Report: Unity continues mass layoffs with 'abrupt' communications and 5am emailsReport: Unity continues mass layoffs with 'abrupt' communications and 5am emails

Unity has spent $205 million laying off 25 percent of its workforce this fiscal year and it looks like the company isn't finished yet.

Multiple reports from (now former) Unity employees indicate the engine maker is continuing to axe roles across its business.

A forum post from Behavior package tech lead, Shanee Nishry, stated their entire team had been cut during another round of layoffs.

Behavior is a visual tool for authoring behaviors used to control NPCs and objects. According to Nishry's Linkedin page, they created the tool on their own personal time before it evolved into a core Unity product.

Nishry said they have asked Unity to open source the tool but it's unclear whether that request will be granted.

Unity lead game designer, André de Miranda Cardoso, explained they were also impacted by a layoff round that occurred "suddenly."

5am layoff emails and other poor communication from Unity

There are more testimonies like those, including a post from Unity senior technical artist Peter Roe (spotted by 80.lv) who said he was told his role was being eliminated via an email sent at 5am from a 'noreply@unity' address.

"I was impacted by layoffs at Unity today, along with many talented and hardworking colleagues. While this news is tough, I’m incredibly grateful for the nearly three years I spent at the company," he wrote on Linkedin.

"That being said, I want to call out the way Unity chose to communicate these layoffs. Receiving a 5am email from 'noreply@unity' informing me that my role was being 'eliminated' and that I'd lose system access by the end of the day felt completely abrupt and impersonal. Unity must do better in how they treat their workers in hard times like this."

Last year, Unity said its restructuring program would deliver "attractive" revenue growth and healthy financials. The move was part of a wider company reset following the departure of former CEO John Riccitiello in the wake of the protracted Runtime Fee debacle.

Riccitiello was eventually replaced on a permanent basis by current CEO Matthew Bromberg, who killed the revised Runtime Fee in a bid to earn back the trust of the development community.

Game Developer has reached out to Unity for comment.