Unity unites the indie game industry against its new pricing model – The Verge

Unity’s struggles continue with fresh wave of layoffs

2025-02-11T11:41:44-05:00

Unity has been hit with another round of layoffs. This is according to posts on LinkedIn from recently laid off staff and confirmed by reporting from Game Developer and 80.lvl. According to reports, employees were notified via emails sent out at 5 AM local time, while the layoffs affect a number of different teams within the the game engine software company. According to a message posted in the Unity forums, one of the casualties in the layoffs was the entire Behavior department which built tools that assisted in NPC scripting. It's not clear at this point how many employees were impacted.

Unity has been on shaky ground for the last two yea …

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Unity attempts to turn things around with its latest game engine release

2024-10-17T14:49:16-04:00

Unity hasn't had the easiest go of things as of late, but as part of its efforts to get back in the good graces of game developers, the company has released Unity 6 globally. In addition to new features like tools that let developers to target mobile web, the game engine maker is also promising that it will dedicate "long-term" resources to "to enhance feature sets and deliver new functionality while maintaining ease of upgrade and continued stability," according to a press release.

Unity is a widely-used game development engine powering games like Among Us, Hollow Knight, and many more, but the release of Unity 6 follows a turbulent period …

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Unity has eliminated its controversial runtime fee

2024-09-12T13:22:01-04:00

One year to the day since Unity announced its runtime fee pricing model, the software developer is canceling that program effective immediately. "After extensive consultation with our games community and customers, we've decided to cancel the Runtime Fee," said Unity CEO Matt Bromberg in the blog post announcing the news. Instead of the runtime fee, Unity will return to a per-seat subscription model.

Last year, Unity caused a stir within the game development community with a controversial update to its pricing model. Instead of charging developers a set monthly rate based on the number of users utilizing the software, it would implement a p …

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Major Nelson is joining Unity

2024-06-17T13:50:25-04:00

Larry Hryb, aka "Major Nelson," has his next job. Following his departure from Microsoft last year, where he was a public face for the Xbox brand, Hryb will be joining Unity's Community team, he announced on Monday.

At Microsoft, he, among other things, hosted the Official Xbox Podcast and posted about Xbox to his large following on X. On LinkedIn, he lists his new job title as "Director of Community," and based on a LinkedIn post, it seems like he'll still be a brand ambassador in some form.

"Unity's mission of empowering creative and business success of creators around the world across games, apps, and experiences aligns with my lifelong …

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Unity is laying off 25 percent of its staff

2024-01-08T18:00:47-05:00

Unity is undergoing yet another layoff, and this time it's going to affect about 25 percent of its entire workforce, or around 1,800 employees. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company, which makes the popular game engine Unity, said it's making the cuts "as it restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth."

Unity has been through several rounds of layoffs within the past year, with the most recent one affecting 265 workers last November. However, it's still not clear whether Unity is cutting 1,800 additional workers on top of the layoffs it announced …

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Unity is probably going to do layoffs

2023-11-09T18:19:18-05:00

In its Q3 earnings report published Thursday, game development software company Unity announced that it will "likely" be implementing layoffs as part of broader cost saving measures.

In the report, the company says it is assessing its product portfolio "to focus on those products that are most valuable to our customers" and is "evaluating the right cost structure that aligns with the more focused portfolio." It plans to make changes during the fourth quarter, and they will "likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint." The company expects to complete its changes before th …

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Unity’s CEO is out, but that still may not be enough for developers

2023-10-10T14:50:34-04:00

Unity's CEO is out, but that may not matter for game developers frustrated with the company.

John Riccitiello has announced he is retiring from his role as the CEO of beleaguered game engine software company Unity. Riccitiello, who previously held the top job at Electronic Arts when it was voted the worst company in America and had some controversial ideas about game monetization, will retire as CEO effective immediately but remain as a Unity employee until April 2024.

Earlier last month, Unity announced it would change its pricing model, making developers pay for games on a per-install basis once certain revenue and download thresholds we …

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John Riccitiello is out at Unity, effective immediately

2023-10-09T17:00:54-04:00

Unity, the company behind the game development engine of the same name, has just announced that its president, CEO, and chairman John Riccitiello "will retire" effective immediately.

"The Board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO," reads the press release, adding that James Whitehurst will step in as interim CEO, president, and board member. "Mr. Riccitiello will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition."

Notably, Unity's new interim CEO is an outsider: Whitehurst is an advisor at Silver Lake, a private equity firm that owns about 9 …

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Unity finally addressed developers’ biggest questions about its new pricing model

2023-09-25T17:18:55-04:00

After Unity announced, then modified, then reannounced its new runtime fee program, the video game development community wanted to know how and why this disastrous rollout happened. In addition to the letter Unity Create president Marc Whitten published on Friday, he also held a live fireside chat on YouTube in which he addressed some of the community's biggest questions and concerns.

One of the first things Whitten did, both in his letter and during the chat, was offer an apology.

"I just wanna say I'm sorry," Whitten said in his Q&A with Jason Weimann, a YouTube creator known for his Unity tutorials. "It's very clear that we did not take …

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Unity announces its revamped pricing model

2023-09-22T13:51:08-04:00

A little more than a week after announcing a disastrous new pricing model that infuriated developers, Unity has introduced its revamped version.

The new plan is a drastic departure from what was initially announced. Now, users on the Unity Personal subscription plan will not be charged the new fee, and Unity will increase the revenue cap on games made with that plan to $200,000.

Furthermore, any game made with Unity that makes less than $1 million in 12 months will not be subject to the fee.

The company is also changing what games can be assessed with the new fee. Previously, the fee would have applied to all games that met the specific d …

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