Unity's incredible shrinking growth story | This Week in Business

gamesindustry.biz:

Earlier this week, Unity announced its third round of layoffs in less than a year.

It was the largest of the three rounds of cuts, hitting 600 employees, or about 8% of the company's headcount.

The company is also looking to shutter half its global offices in the next few years, reducing its current network of 58 locations to fewer than 30.

So why is the company downsizing like this?

QUOTE | "It's all about setting ourselves up for higher growth." – Unity CEO John Riccitiello, speaking to The Wall Street Journal about the cuts.

Now I may be just a simple country lawyer, but laying people off for growth strikes me a lot like the old saying, "Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity."

(Editor's note: Brendan is neither from the country nor a lawyer.)

Note to editor: I see you didn't weigh in on that third thing…

(Editor's note: [Pointed silence])

Jerk.

So how exactly is laying people off going to grow Unity? It's not going to encourage more creators to use the engine or make their products more successful. It's not going to increase the assortment of development and monetization tools they offer, or make them any more effective.

The cuts are said to flatten the corporate hierarchy and eliminate some "middle managers," a phrase that conjures up do-nothing speedbumps, corporate parasites that exist to waste time by forcing subordinates to fill in useless reports and forcing superiors to read digests of those reports. Why, if we could just get rid of them entirely, the bosses and the employes who actually get things done could talk directly and Unity would instantly be a more nimble organization ready to realize everyone's untapped potential!

That's no doubt the spin Riccitiello would like to see on this