Kotaku initially reported the news of the game development engine company. Unity has since released a statement to Protocol acknowledging four percent of its workforce is impacted, which Protocol estimates at roughly over 200 workers. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer Newscast: What can Sony do to improve PlayStation Plus Premium?
“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,” reads the statement. “This resulted in some hard decisions that impacted approximately four percent of all Unity workforce. We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Unity and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.” Kotaku reports there is a concentration of layoffs in the AI and engineering departments. The layoffs have been sudden, although Unity is continuing to pay those affected for a month with a further month of severance pay. Staff are also eligible to apply for other jobs at Unity, although the company has reportedly enacted a hiring freeze. One anonymous source described Unity to Kotaku as a “shit show”. The company last year bought Peter Jackson’s digital effects studio Weta for $1.62bn, as well as cloud tech company Parsec for $320m. Two weeks ago, CEO John Riccitiello told staff in a company-wide meeting Unity was not in financial trouble and layoffs would not be happening, according to a Kotaku source.
