Filing and memo: Unity Software plans to lay off ~25% of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs, by the end of March 2024, its largest layoff ever and affecting all teams
Videogame software provider Unity Software (U.N) will target laying off approximately 25% of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs …
The scale matters because Unity is reducing capacity across all teams while attempting to concentrate on its core business. Later coverage of weaker underlying revenue growth and reduced guidance makes the breadth of the restructuring more consequential.
First-order effects
About 1,800 Unity employees across all teams face job losses by the end of March, making this the company’s largest reported workforce reduction.
Unity must reallocate work, product ownership, and customer support across a substantially smaller organization as it pursues its stated core-business focus.
Second-order effects
Developers and enterprise customers that depend on Unity products may face changing account coverage, support continuity, or product roadmaps as teams are consolidated.
The cut reinforces pressure to prioritize businesses with clearer strategic fit, extending the logic of Unity’s earlier move away from the Wētā FX services arrangement.
Third-order effects
If repeated reductions continue to accompany strategic refocusing, Unity’s operating model could shift toward a narrower platform company with less capacity for adjacent services and experimentation.
For game-software suppliers, the episode underscores a broader discipline: platform scale alone does not insulate companies from restructuring when revenue performance and cost structure diverge.
The trend: Unity’s layoffs are part of a platform-company reset trend in which software vendors narrow product scope and reduce organizational complexity to align costs with core demand.
When you have a guy like Riccitiello running things focused on boosting stock, rather than building a product people use, the metrics for success shift — as do the hirings you prioritize and a bunch of other things.
In the upcoming earnings season, we'll witness hand-to-hand combat on the part of C-Suite executives to win the competition to maximize cost-cutting to shore up bottom lines in the face of impaired top-line growth. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/...
And we continue where 2023 left off. 25% - 1800(!) people. Even though Ricitello has stepped down, we must not forget there is a board and shareholders that let him take bets on people's livelihoods. And you can be sure they're not the ones who will see their jobs cut.
Unity plans to lay off 1800 employees (25% of workers) as part of a company reset. This is in addition to 1100 workers laid off in 2023. Unity's business model didn't scale to their aspirations and its scary to think what happens to gaming if they fail. https://www.reuters.com/..…
Once again: If you're ass deep in a Unity project it may be an massive costly pain to swap, but swapping now is better than the alternative. https://twitter.com/...
Brutal. Did every one of them individually fuck up, or did maybe someone somewhere in the C-suite make a booboo? If you can't figure out exactly who it was, just fire 25% of them. Rec Room still has some dev job openings, and we're a Unity/C# shop.
New: Unity now says it will cut 1,800 employees, or 25% of its workforce. Been a very tough year for workers at the company. Full story incoming. [image]
Thoughts on Unity layoffs (and the general layoffs happening in the industry). 1/ 1. Money got expensive. For years, companies could borrow money nearly for free, and this fueled massive expansion. That is no longer the case, hense a contraction.