2024 is starting off on a dour note for workers at Unity. The company, whose proprietary software is utilized in part to develop engines for countless games the world over, has been having a rough go of things following a disastrous 2023. In brief, Unity irked many developers with word of a “runtime fee” which would have been incredibly costly for creators. Although the company tried its best to reframe the situation, backlash was swift, loud, and unavoidable.
The result was the departure of the company’s CEO and president, John Riccitiello, and now, it seems, the problem is going to be directly impacting staff. 25 percent of workers at Unity will be laid off by this coming March. The information was revealed in a regulatory filing, as reported by Reuters. The layoffs are the largest ever for the company. It’s sad news for the people at Unity who will be hit by this “company reset,” as Unity describes it, and there will apparently be other changes down the line.
Unity is one of the biggest players in the world of video game software, right up there with Unreal Engine as a premier platform for developers to produce new software. We’ll continue to keep you all in the loop as we learn more about the impact on Unity following these layoffs, as well as how this might impact the video game industry in the future.
Source: Reuters