#5 - Unity's Decline - Shutting Down Weta Digital
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- Опубликовано: 18 май 2024
- In today's episode, we delve into Unity's recent decision to lay off 275 employees and close down their Weta Digital studio. This studio, acquired for $1.6 billion just two years ago, has become the focal point of significant organizational changes.
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It’s amazed me how the words corruption/fraud are not even uttered. Why are people so convinced of the righteousness of corporations?
I get your point, but they cannot speculate on things they didn't witness personally on their podcast. It's as simple as that.
@@miriades It is enough to mention without much discussion. Unity behaves strangely. You might think it has top management problems, remembering the story of the new monetization policy. But after waiting a little, with a high probability you will find that a certain circle of people have gotten rich from all these “miscalculations.” Speaking of own business, anyone who has one knows how to hide a few cents of taxes.
Many Western experts look at societis in the way they are familiar to. If someone called themselves a democracy, they are judged as a democracy. If they declared to be a law-abiding company, then they are treated so.
But from the Eastern world it looks just funny. In overall world, the more money or power you have, the more you lie. My country has been fighting a war with a superior enemy for almost 10 years, but Western society still has doubts about its causes. It feels like everyone simply forgot how disgusting and cynical people can be.
Sorry for the overly detailed reaction.
@@TinyLegend I totally get your point. You’re right.
This is the fricken best podcast to have on while working. You guys are awesome to listen to
Wow, thank you!
100%
Thanks for the clarification. I assumed (probably like many others) that the purchase had been for the entirety of Weta. In some ways it makes more sense that they only purchased the tech department since that's primarily what would help Unity the most. But at the exact same time it also makes *less* sense because they payed an astronomical price for essentially what was some talent. At least in my mind it made more sense if they'd bought the whole company since that would have provided a stranglehold on the digital assets they produce for the entire industry. Sounds like ol' Johnny boy was WAY worse at his job than I originally thought. I wish *I* could mess up that bad at work and walk away with enough money to retire for generations to come.
I'm assuming Unity will own any of the extensions made to their tools by Weta as part of this deal
Henning, Morten
Got my first job in the gaming industry. I just wanted to thank you for all your videos over the years. They really helped me get to where i am being self-taught.
From the map's sculpting, anatomy, texturing, etc, you guys helped me a lot more than you guys realise
Thank you from the bottom of my heart
Great podcast guys! I was wondering why there wasn’t a podcast that talked about all these important issues in the digital art industry, especially in recent months.
I guess they also realised it was incredibly difficult to make these tools / pipeline general purpose. Internal VFX pipelines are often not made or designed in an agnostic way and are based on many factors of the internal studios infrastructure.
Another awesome podcast! Love the econ talk as always. Super important
Glad you enjoyed it!
The arguments for buying Weta digital didn't make a lot of sense at the time. Not surprised with the changes.
Awesome podcast, more art stuff would be really great.
Well... Looks like it is time to learn Unreal. I was going to work on a game around the time that Unity had it's last public uprising. Around that time, I had gotten exposed to game engine's at my university. The last Unity uprising (about the devs paying everytime someone installed a game) made me stay away from Unity until things ironed out, but now I clearly see they are on a decline.
This was absolutely predictable once they announce the price changing for Unity I knew it was negatively affect the industry as a whole
I promise you.. the VFX Artists are the ones who got screwed here.. and Weta FX Top brass will continue to work and get paid.
Really appreciate the research that you did for this. Maybe one day Unity will get back on its feet lol
Unity keep F***ng around and finding out
as a kiwi I am surpised not many people knew that weta just split into two companies after unity bought them out
Unity didn't just buy Weta's tools, staff, etc. They bought Weta's reputation. From that standpoint that billion dollar price tag could be worth it in the long term IF they market themselves correctly.
And them trash it.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 🎙️ *Overview of Unity's Layoffs at WETA Digital*
- Unity's decision to lay off 275 employees and close WETA Digital's tools department.
02:35 🎬 *Unity's Acquisition of WETA and Confusion*
- Unity's acquisition of WETA Digital, rebranding it as WETA Effects.
- Confusion arising from the transition from WETA Digital to WETA Effects.
05:46 💼 *Unity's Stock Performance and Acquisition Motivations*
- Unity's declining stock performance and its impact on corporate decisions.
- Acquiring companies as a strategy to boost stock prices.
- The potential consequences of mismanagement in Unity.
08:47 🤝 *WETA's Deal with Unity and the Valuation Mystery*
- WETA's deal with Unity, gaining the rights to use their tools.
- Unity's acquisition of WETA for $1.6 billion raises questions about the valuation.
- Examining the financial aspects and potential risks of Unity's decisions.
14:05 💰 *Unity's Financial Challenges Post-Acquisition*
- Analyzing Unity's financial situation post-acquisition, with a substantial increase in debt.
- The potential impact of Unity's debt on the company's overall performance.
19:36 🎥 *Unity's Interest in WETA's On-Set Production Technology*
- Speculating on Unity's interest in WETA's on-set production technology, especially for real-time rendering.
- Considering the significance of Avatar's influence on VFX technology.
- Unity's potential expansion into VFX production and its implications.
21:15 🎥 *Unity's Acquisition of Weta Digital*
- Discussion about Unity's acquisition of Weta Digital, emphasizing the significance of the VFX tools and talent.
- Unity's move beyond gaming into high-end VFX with the acquisition of Weta Digital.
- The complexities involved in the financial aspects of such acquisitions, including debt, revenue, and budgeting.
23:34 💰 *Unity's Financial Growth and Acquisitions*
- Exploration of Unity's financial growth over the years, marked by impressive revenue figures.
- Analysis of Unity's strategy involving aggressive expansion through multiple acquisitions.
