Unity Fires More Employees, Informs Affected Via Email At 5 AM, Says Report

Unity Layoffs: Behaviour is a visual tool for creating NPC and object behaviours. According to Nishry's LinkedIn, they developed the tool in their own time before it became a core Unity product

Unity Layoffs: The firm has faced significant instability over the past two years

Source : FreePik

Unity Layoffs: Unity has undergone another round of layoffs, as confirmed by LinkedIn posts from recently laid-off employees, as per the report from Game Developer. Employees were reportedly notified via emails sent at 5 am local time, with several teams across the game engine software company being affected. 

A forum post by Shanee Nishry, the tech lead for the Behavior package, revealed that their entire team was let go in the latest round of layoffs. The Behavior department developed tools for NPC scripting. The exact number of employees affected remains unclear at this time, as per the report.

Behaviour is a visual tool for creating NPC and object behaviours. According to Nishry's LinkedIn, they developed the tool in their own time before it became a core Unity product.

Email Notification

There are several similar accounts, including a post from Unity senior technical artist Peter Roe (spotted by 80.lv), who shared that he was informed his role was being eliminated through an email sent at 5 am from a 'noreply@unity' address, states the report.

"I was impacted by layoffs at Unity today, along with many talented and hardworking colleagues. While this news is tough, I’m incredibly grateful for the nearly three years I spent at the company. That being said, I want to call out the way Unity chose to communicate these layoffs. Receiving a 5 am email from 'noreply@unity' informing me that my role was being 'eliminated' and that I'd lose system access by the end of the day felt completely abrupt and impersonal. Unity must do better in how they treat their workers in hard times like this,” he wrote on LinkedIn, reveals the report.

Difficult Times For Unity

Unity has faced significant instability over the past two years, with multiple rounds of layoffs and other challenges. In January 2024, the company cut 25 per cent of its workforce, amounting to around 1,800 employees. Prior to that, in November 2023, Unity closed several office locations and laid off about 265 workers.

One key event that likely contributed to these layoffs was the company's controversial deployment of its Runtime fee. Initially, this fee aimed to charge developers a small amount for each download of a Unity game. However, the fee was widely rejected by prominent indie developers, with many voicing concerns on social media, and some even boycotting the software, including a collective of mobile developers.

The backlash led Unity to revise the runtime fee, and shortly after, CEO John Riccitiello announced his retirement less than a month following the fee's announcement.

Meanwhile, layoffs are taking place across industries due to financial challenges in recent times. Some of the big firms across sectors including Google, Microsoft, Dell, Meta, HUL and many others have announced layoffs in recent months to streamline business operations.