BELLEVUE, Wash. — The video game giant Unity Technologies will lay off around 25% of its workforce, impacting employees in Bellevue, according to a new filing.
San Francisco-based Unity is best known for its game engine, which is used for a majority of mobile games and some of gaming’s biggest titles including Pokémon Go, Call of Duty Mobile and Among Us.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Unity will lay off 1,800 employees
“as it restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth.”
The layoffs will impact 50 employees located in Bellevue, according to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.
The layoffs come after more than 250 employees were laid off in November and a leadership transition was announced.
The restructure comes after a tumultuous year where the company received backlash over its plans to change the terms and services for developers licensing its engine.
Unity announced the changes in a now-deleted September blog post on its website. GeekWire reported that the changes would’ve included a new fee structure for developers licensing Unity’s engine. The fee structure could’ve potentially cost developers tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases more than it cost to develop the game itself. The changes have since been reversed.
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