Big Layoffs at Unity Continue a Trend That Exploded in 2023
The topic of layoffs in the game industry unfortunately hasn't left us in 2024. The latest company to announce major job cuts is Unity.
Last year was filled with reports of layoffs in the gaming industry and unfortunately, everything indicates that things will remain the same in 2024. The latest company to join this unfortunate trend is Unity, creators of the popular game engine.
- Unity will lay off about 1800 people, which constitutes 25% of the company's total workforce. This is not the first employment reduction in this company. In November last year, 265 employees said goodbye to their jobs. Layoffs were also conducted in May and January.
- The last few months have been difficult for Unity - last year, changes were announced in the engine's licensing system, which would significantly increase the fees for using it for most developers. The developers' reaction was so bad that the idea was eventually withdrawn.
Mass layoffs in the industry
Layoffs at Unity are part of a broader and already quite long trend. In 2023, a total of over 10,000 people were laid off in the gaming industry, which is 22% more than in 2022. The scale of this is well demonstrated by the report by Dekaf, currently employed at Riot Games.
- Of these layoffs, 52% were in companies from the USA.
- 60% of layoffs took place in devteams owned by publishers.
- At least 28 development studios have been closed. The largest of them was Volition.
The largest layoffs were conducted in 2023 by the following companies
Company | Number of employees laid off in 2023 |
Electronic Arts | 1120 |
Unity | 1165 |
Bytedance | 1000 |
Embracer | 962 |
Epic Games | 830 |
Bytedance, the owner of TikTok, announced its desire to discontinue its gaming activities. Of all the Asian companies, it was this company that made the most layoffs.
In turn, reductions in the Embracer group accounted for half of all layoffs in European gaming-related companies in 2023. In the USA, the "leader" was Unity.
Dekaf expects that in the year 2024 we will witness further layoffs and the plans just announced by Unity seem to confirm this. We can expect further reductions in the Embracer group. Moreover, Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard will most likely also lead to layoffs.
