After Unity's Recent Financial Troubles, Peter Jackson's WētāFX Regains Its Old Namesake

Video Games

Dec 2

Unity Software is breaking with Peter Jackson’s visual effects company Wētā Digital in a shake-up, seeing the game developer close fourteen of its worldwide offices. Back in 2021, Unity signed a deal with Wētā Digital, one of three Peter Jackson companies (Wētā Workshop, Wētā FX, and Wētā Digital) for £1.6 billion, purchasing their technology and engineering division, (as well as some Wētā FX staff and products) bringing it under the control of CEO John Riccitiello.

Riccitiello and several other board members dramatically resigned earlier this year over unpopular pricing structure changes. James M. Whitehurst helms the new leadership team as interim CEO. Peter Jackson will have the company name and all the digital tools handed over to him after only two years, without the need for any repayments of the original purchase price. Peter Jackson appears to come out on top.

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As Unity walks away from Wētā Digital, it plans to make 265 staff redundant, this is their third batch of firings in 2023, taking the job losses to over 11,00 for the year. Wētā FX, the visual effects company responsible for the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, is currently working on Avatar 3, so it's expected that many could be rehired.

Although it's difficult to see what Unity gets from this deal, they must do something drastic. The software company lost 859 million between September 2022 and 2023, and the stock price has dropped 85% since 2021. It remains to be seen if this is part of a grand plan or another attempt at throwing ideas at a wall until something sticks.

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