Major Nelson is latest game professional to lose his job

Former Xbox spokesperson, Larry Hryb, more commonly known as Major Nelson, has announced that he has been laid off and lost his job Unity.

“As many of you have been with me during my career in gaming, I’d like to share personal news. Like many in the gaming space recently, I’ve been laid off from Unity,” he wrote on BlueSky. “After leaving Microsoft, I joined the Unity team in 2024. I am proud of the goals my team and I accomplished in just 18 months, and I am grateful for the creators and teams I had the chance to support. Now, I am excited to explore the next chapter.”

“I’ve had invigorating conversations over the past weeks with companies in tech and non-tech spaces to discuss partnerships. I love what I do but I also believe change is necessary. I’ll let you know where I go from here.”

He is part of the latest in a  long line of redundancies at game engine developer Unity, with over 25% of the staff being laid off at a cost of over $205 million.

The company suffered a huge backlash in 2023 when it instituted a “runtime fee” that, if  a game reached specific revenue and lifetime installation thresholds, the publishers would pay a fee for every installation.  Previously, developers only had to pay a license fee for the engine. When it became clear that the fee would apply to older games that were updated there was another backlash, but in response, Unity only changed some of the terms of the new payment plan.

The furore continued until Unity finally backed down, announcing they would be discontinuing the runtime fee model – but would be increasing the pricing of the original license instead.

Unity is used by many mobile developers, and the vast majority of VR games are created using the engine.

We wish Larry all the best for the future.

Source: Bluesky

Tags: Major Nelson, unity