LogInA big loss for the community and for Unity.
2025 has become a difficult year for workers across the tech and gaming industries, marked by wave after wave of layoffs. Microsoft alone has carried out three separate rounds this year, joined by studios like EA, PLAION, Virtuos, and King, with the list, unfortunately, continuing to grow.
Many will recall the shocking dismissal of Unity's entire Behavior team, and now, in yet another round, it has come to light that Ben Cloward, a respected and well-known figure in the community, is among those affected.
Ben Cloward has been in the industry for over 20 years and is widely recognized for his expertise in shader development. Ben co-created ShaderFX, now the built-in tool for real-time shader creation in 3ds Max and Maya, and was the original author of Maya's Uber Shader. In recent years, he was part of Unity's Shader Graph team and shared his knowledge through talks at major industry events and a YouTube channel with over 75,000 subscribers.
Ben put together a list of the main things he worked on at Unity in his announcement post:
If Ben's work has ever helped you, now is a great time to let him know. And if your team is looking for a seasoned Technical Artist with deep expertise in shaders and rendering performance, please reach out to him here.
The community responded strongly to the news of Ben leaving Unity, and the developer clarified that he will continue to publish tutorial videos on YouTube every week:
Regarding his use of the phrase "round of layoffs," there are currently no reports about it, so it's either a small-scale layoff or hasn't been officially announced yet. Stay tuned and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
Keep reading
You may find these articles interesting