company. Called Ironsource. 800 employees.

What Is ironSource: About Us | ironSource

ironSource powers the app economy, helping mobile content creators prosper with a leading business platform designed to turn any app into a business. Learn more here

www.is.com

Yeah, and they were already onto monetization and ad space bandwagon. So my guess is a lot of these folks are getting let go.

 

[Bkdk]

Great buy signal for their stock!

 

[twilo99]

Exactly.

The layoffs aren't really a shock, it's more like what the fuck were all those people even doing in there?

I think 99% of gaming and “tech” is bloated. I’m sure there a ton of lean start ups, etc. but most established companies are way too heavy.

Most people didn’t realize this until Musk got to Twitter and gutted the thing. Remember all the crying and fud? There were people saying how they won’t be able to function without all these people he let go…

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Someone needs to warn whoever hires Richtocello next. The man must be stopped.

He fucked Unity and himself. That's quite a feat!

 

[RedC]

So much for unity.