Twitch and Unity lay off workers as Rebels strengthens Wolves… Business News of the Week

news business Twitch and Unity lay off workers as Rebels strengthens Wolves… Business News of the Week

Twitch: New wave of layoffs, 500 departures announced

At the end of the year we informed you of the transition to 2024 will not mean an end to layoffs in video games and related technology sectors. After almost a decade under Amazon’s aegis, Twitch is still not profitable and is also suffering from the post-COVID crisis and the closure of the service in South Korea. Last year, Twitch said goodbye to 400 people, and The year 2024 begins with a wave of 500 departures. This wave was first announced by Bloomberg and then confirmed by Dan Clancy. The CEO, who succeeded Emmett Shear in March 2023, published a blog post confirming the firing, copying the email sent to employees and announcing a live broadcast that would take place on March 11th January is scheduled to take place:

I wanted to send you a quick message to let you know that today we have made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our squad. We are currently working to communicate with our employees and clearly explain how this impacts each of them. (…) As you all know, we have worked hard over the past year to run our company as sustainably as possible. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of work to do to right-size our company and I regret to announce that we are taking the painful step of reducing our workforce on Twitch by just over 500 people.
I know many of you are wondering why this is happening. Over the past year, we have worked to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch can survive for the long term. During the year we reduced costs and made many decisions to be more efficient. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become apparent that our organization is still much larger than is necessary given the size of our company. Last year we paid out over $1 billion to streamers.

The affected employees then received an email with information about their severance payand how to organize an interview with your manager. The Slack accounts were not immediately deactivated to give those fired time to say goodbye to their colleagues. Acquired in 2014 for $970 million According to Amazon, Twitch has reportedly experienced record losses over the past two years.

The Rebel Wolves grow stronger as a family

On February 16, 2022, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz announced that he was starting his own studio, Rebel Wolves. If you don’t know who we’re talking about, know that Konrad Tomaszkiewicz was none other than the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt’s biggest success to date. Surrounded by several former members of CD Projekt, Rebel Wolves very quickly began work on his first game, a triple-A dark fantasy designed under Unreal Engine 5. Thanks to his aura, the CEO quickly found financing from NetEase, which took the opportunity to buy a few shares in the still very young studio.

If you visit the studio’s site, you will undoubtedly recognize certain names that appear in the credits of The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 or even Gwent and Thronebreaker. From now on the Rebel Wolves can count sur Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, brother of and formerly responsible for designing the quests for The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3, The Witcher 3: Heart of Stone and The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine. He left CD Projekt in May 2021 to leave Work at Riot Games, studio where he worked on the future MMO. Now back in Poland, he joins his brother’s CEO as creative director.

We want to create a world that you want to explore and immerse yourself in to discover stories that connect you with the characters. We want to provide an experience that offers a variety of choices and room for experimentation when repeated. My mission at Rebel Wolves will be to contribute to this experience with so many talented people and I can’t wait for everyone to see what the team has been planning for some time, says Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz.

The AAA game project is currently just getting started in phase d’pha. So we’ll have to be patient a little longer, but we’re promised a little bit of information later in the year. For those who are curious, it should be noted that despite NetEase’s investment The Rebel Wolves remain in full control creative and owner of his new license.

Unity wants to lay off almost 1,800 people

The momentum of 2023 continues at Unity as an official document from the company announces this Laying off almost 1,800 people by March 2024, which represents 25% of the current workforce. A new wave of layoffs is part of this extensive “reset” project announced for the company. After the massively rejected “installation tax” affair, which led to the departure of John Riccitiello, and the Separation from Weta Digital The excitement continues:

(…) On January 8, 2024, Unity Software Inc. announced that it plans to eliminate approximately 1,800 jobs, or approximately 25% of its current workforce, as part of its restructuring and refocus on its core business to achieve profitable, long-term growth position. At this time, Unity cannot adequately estimate the costs and expenses associated with this reduction, as they are expected to occur primarily in the first quarter of 2024. Expenditures will primarily be related to the transfer of employees, dismissal in compensation and social benefits.

This new social plan will be supplemented A few othersUnity had said goodbye to 200 people in June 2022, 300 employees in January 2023, another 600 employees in May 2023 and 265 people at the end of 2023, Unity had announced 920 million net losses. The new wave of layoffs had a visibly positive effect on the share price, which rose by 5%. The market is therefore reacting positively to the restructuring.

Coming soon to the business news of the week

• PlayStation recorded 123 million active users In December. The last recorded record was 112 million in December 2022.
• Despite a very complicated launch, the switch to free-to-play and the disappearance from the media landscape, Efootball has recorded 700 million downloads, according to Konami.
• Minecraft Legends is over. The servers have been abandoned and Mojang will not force fate. The next update, expected at the end of the month, will be the last. All functions still remain accessible.
• The studio behind the creators of Marvel Snap, Second Dinner, announced it has raised $100 million. Enough to imagine a future, a time disrupted by Unity and the announced closure of Nuverse.
• Deep Rock Galactic has now sold 8 million units.