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So they have around 7.200 people now? I know beyond a certain size it's mostly about internal empire building, but seriously, what do these prople do on a day t

So they have around 7.200 people now? I know beyond a certain size it's mostly about internal empire building, but seriously, what do these prople do on a day to day basis? If it is in line with some observations I see in the industry, the biggest 'boom' in workforce growth has been in internal facing secondary processes. Especially HR related functions a went through the roof, and general administration and finance had a big push as well. In primary processes most growth was in supporting roles; management, strategy & vision, process control etc., not so much in the actual core technical production roles. Do your observations match?

HellDunkel 3y ago
Here is my take: The company could not sustain itself since its beginning and always needed vc money- specially for growth. But growth somehow became the modus operandi and that did not change with the IPO. Fresh money was coming in but certainly not enough to live up to overhyped expectations such as building a creator market, serving a yet to come "metaverse" and competing with fortnite-funded epic games. The company tried to get into many different markets simulanteously and underestimated the associated costs. At the same time technology did not advance as quickly as desired and vr & metaverse went nowhere.
nicbou 3y ago
My cynical, reactionary and probably incorrect take is that a bunch of people grafted themselves to a successful industry, and got in on the cushy jobs. Tech had enough money to absorb all these new workers that provided little value. This is how you got things like Chief Happiness Officers and inflated manager count. Now the economy is contracting and debt is more expensive, so a lot of fat should get trimmed. The tooth-to-tail ratio has to go up again. However nobody wants to admit that their own job should be cut, so these roles won't just vanish, and these people won't just change careers.
- Kinrany 3y ago
  > However nobody wants to admit that their own job should be cut, so these roles won't just vanish, and these people won't just change careers. I don't understand this sentence. Jobs are not created by people who want jobs.
  - happytiger 3y ago
    Turns out that it’s actually people who have jobs specifically are the ones who make the jobs (by becoming the customers). https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-create-jobs-2013-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-create-jobs-2013... I know the idea that you’re trying to infer is more akin to people creating jobs by hiring themselves becoming an inflated workforce being a rather silly idea, but in truth the entire system is just a rather more complicated version of that in many ways. As much as the ultra-rich like to stand on their large contributions to society via their company accomplishment and present themselves as job creators, truth it the vast majority of jobs are created because of middle class demand and in that very real sense we have jobs because we want jobs.
  - nicbou 3y ago
    What I mean by that is that people and departments will fight for their survival. No one will admit that their position is useless and should get eliminated. The people that stay might not be the people that are necessary, but the people that can convince others that they are.
- hoseja 3y ago
  >a lot of fat should get trimmed It won't though, entire limbs will be cut off.
  - happytiger 3y ago
    The purpose of financial austerity (raising rates by central banks) is (arguably) specifically to damage the labor markets to prevent fiat currency inflation, so when you see large rate increases you can generally expect major unemployment to follow.
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>but seriously, what do these prople do on a day to day basis? 1. they acquired several products during the pandemic. They all added to the headcount. 2. Half of Unity's income is from ads. They have a huge structure for supporting ads on all ends; as support for the devs, towards other businesses in integrating them, towards customers wanting to serve ads, etc. 3. take the above point and keep in mind that Unity is much more global than Unreal. They got to the asian market in particular years before Unreal tried to reach out, and as a result they more or less own the mobile mindshare. you staff balloons very quickly when you aren't just 2 US studios, because every country you support needs some local(-ish) staff to support all of the above. 4. Then from there they expanded into other indutries to pitch the engine. Unreal seems to have beaten them to VFX, but they are trying to get reach into tech like architecture, automotive, and aerospace. And I haven't even started talking about the actual game engine yet. It becomes clear why they got so large when you realize most of their business isn't focused on core game engine development (which they still do plenty of). >In primary processes most growth was in supporting roles; management, strategy & vision, process control etc., not so much in the actual core technical production roles. yeah, definitely. A lot of this expansion I described above is less about engine devs and more about support staff, as well as staff to help steer the increasingly large ship.

HellDunkel 3y ago

Here is my take: The company could not sustain itself since its beginning and always needed vc money- specially for growth. But growth somehow became the modus operandi and that did not change with the IPO. Fresh money was coming in but certainly not enough to live up to overhyped expectations such as building a creator market, serving a yet to come "metaverse" and competing with fortnite-funded epic games. The company tried to get into many different markets simulanteously and underestimated the associated costs. At the same time technology did not advance as quickly as desired and vr & metaverse went nowhere.

nicbou 3y ago

My cynical, reactionary and probably incorrect take is that a bunch of people grafted themselves to a successful industry, and got in on the cushy jobs. Tech had enough money to absorb all these new workers that provided little value. This is how you got things like Chief Happiness Officers and inflated manager count. Now the economy is contracting and debt is more expensive, so a lot of fat should get trimmed. The tooth-to-tail ratio has to go up again. However nobody wants to admit that their own job should be cut, so these roles won't just vanish, and these people won't just change careers.

Kinrany 3y ago
> However nobody wants to admit that their own job should be cut, so these roles won't just vanish, and these people won't just change careers. I don't understand this sentence. Jobs are not created by people who want jobs.
- happytiger 3y ago
  Turns out that it’s actually people who have jobs specifically are the ones who make the jobs (by becoming the customers). https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-create-jobs-2013-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-create-jobs-2013... I know the idea that you’re trying to infer is more akin to people creating jobs by hiring themselves becoming an inflated workforce being a rather silly idea, but in truth the entire system is just a rather more complicated version of that in many ways. As much as the ultra-rich like to stand on their large contributions to society via their company accomplishment and present themselves as job creators, truth it the vast majority of jobs are created because of middle class demand and in that very real sense we have jobs because we want jobs.
- nicbou 3y ago
  What I mean by that is that people and departments will fight for their survival. No one will admit that their position is useless and should get eliminated. The people that stay might not be the people that are necessary, but the people that can convince others that they are.
hoseja 3y ago
>a lot of fat should get trimmed It won't though, entire limbs will be cut off.
- happytiger 3y ago
  The purpose of financial austerity (raising rates by central banks) is (arguably) specifically to damage the labor markets to prevent fiat currency inflation, so when you see large rate increases you can generally expect major unemployment to follow.

johnnyanmac 3y ago

>but seriously, what do these prople do on a day to day basis? 1. they acquired several products during the pandemic. They all added to the headcount. 2. Half of Unity's income is from ads. They have a huge structure for supporting ads on all ends; as support for the devs, towards other businesses in integrating them, towards customers wanting to serve ads, etc. 3. take the above point and keep in mind that Unity is much more global than Unreal. They got to the asian market in particular years before Unreal tried to reach out, and as a result they more or less own the mobile mindshare. you staff balloons very quickly when you aren't just 2 US studios, because every country you support needs some local(-ish) staff to support all of the above. 4. Then from there they expanded into other indutries to pitch the engine. Unreal seems to have beaten them to VFX, but they are trying to get reach into tech like architecture, automotive, and aerospace. And I haven't even started talking about the actual game engine yet. It becomes clear why they got so large when you realize most of their business isn't focused on core game engine development (which they still do plenty of). >In primary processes most growth was in supporting roles; management, strategy & vision, process control etc., not so much in the actual core technical production roles. yeah, definitely. A lot of this expansion I described above is less about engine devs and more about support staff, as well as staff to help steer the increasingly large ship.