Unity Software to dismiss quarter of staff

Fourth round of redundancies in a year

Unity Software will lay off 1,800 employees as part of a corporate restructure.

The layoffs will hit about 25% of Unity's global employees, following a difficult year for the firm.

Unity has conducted three rounds of layoffs in the last year, including cutting 600 roles in May 2023, a move intended to help generate "long-term and profitable growth."

In September the company made a controversial change to its pricing structure that would see developers charged a flat fee per game download, rather than per purchase.

Unity had to backtrack and make sweeping changes to its announcement that same month, which still went down like a lead balloon with the developer community.

In November John Riccitiello, who became CEO in 2014, retired and was replaced by James Whitehurst, formerly of Red Hat, in an interim role.

All of these changes cut the company's share value by nearly 50% between July and the end of October. It also failed to meet analysts' earning expectations in its Q3 revenue filings.

The 1,800 dismissals just announced, the largest round in Unity's history, are part of a corporate restructuring plan, according to a regulatory filing. It added that it is unable to "reasonably estimate the costs and charges in connection with this reduction, which it expects will be substantially incurred in the first quarter of 2024."

More than 1 million developers use Unity today, including the makers of popular titles like Hearthstone, Pokémon Go, Hollow Knight and Outer Wilds.