Unity has laid off 4% of its total workforce, with at least 200 people across the world losing their jobs.
The exact numbers are still unknown—Unity’s total employee count is not provided, though a quarterly report in March 2022 noted that the software developer had 5,864 full-time workers. A report by Kotaku ballparks the number of layoffs at around 300 to 400 employees, with those in the AI and engineering departments taking the biggest hits.
In a statement to PC Gamer, a Unity spokesperson said: “As part of a continued planning process where we regularly assess our resourcing levels against our company priorities, we decided to realign some of our resources to better drive focus and support our long-term growth. This resulted in some hard decisions that impacted approximately 4% of all Unity workforce. We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Unity and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.”
Unity CEO John Riccitiello told employees two weeks ago he wouldn’t be laying anyone off, Kotaku reported.This week, Unity reportedly began laying off hundreds. It won’t respond to requests for comment and it hasn’t said anything publicly about the cuts. https://t.co/3VJQCfaYNSJune 29, 2022
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Employees who were let go were abruptly pulled into a video call, some of which had a member of HR present. They’ll be offered a month’s pay and a further month’s severance and COBRA health coverage. Kotaku also reports that these employees have been told they’re eligible to apply for any other open jobs available, despite allegedly also enacting a hiring freeze across the board.
The layoffs come despite CEO John Riccitello reportedly telling employees two weeks prior that the company was not in any financial trouble and wouldn’t be letting anybody go. An anonymous source told Kotaku that Unity has been a “shit show” recently, citing mismanagement and chaotic strategic redirections.