Unity fires 200 workers just weeks after promising no lay-offs
A major gaming company has fired about 200 workers, just weeks after the CEO pledged there would be no lay-offs.
Unity, one of the major supporting companies for the games industry, has fired about 200 employees.
The mass sacking comes weeks after the CEO pledged not to lay-off anyone
The news broke via anonymous posts on industry message boards as well as sources speaking to Kotaku, and has now been confirmed by the company in a statement.
According to Kotaku, CEO of Unity John Riccitiello “assured staffers the company was not in any financial trouble, and that Unity wouldn’t be laying anyone off” just two weeks ago. No mention of this is made in Unity’s statement.
The statement is a standard mishmash of corporate words to say the company is “assess[ing] our resourcing levels against our company priorities” and “realign[ing] some of our resources to better drive focus.” It confirms that “approximately 4 per cent of all Unity workforce” were “impacted” in the changes.
Kotaku sources say that those laid off are invited to apply for other roles, though the company is currently in a hiring freeze.
They also described the company as a “s*** show,” citing poor management decision making, high staff turnover, and so on.
Those same sources also suggest lay-offs were higher than what was announced by Unity — meaning up to 400 workers could have been fired.
“Even after all the chaos, a few of us chose to be loyal to the work,” a worker told Kotaku. “It seems like our loyalty became a liability.”
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A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated the company employed 3300 people. A post on LinkedIn indicated the number was more than 5000.
Unity itself develops a self-titled game engine, the tool used as the base for the development of video games.
It’s been used by game developers of all sizes, from the smallest of indies to the likes of Blizzard and Spike Chunsoft on Hearthstone and AI: The Somnium Files.
It also has other departments and commitments, though the game engine business remains by far the largest.
— written by GLHF
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