Unity is “likely” to lay off staff in the coming months

While they haven’t happened yet, Unity has recently said it is “likely” to lay off some of its staff in the coming months.

It has been an incredibly rough year for the games industry when it comes to layoffs, and it sounds like things aren’t going to get better any time soon. As spotted by The Verge, Unity published its Q3 earnings report earlier this week, which wrote to shareholders about its third quarter results, as well as plans for the company. The letter explains that Unity has “started a comprehensive assessment of our product portfolio to focus on those products that are most valuable to our customers,” and it’s “evaluating the right cost structure that aligns with the more focused portfolio.” It goes on to explain that this will “likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint.”

The letter notes that the “exact timing of these interventions is difficult to estimate,” but did also write it expects to start implementing its cost structure plan “before the end of the first quarter of 2024,” so presumably by March next year. There wasn’t any indication where roles might be cut at the company, but the bottom line is a large number of staffers at Unity are likely feeling understandably stressed right now.

Back in September, Unity announced it would be introducing a fee that meant developer’s would have to pay the game engine maker every single time a game is installed, which would retroactively affect games made in Unity, as well as any future games made with the engine. It was immediately met with backlash from many devs across the industry, and led to the company’s now former CEO John Riccitiello stepping down from the role. Plans for the fee were also altered, meaning any games that make less than $1 million in 12 months won’t be affected.