Creator of the popular game engine software, Unity, has announced that President, CEO, Chairman, and member of the Board John Riccitello will retire from his position within the company effective immediately and move to an advisory role until April 2024.
This move comes less than one month after Riccitiello and Unity announced a change to their pricing model based on a per-install basis once reaching a revenue and download benchmark. The backlash from developers of all sizes caused Unity to issue several press releases to attempt to explain their new pricing policy. Many developers announced they will begin working to transition their games to other engines or in some extreme cases, stop supporting the game all together if this new price plan went into effect. The nightmare at the public relations department at Unity came to an end weeks later when Unity decided to drop the new plan in favor of a 2.5% revenue share plan.
While Riccitiello stepping down is a move in the right direction, the trust between Unity and its many developers that use the Unity Engine, has been shattered. Many worry about what would stop Unity from trying a stunt like this again in the future. Speaking of the future of Unity, one has to say it’s shaky at the moment, but at least Unity has finally realized that having the man who was in charge at Electronic Arts when they introduced the unpopular loot boxes in FIFA 09, the man in charge that said developers that make games without monetization in mind are “f***ing idiots,”or the man in charge that led EA when it was voted the “Worst Company to In America” in 2012, may not have been the right fit for their future.
James Whitehurst will step in as Interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found. Whitehurst was previously at Red Hat, a provider of open source enterprise IT products and services, where he served as the President and CEO from 2008 to 2020 when Red Hat was acquired by IBM. While at IBM, Whitehurst served as the Senior Advisor and President.
Image from: Unity