- Concerns about the disconnect between revenue growth, debt accumulation, and the impact on the company's financial health.
25:20 ⚖️ *Industry Layoffs and Unity's Downsizing*
- Comparison of layoffs in the gaming industry, highlighting Unity's significant downsizing in the context of other companies.
- Reflection on Unity's stock performance and the challenges posed by extensive layoffs.
- Speculation on Unity's future actions and the potential impact on the industry.
31:50 🔄 *Weta's Effort to Retain Talent and Unity's Tools*
- Discussion about Weta's commitment to rehire laid-off employees and the positive aspect of this effort.
- Speculation on the agreement regarding Unity's tools, questioning whether it involves licensing or ownership.
- Mention of Weta M project and curiosity about its fate post-Unity acquisition.
38:42 🌐 *Unity's Future Strategy and Recommendations*
- Suggestions for Unity to reconsider its business strategy, focusing on core technology and sustainability.
- Critique of Unity's recent decisions, including price changes and potential alienation of its user base.
- Speculation on the future of Unity and the need for a shift in leadership or direction to regain trust and stability.
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Please make an episode for students and people entering industry now onwards . 2024 and the future.
Good level headed discussion with no divisive finger pointing!
Can you do a podcast about which jobs in the games/ film industries are the best to get into in the current economy with all the layoffs?
I know this is an A B conversation and I should C my way out of here but 😂
Tech art is both in demand and everywhere! A highly desired skill set in games.
As a Tech Artist, I agree with said statement @@Gorongirl
Sadly, from what I’ve been seeing, the film, video games and tech industries are the only ones suffering notable amounts of layoffs. It’s been said that video games are recession-proof and (mostly) inflation-proof, unfortunately it sounds like it’s also surprisingly-decent-economy proof, at least for the talented artists losing dream careers in droves right now.
It sounds like creative and tech industries are just inherently unstable and low-paying careers compared to almost everything else, even in the good times, so it’s kind of up to the individual to decide if it’s even worth pursuing a full-time job in art, or if they would prefer it to remain a fun hobby while having a steady “day job” to essentially subsidize that hobby.
On the other hand, traditionally jobs in general are hard to come by during the holidays, when companies in EVERY industry are firing instead of hiring, and usually improves again in the new year. Like the “regular” news, gaming and animation news tends to only focus on the bad-even the likes of Blizzard and EA are unlikely to be as awful as the media portrays them.
I can tell you right now that the people that will usher in the new golden ages for these industries spend more time simply working on their skills than fretting about scary news articles about layoffs and the economy. Eric Goldberg, who famously animated the Genie in Aladdin, first started working at Disney in the 1970’’s when all their movies were flopping even harder than they are now and it was unclear if the company could even go on after Walt Disney’s death.
1.6B desperate attempt to compete against Unreal Engine on films industry. 😢
Desperate is one, stupid another thing. Unity became like a toolbox filled with broken tools to the brim, held together by duct tape. Instead of fixing this in the first place they went on a shopping spree.
Just to keep the guessing going regarding the deal 😅 What if Unity hope to rent them to companies for 1.6 bn plus profit? It’s a steeep investment before it returns anything but maybe they’re thinking really long term? Ok maybe that’s what you meant but yeah…
I don't believe that would be possible, because you have to remember that they laid off all the engineers. You can't create a subscription for the majority of these tools without having tech support that understands them. Even if they do bring one or two basic tools to market, they wont be able to charge that much because of competition.
😢
im pretty sure Weta is paying a runtime fee for their own tools
In this podcast I've just realized that Shares are debths for a company aswell, and the weird part is that they can use their debth to generate more debth.
My reasoning is: Somebody bought shares and gave money to the company expecting to have a return. When the quarter ends, this shareholder can just not hold this share anymore and liquidate it. (obviously is not this easy, but it is this base of the transaction: I gave you money, got a paper saying you owe me money, now I want my money back.)
The share is upheld only in the fact that there are people with excess of money not willing to work and turn a profit by "loaning money" through the stock market. Money people are just a bunch o bastards...
WTF was Weta Digital sold in the first place?
I bet Unity will offer games made in their engine as training data.
Yeesh
Unity is not declining, Unity is alive more than ever , just think about what UNity has done for us for all these years, Unity is thebest engine ever created and its here to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111
Still getting used to MJ...but I will get there
In a personal opinion with all due respect, What does Unity earn com pare to Weta? Read it with sarcastic tone, Unity company in terms of reputation is NOTHING compare to Weta.
I mean Weta is like a big Giant titan and unity is a small bug in terms of reputation.
They have had many F ups... but this is not one of them ... nobody uses Unity for film
So what percentage of assets on the Unity asset store are using Weta tools? Whats that you say? Zero? What percentage of Unity users would pay 50 bucks flat to use these tools? Whats that you say? Perhaps a couple hundred all over the planet? If you divide 1.6 billion by the number of users using Weta tools, you get..... Whats that you say? A cost of $1 million per user?
The tools were never released so no assets on the Unity store are using Weta tools
Unreal Aquiring Reality Capture.. WOOHH!!!
Unity Aquiring Weta... WTF why? theyre a Film VFX studio.
Now you want to destroy them? WTF is wrong with you?
LOTR FFS!
Traditional content creation is dying; therefore, it makes sense for Unity to close this company, similar to what Unreal recently did with the company they acquired for music creation. Soon all pixels ll be generated, not rendered so, CGI companies don't make sense anymore.
Not at Weta's level, and not at the level of the majority of professional CGI studios.
HEY DON'T SAY THAT ABOUT GROOMING TOOLS, GO LEARN HOUDINI!
why do you need to laugh every minute?! is it really neccessary?!