Unity CEO John Riccitiello Retiring from Role Following Pricing Debacle | Push Square

14.10.2023 - 09:43 / pushsquare.com / John Riccitiello / James M.Whitehurst

Unity's audacious plan to charge developers for the privilege of players installing their games has hit an unforeseen snag, with the announcement that CEO and architect of the scheme, John Riccitiello, will conveniently be retiring, effective immediately.

The news was announced today in a statement, which proclaimed Riccitielo will «retire as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.» James M. Whitehurst has been appointed interim CEO, and the statement goes on to thank Riccitiello for his years of service to the company without directly referencing the elephant in the room.

Almost a month to the day, Unity unveiled the ill-conceived scheme, which was immediately hit with opposition and walked back, but not entirely. The installation fee is apparently still going to be a thing, but there are at least some caveats. Regardless, Unity's reputation is in tatters, and it seems that at least one head needed to roll for the fumble.

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Sigh

«I am sorry»

Are you at all surprised by the news that Ricietello is «retiring» as CEO of Unity? Face the music in the comments section below.

Khayl Adam is the second best video game journalist Australia has ever produced, and his ambitions of world domination have (thus far) been curbed by the twin siren songs of strategy games and CRPGs. He has always felt an affinity for the noble dachshund, the best kind of dog.

Hope he takes a short of a break before he begins his new CEO position at Sony Interactive Entertainment.

He either is an idiot or a scapegoat. I'm not going to feel sorry for him either way. I planned on learning Unity, but I'll go for Unreal or Godot.

Whilst Riccitello won't be missed,that he'd already checked out allegedly selling off shares ahead of the entire train wreck waa telling.
The CEO of the adware tech company that Unity uses & merged with still sits on the Unity board, so don't expect their current direction to change that dramatically.

@Sequel Dude… don't joke like that. He can retire and never be seen again preferably.

As much as good news as this is, the Unity community may never reunify again.

Return from whence ye came!

I’m not sure how much of this was “unforeseen” given he and the rest of the company have stopped buying and indeed have been selling their shares in the company for years now.

They should sue him for damage he done.

@djlard He's a scapegoat. This idea will be back, just repackaged.

As long as the stupid install fee remains, unity has no future. What they should do is replace the ceo and delete their stupid install fee both at the same time.

Why the heck games developers has to pay for players install when they got no money