2023 Animation Industry Layoff Tracker
2023 has been an ugly year for the animation industry. As labor unions revolt across Hollywood and media conglomerates bear the consequences of streaming growth at any cost, the animation industry (and its sister vfx and gaming industries) has been caught in the middle. Work has dried up and many studios have cut back on employment.
Our new layoff tracker is an attempt to keep track of significant layoffs that are happening across our industry. It includes only layoffs that we’ve been able to confirm and we will work to keep this updated as a resource for the community. If you have news about layoffs, please contact us.
If you are currently unemployed and looking for work, we suggest following this spreadsheet with a constantly updating list of animation job listings.
2023 Animation, VFX, Video Game Layoff Timeline
December 12 – Hasbro: Toy manufacturer Hasbro, which owns animated properties including Transformers, Peppa Pig, and My Little Pony, will lay off 1,100 workers, representing 20% of its workforce, over the next six months due to slow toy sales over the 2023 holiday season.
November 30 – Embracer Group: Media conglomerate Embracer Group laid off workers at two of its Hungarian studios, Digic and Zen Studios. At Digic, 35 employees were let go, about 10% of its workforce. At Zen, 30 employees were laid off, representing half of its staff.
November 29 – Unity Software: Unity Software laid off 265 workers, about 3.8% of its total global workforce, from its Unity Weta Tools division and terminated the professional services piece of an agreement with Weta FX.
November 14 – Amazon Games: Amazon laid off around 180 workers in its games division as part of a larger restructuring to cut back on promoting and supporting third-party games and increase resources dedicated to its own titles.
November 1 – Netflix: Netflix Animation laid off at least one-third of its feature unit, which would total over 50 people. The layoffs targeted “overhead” staff, including executives, business affairs, and production management. No artists were included in these layoffs.
October 30 – Bungie: Sony-owned Destiny game developer Bungie laid off 8% of its staff, around 100 employees. According to reports, the layoffs were part of larger cost-cutting measures underway at Sony’s Playstation unit.
October 8 – Dreamworks Animation: Glendale-based Dreamworks Animation is laid off around 70 workers, or four per cent of the company’s 1,700-plus-person workforce. Roles affected were across corporate functions, feature, television and technology departments as part of an overall cost-reduction.
September 23 – Epic: Unreal Engine developers Epic laid off around 16% of its employees. According to founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, the company is spending money faster than it’s making it.
August 31 – Deep Silver Volition: Swedish video game holding company Embracer Group shuttered Saints Row developer Volition as part of a larger restructuring at the company. Around 240 employees worked for Volition at the time of the shutdown.
August 23 – Bioware: The Electronic Arts-owned video game developer will lay off 50 employees at its studios in Edmonton, Canada, and Austin, Texas. The studio is nearing completion on Dragon Age: Dreadworld and is in pre-development on Mass Effect. Both projects will continue despite the layoffs.
August 15 – Industrial Light & Magic: Disney-owned Industrial Light & Magic plans to shut down its animation and vfx production facilities in Singapore. The studio shutdown will affect approximately 300 employees. Launched in 2006, the Singapore studio was ILM’s first international location. Disney said the shutdown was “due to economic factors affecting the industry.”
July 26 – CD Projekt Red: The game developer behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 laid off around 100 people, or 9% of its workforce.
July 20 – DNEG: The studio that handled vfx work on Oppenheimer – much of it uncredited – and animation on the Emmy-nominated Entergalactic, laid off dozens of workers at its London headquarters.
June 13 – Embracer: The Swedish video game and entertainment conglomerate announced a major restructure of its businesses including layoffs and studio closures. They did not make clear how many of the company’s 16,600 employees or 138 game development studios would be affected, but the company aimed to cut costs by at least 10% yearly.
June 6 – Pixar: The Walt Disney Company-owned Pixar let go of 75 workers (6% of its staff) at its Emeryville, California-based studio. It was the biggest round of layoffs at the company since 2013. Among the layoffs were Angus MacLane and Galyn Susman, the director and producer respectively of Lightyear.
May 25 – Kabam: The game developer behind Marvel Contest of Champions laid off 12% of its workforce. In a release, the company said, “This restructuring provides greater financial flexibility to invest in new growth areas while also streamlining our existing development teams.” Online sources estimate the number of layoffs to be around 90.
May 9 – Paramount: The company revealed it would cut 25% of workforce in its Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios, and Paramount Media Networks groups because of “broader economic headwinds.” The impacted positions were those that became redundant as the company consolidated its struggling cable channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central into a single portfolio group.
May 5 – Dreamworks Animation: One of L.A.’s largest animation producers, Dreamworks laid off 33 employees, or about 2% of its workforce, as parent company NBCUniversal made cuts across several of its divisions. A Dreamworks statement said the layoffs were part of a larger cost reduction plan and that most of those affected were in support roles.
May 3 – Unity: Developer of the real-time game and animation engine, Unity revealed it was slashing 600 positions, roughly 8% of its workforce. It was the company’s third (and largest) round of layoffs in the past year.
January 5 – Vimeo: The New York-based video tools company reduced its workforce by 11% (estimated to be around 125 people) as it continued to struggle since pivoting from a video streaming site to tech platform.
