![]() ![]() Its story began on an OpenGL forum in May 2002, where Francis posted a call for collaborators on an open source shader-compiler (graphics tool) for the niche population of Mac-based game developers like himself. Unity was founded in Copenhagen by Nicholas Francis, Joachim Ante, and David Helgason. This research has included interviews with dozens of developers, executives, and investors in gaming and other industries, including interviews with over 20 Unity executives. This article is part of my ongoing research into the future of interactive media experiences. Today, it’s making a push to become the top engine for building anything in interactive 3D. ![]() While other game engines targeted the big AAA game makers at the top of the console and PC markets, Unity went after independent developers with a less robust product that was better suited to their needs and budget.Īs it gained popularity, the company captured growth in frontier market segments and also expanded upmarket to meet the needs of higher-performance game makers. Unity’s growth is a case study of Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. That positions Unity - as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg argued in a 2015 memo in favor of acquiring it - as a key platform for the next wave of consumer technology after mobile. Unity is increasingly used for 3D design and simulations across other industries like film, automotive, and architecture and is now used to create 60% of all augmented and virtual reality experiences. Nearly half of the world’s games are built with Unity, which is particularly popular among mobile game developers.Īnd in the fourteen years since Unity’s engine launched, the size of the global gaming market has exploded from $27 billion to $135 billion, driven by the rise of mobile gaming, which now comprises the majority of the market. “Unity wants to be the 3D operating system of the world,” says Sylvio Drouin, VP of the Unity Labs R&D team.Ĭustomers can design, buy, or import digital assets like forests, sound effects, and aliens and create the logic guiding how all these elements interact with players. But the company, which was recently valued around $6 billion and could be headed toward an IPO, is becoming much more than that. Its last annual filing with the SEC stated it had 5,245 employees, but the Wall Street Journal put the number before today's layoffs at 8,000, more than 1,400 of which came from last year's acquisition of IronSource.Īs of this writing, Unity is trading at just over $32, essentially on par with where it was last October, and down 84% from its November 2021 peak.What do BMW, Tencent, Pokémon Go creator Niantic, movie director Jon Favreau and construction giant Skanska have in common? They’re all using the same platform to create their products.įounded in a small Copenhagen apartment in 2004, Unity Technologies’ makes a game engine - a software platform for building video games. They're doing it to facilitate your better and more nutritious self."ĭespite the layoffs, Unity's headcount has grown considerably in the past year. "Like with lots of things – your parents when they ask you to eat your vegetables – they're not doing it to punish you. "We did it because we were focusing our energy," Riccitiello said of the cuts. Those laid off were allowed to apply for open positions elsewhere in the company, and Riccitiello told in October that about three quarters of the impacted people wound up staying with the company in a new capacity. Last June it laid off about 225 employees "to realign some of our resources to better drive focus and support our long-term growth." This is the second round of layoffs for Unity in less than a year. "We are letting that team go even though we're thrilled with the work they've done."īeyond that team, the Journal reports the brunt of cuts came from the administrative ranks, including IT security and marketing. "In the current economy, it's not a good time to bring that to the market," Riccitiello said. One such project was devoted to sports viewing technology that would allow anyone watching an event to see it from an angle of their choosing. He provided a little more information to the Journal directly, telling the outlet, "We're dealing very specifically with overlap and a handful of projects are going in the closet." While we remain focused on the same vision, we decided that we need to be more selective in our investments to come out stronger as a company." In a letter to employees about the cuts, Unity CEO John Riccitiello explained, "We reassessed our objectives, strategies, goals and priorities in light of the current economic conditions. Unity Technologies is laying off 284 people, the company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal today. ![]()
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