PostedJuly 1, 2022, 6:28 PM
Known for its eponymous tool for creating video games, the firm Unity has not kept its recent promises and has cut its workforce.
Unity, the popular graphics engine used by thousands of video game developers.
unity/photomontage
Things are going badly at Unity. The publisher of the video game creation engine of the same name ended up confirming to the site Protocol the dismissal of “just over 200 people”, or regarding 4% of its workforce. The information had been fanned by employees accusing their management of having presented in recent weeks “a show of m *”, in particular because of unpredictable management.
“Even following all the chaos, some of us have chosen to be loyal to work,” a source told my box. But our loyalty seems to have become a handicap.” Employees have reported losing their jobs this week following being asked by their bosses to suddenly connect to a video call, without notice of the purpose of the call.
Broken promises
Barely two weeks ago, during a general meeting in front of around 3,000 full-time Unity employees, the big boss, John Riccitiello, a former Electronic Arts employee, had nevertheless assured that the company had not no financial problems and that Unity would not fire anyone.
Last year, Unity engaged in an expensive acquisition campaign. The company has bought the digital effects studio Weta, founded by director Peter Jackson and known for its work on the films “Avatar” and “The Lord of the Rings”, for 1.62 billion dollars. It has also put 320 million on the table to integrate Parsec and its technology allowing users of its video game creation tool to stream them to the cloud.
Unity is used by thousands of developers. It faces competition from Unreal Engine from Epic Games, the publisher of the “Fortnite” game.
(laf)
