Unity to lay off 1,800 staff as it continues company reset | Pocket Gamer.biz
Unity will lay off approximately 1,800 staff as part of its ongoing restructuring plans, the company said in a regulatory filing today.
The redundancies amount to a loss of 25% of its entire global workforce.
Unity said it aimed to refocus on its core business and “position itself for long-term and profitable growth”. Most of the job losses will take place during Q1, it added.
Reuters reports the latest round of layoffs will impact all teams, regions and areas of the business.
String of redundancies
In November new interim CEO Jim Whitehurst said the company was undergoing a “comprehensive assessment” and likely to conduct layoffs, discontinue products and close offices amid what he called a “painful” reset for the firm.
By the end of November, Unity said it was cutting 265 jobs and terminating its deal with Lord of the Rings VFX studio Weta.
In May last year, Unity slashed 600 jobs, with some of the job cuts attributed to its merger with IronSource.
Runtime fee fallout
The latest round of layoffs come after Unity’s runtime fee controversy in September last year as the company looked to find a way to become profitable. The firm wanted to charge developers for installs after passing certain revenue and download thresholds.
The announcement sparked a backlash, with the company altering the proposed new business model – while keeping the runtime fee – and then CEO John Riccitiello leaving the firm within a month of the fallout.
