It was recently revealed that Unity, an industry-leading provider of a top-tier game engine, has taken part in a third round of redundancies, ultimately laying off a further 600 employees. Not only that but there are plans to reduce the firm’s footprint by up to 50%, with the closure of more than 28 offices being rolled out over the next few years.
First reported by the Wall Street Journal, this is the third batch of lay-offs to take place within Unity since June 2022. Back then, more than 500 employees were made redundant, followed by another sizeable round in January 2023. Despite reporting profitable growth last year, it seems that things have slowed down for Unity amidst a drop in share price.
Unity Isn’t So Unified
Let’s be honest – the easiest way these days for firms to reduce their operating costs is to dismiss as many employees as possible. It’s a trend that has unfortunately hit tens of thousands of people in recent months, with some tech firms – such as Microsoft – axing as many as 10,000 jobs in one fell swoop.
Following the round of lay-offs, Unity will reportedly still boast a workforce of around 7,000 employees, according to the article published in the Wall Street Journal. However, this round of redundancies will still wipe out approximately 8% of the company’s employee count. There’s a huge downscaling effort underway, and in the next few years, almost half of Unity’s offices around the world are set to close.
Unity’s engine can be found in some prestigious titles, giving the firm a solid footprint in the industry:
- Sons of the Forest
- Escape From Tarkov
- Call of Duty Mobile
- Pokemon Go
- Genshin Impact
- Fall Guys
- Rust
For all of Unity’s growth and presence, it seems that – as always – more is still needed to become stable. Let’s hope that this is the last round of redundancies for the San Francisco-based firm.
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