Unity announces “likely” layoffs to save costs

It’s probably not management that’s getting cut

Marco Wutz | Nov 10, 2023

Unity announces “likely” layoffs to save costs /

Things are not getting better for game engine developer Unity in terms of news: After it tried to push through a disastrous new pricing policy earlier this year, which led to a massive backlash from the games industry, and the subsequent retirement of CEO John Riccitiello, it announced that it’ll “likely” implement layoffs as part of a pre-emptive cost-cutting programme.

Unity stated this in its latest earnings report, which shows that the company’s revenue fell within expectations in the previous quarter. However, to improve “profitability metrics” some measures would need to be implemented, among them potential layoffs and an assessment of the product portfolio. The resulting measures will “likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint.”

Unity's 2023 has been a messy one, to say the least, and it's been entirely self-inflicted by management / Unity

While Unity eventually relented and adjusted its pricing model as a result of the public backlash its initial plans received, many developers’ trust in the company is completely broken after this entire affair, which is very likely going to hurt the game engine maker in the long run – plans to switch to rival engines have been communicated by several big indie developers, some directly financing open-source competitors through crowdfunding programs.

If there have to be layoffs, one would hope that the first people in the crosshairs are those who pushed for the catastrophic pricing changes, as they are the ones responsible for hurting the company’s reputation and future revenue the most. Sadly, experience tells us that that likely won’t be the case and it’ll be regular staff, many members of which warned management about the consequences of its terrible plans, who’ll bear the brunt of the cuts.

For now, there is still hope that job cuts won’t be necessary and saving measures in other areas will be enough.

Published Nov 10, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg