Unity lays off hundreds of employees to 'realign' resources

The Unity logo on a phone in front of the Unity logo on a wall.
(Image credit: SOPA Images / Getty)

Unity has laid off 4% of its total workforce, with at least 200 people across the world losing their jobs. 

The exact numbers are still unknown—Unity's total employee count is not provided, though a quarterly report in March 2022 noted that the software developer had 5,864 full-time workers. A report by Kotaku ballparks the number of layoffs at around 300 to 400 employees, with those in the AI and engineering departments taking the biggest hits.

In a statement to PC Gamer, a Unity spokesperson said: "As part of a continued planning process where we regularly assess our resourcing levels against our company priorities, we decided to realign some of our resources to better drive focus and support our long-term growth. This resulted in some hard decisions that impacted approximately 4% of all Unity workforce. We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Unity and we are supporting them through this difficult transition."

Employees who were let go were abruptly pulled into a video call, some of which had a member of HR present. They'll be offered a month's pay and a further month's severance and COBRA health coverage. Kotaku also reports that these employees have been told they're eligible to apply for any other open jobs available, despite allegedly also enacting a hiring freeze across the board.

The layoffs come despite CEO John Riccitello reportedly telling employees two weeks prior that the company was not in any financial trouble and wouldn't be letting anybody go. An anonymous source told Kotaku that Unity has been a "shit show" recently, citing mismanagement and chaotic strategic redirections. 

Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.  

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