Unity, the company behind the popular game development engine of the same name, recently laid off hundreds of employees, multiple sources report kotaku.
Founded in the mid-2000s, Unity is used by thousands of developers. You’ve almost certainly seen the logo on the loading screens of some of your favorite or least favorite games. In 2014, former EA boss John Riccitiello took over the management. (2020 Riccitiello allegedly saw his equalizing jump 160 percent to $22 million.) The company employed 3,300 people as of June 2020, according to its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, although that of the company LinkedIn and glass door Pages put this number north of 5,000.
Layoffs have ravaged Unity’s offices around the world. tell sources kotaku that pretty much every corner of the company has been hit in some way, although there is a concentration in the AI and engineering departments. On BlindUnity officials say about 300 or 400 employees have been laid off, and layoffs are ongoing, on the anonymous messaging board commonly used by workers in the tech industry. kotaku‘s sources have said the same thing.
Those who lost their jobs this week were asked by their bosses to suddenly log on to a video call without first knowing what the call was about. However, on some of those calls, a member of Unity’s human resources department also logged into the meeting. (In situations like this, it’s usually pretty clear what that means.)
If you’re familiar with layoffs at Unity and would like to chat with us, either officially or confidentially, my inbox is always open: anotis@kotaku.com (Signal and proton on request).
Unity will continue to pay those who have been laid off for a month and will offer an additional month of severance pay and COBRA health insurance after that. Affected employees can also apply for other vacancies in the company. But here’s the rub: The company has reportedly enacted a hiring freeze across all departments.
Unity has been a “shit show” lately, said a person familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals kotaku. Attrition. Mismanagement. Strategic pivots at a rapid, unpredictable rate. Unity has also been on a bit of an acquisition spree lately. Last year, Unity bought the digital effects studio Weta– founded by film director Peter Jackson and known for his work on the avatar and Lord of the rings Movies – for $1.62 billion. In August, Unity acquired Parsecthat uses cloud technology to allow users to stream video games for $320 million.
Two weeks ago, during an all-hands in front of about 3,000 full-time Unity employees, Riccitiello assured employees that the company was not facing any financial difficulties and that Unity would not be laying anyone off, according to sources who were present.
Unity officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Even after all the chaos, some of us chose to stay true to work,” a source said kotaku. “It seems like our loyalty has become a liability.”