Unity to slash 25% of workforce under former Red Hat CEO Whitehurst
(2024/01/09)
- Reference: 1704801975
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/09/unity_to_slash_25_percent/
- Source link:
Video game software company Unity is laying off a quarter of its workforce, it confirmed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
The layoffs will affect "approximately" 1,800 employees, and the company [1]said the cuts were happening "as it restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth."
Unity said it couldn't currently reasonably estimate costs associated with the layoff, mostly related to employee transition, severance payments, and employee benefits, but it expects them to be "substantial" and to play out during the first quarter of 2024.
[2]
At the helm of Unity, whose software toolkit is used by the likes of [3]Pokemon Go , Cuphead, Heartstone, Hollow Knight, and other popular games, is former Red Hat CEO James M Whitehurst. [4]Whitehurst joined in October last year.
[5]Unity CEO 'retires' in the wake of fee fiasco
[6]Red Hat greases migration to RHEL for CentOS 7 holdouts
[7]Unity apologizes, tweaks runtime install fees after gaming world outrage
[8]Pokémon Go was a 'success disaster' and Niantic is still chasing another hit
Whitehurst is serving as interim CEO after the company [9]reneged on a promise to never charge developers per-install fees for games created with its tools, which effectively amounted to charging royalties on each sale of a game.
The move faced so much [10]backlash that Unity [11]mostly reversed the decision.
[12]
The size of the install fee was expected to be as high as 20 cents, but varied depending on the circumstances. The revised policy dictated that Runtime Fees only applied to games made using Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise, were also created or upgraded to the next major Unity version releasing in 2024, met a $1 million in last year gross revenue threshold, and garnered 1 million lifetime initial engagements.
Unity may have already made a round of cuts under Whitehurst. In November, the company said it would slash 265 jobs, which may or may not be included in the 1,800 total detailed in the SEC filing. ®
[13]
The Register has reached out to Unity for comments and clarification and will update if a substantial response arises. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080624000006/unity-20240108.htm
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/01/pokemon_go_success_disaster/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/rhel_insights_conversion_tool/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/unity_apologizes_announces_revised_runtime/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/01/pokemon_go_success_disaster/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/15/unity_runtime_fee_backlash/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/unity_apologizes_announces_revised_runtime/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The layoffs will affect "approximately" 1,800 employees, and the company [1]said the cuts were happening "as it restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth."
Unity said it couldn't currently reasonably estimate costs associated with the layoff, mostly related to employee transition, severance payments, and employee benefits, but it expects them to be "substantial" and to play out during the first quarter of 2024.
[2]
At the helm of Unity, whose software toolkit is used by the likes of [3]Pokemon Go , Cuphead, Heartstone, Hollow Knight, and other popular games, is former Red Hat CEO James M Whitehurst. [4]Whitehurst joined in October last year.
[5]Unity CEO 'retires' in the wake of fee fiasco
[6]Red Hat greases migration to RHEL for CentOS 7 holdouts
[7]Unity apologizes, tweaks runtime install fees after gaming world outrage
[8]Pokémon Go was a 'success disaster' and Niantic is still chasing another hit
Whitehurst is serving as interim CEO after the company [9]reneged on a promise to never charge developers per-install fees for games created with its tools, which effectively amounted to charging royalties on each sale of a game.
The move faced so much [10]backlash that Unity [11]mostly reversed the decision.
[12]
The size of the install fee was expected to be as high as 20 cents, but varied depending on the circumstances. The revised policy dictated that Runtime Fees only applied to games made using Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise, were also created or upgraded to the next major Unity version releasing in 2024, met a $1 million in last year gross revenue threshold, and garnered 1 million lifetime initial engagements.
Unity may have already made a round of cuts under Whitehurst. In November, the company said it would slash 265 jobs, which may or may not be included in the 1,800 total detailed in the SEC filing. ®
[13]
The Register has reached out to Unity for comments and clarification and will update if a substantial response arises. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080624000006/unity-20240108.htm
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/01/pokemon_go_success_disaster/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/rhel_insights_conversion_tool/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/unity_apologizes_announces_revised_runtime/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/01/pokemon_go_success_disaster/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/unity_ceo_retires/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/15/unity_runtime_fee_backlash/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/unity_apologizes_announces_revised_runtime/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZ17uX@9QQDde10zCjxVlgAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Binraider
If Unity's objective was longevity, it should never have floated shares.
That it did put a finite lifetime on the organisation, for reasons that if they weren't already obvious, are now coming home.
On the plus side there are a bunch of skilled developers there that can move onto better outfits. Out-unitying unity would be an obvious route to go.
The absolute classic case of how to shoot yourself in the foot. Although in this case, it's probably closer to say that this was Unity shooting themselves in the head rather than the foot.
They were basically the go to Engine for any small to medium sized project (and quite a number of large projects as well). And in one swoop, they killed years of good will. Compounded it by effectively calling their customers freeloaders for not wanting to accept unilateral changes to the pricing. They eventually ditched the old CEO was highly associated with the pricing changes, rowed back most but not all of the changes, and sat back to watch pretty much all of their customers jump ship or pledge to move to other engines after finishing their current games.
This should be rolled out in every Business Management degree, on how NOT to communicate to your customers or implement changes...
Sad for the hard workers at Unity who developed a great Engine, but have seen their idiotic management kill the company...