Boss Of Unity Unexpectedly Quits Following Pricing Model Response

Video Games

Oct 12

Unity is facing its next large shake-up: game development tool chief executive John Riccitiello has retired from the company effective immediately. Riccitiello has been with the company since 2013, taking on the CEO hat in 2014. It should be noted that in the past nine years, Unity has continued to lurk in the net loss range rather than profit. A specific reason was not given for his retirement, and he will be replaced by James Whitehurst as interim CEO.

Riccitiello released a statement upon his departure:

“It’s been a privilege to lead Unity for nearly a decade and serve our employees, customers, developers, and partners, all of whom have been instrumental to the Company’s growth. I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company’s future success.”

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Among Us poster — Image Source: *Innersloth*

The name Unity may spark some familiarity. Unity Technologies is the company behind the namesake game engine, which has been used for games such as Among Us and Angry Birds 2. The game engine has cross-platform and 3D development capabilities, among other things. The pricing change issue refers to the pricing restructure Unity announced for January 2024, introducing a new “per-download” fee among other things.

The original iteration of this announcement was met with heavy backlash, as its impact was severely negative to creators and made some projects impossible to move forward with. Many features of this plan have since been rolled back and altered, though how this will run in practice remains to be seen.

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