The Unity company, known for its very popular game engine among independents, announces the elimination of 1,800 positions. The crisis in video games continues.
The year 2023 was marked by the opening of a profound crisis for video game workers. Despite ever-increasing profits for the sector and the release of numerous successful games, the studios have in turn carried out waves of layoffs. Unfortunately the change of year has not stemmed this trend, far from it.
This time, it is the turn of the company Unity, known for the game engine of the same name, which announces the layoff of 25% of its workforce, or 1,800 employees.
The famous “reset”
Unity has been going through its own crisis for several months. In September, at the same time as the announcement of the iPhone 15, the company unilaterally announced a change in business model and a new contract for developers using its engine. A few days later, faced with the outcry, she was forced to backtrack and her boss was fired.
It is in this context that the new interim boss, Jim Whitehurst, announced a first wave of layoffs, of 265 employees at that time, to provoke a “reset» of the company.
In recent years, Unity has tried to follow the path set by Unreal Engine, its main competitor, by making investments in other areas of creation such as cinema, without success. This “reset» is a desire from management to focus again on its core business.
Behind this term also hides a clear cut in the company’s budgets, to the point of pushing its employees to stay teleworking to save on canteen costs. In November, Unity had already closed 14 of its offices around the world, including those located in Singapore and Berlin.
Ultimately, Unity continues to follow the strategy laid out by the Unreal Engine. At the end of 2023, its publisher Epic Games was one of the biggest culprits in the industry for layoffs, more than 800 positions were affected.