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Unity CEO John Riccitiello is leaving 'effective immediately'

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Unity has announced that President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors - John Riccitiello, is leaving "effective immediately". This follows on from the ridiculous pricing changes Unity tried recently, with the press release making no mention of it at all.

Riccitiello is no stranger to controversy who said some developers were "some of the biggest fucking idiots" in an interview with Pocket Gamer. Riccitiello was also EA CEO when they first launched loot boxes in FIFA 09, and even went as far as suggesting gamers would pay to reload their weapons in games like Battlefield. No doubt many will be happy to see Riccitiello leave. From the press release:

“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,” Mr. Riccitiello said. “I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company’s future success.”

Perhaps under new leadership, Unity can begin to fix up their image.

James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the Board while the search process begins to find a new permanent CEO. Whitehurst was previously CEO at Red Hat and later President at IBM. Statement from the press release:

“I am honored to join Unity as Interim CEO and President at this important time in its evolution,” Mr. Whitehurst said. “With the Company’s experienced leadership and passionate employees, I am confident that Unity is well-positioned to continue enhancing its platform, strengthening its community of customers, developers and partners, and focusing on its growth and profitability goals. I look forward to working closely with the Board and our talented global team to execute on our strategy, and I anticipate a seamless transition.”

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Game Dev, Misc, Unity
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50 comments
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TheRiddick Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: InhaleOblivion. They clearly haven't learned anything from this debacle.

Sociopaths rarely do, as far as their concerned the problem is everyone else!
eldaking Oct 10, 2023
I really liked this coverage of events: https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/ceo-who-only-had-bad-ideas-totally-leaving-company-of-his-own-volition/

The Hard Drive is supposedly a satire site, but boy does it sometimes give the most accurate version of things.
redneckdrow Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: Grogan
Quoting: EhvisAnd nothing of value was lost.

Yeah, it's not a CEO that does the work... only implements policies to make investors/shareholders money. This is not necessarily aligned with making good products.

I mean, Ayn Rand was less self-absorbed than your average CEO these days. Sigh, the older I get, the more I understand that unscrupulous tactics are the main pitfall of Capitalist/Free-Market economy. Yet, though it may be scummy, I'd take a scummy free-market over any other form of market.

Extremes in any form of market are terrible, no matter who that market is controlled by.

I had to write a paper on Free vs Closed vs Single vs "Post-Free" markets as a teenager, and my A.P. Government and Politics teacher gave me an extension after I showed her the first six (Unspaced! ) pages. It was double that before I was done. I have never had that much to say on a topic since. I went way beyond the assignment, because I went "down the rabbit hole" as it were; I've been burned out on writing for nearly a decade-and-a-half since.


Spoiler, click me
Apropos of nothing, and without revealing too much else, I also happened to pass three A.P. exams that year. I still haven't gone to College (University to you folks across the pond), but if-and-when I do, I'll have quite a few classes that I won't have to take. I never want to touch College Algebra again; it was all I could do to get a B- in that class! I still dream about polynomials and imaginary numbers!

Capitalist, Communist, Republican, Monarchist, Oligarchic, Theocratic, Fascist, and Anarchist economies all have things that make economics equally nightmarish. Not to mention that any of those governments can any/multiples of those economies, irrespective of their politics.

Doesn't mean I have to tolerate scummy CEOs! My grandfather was a member of Local 89 his whole life! He even paid his dues every year after he retired! I'll be a union man 'til the day I die and stand judged. Power to the people!


Last edited by redneckdrow on 10 October 2023 at 1:24 am UTC
rcrit Oct 10, 2023
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I can endorse Jim Whitehurst. He was an amazing CEO at Red Hat.
elmapul Oct 10, 2023
i wonder what company will hire him next... and he will manage to destroy then.
companies never learn somehow.
Bumadar Oct 10, 2023
Fired (well okay they call it retired) by the same board of directors who hired him in the first place to do what he did (they knew and gave their okay for something as big as that price change), so I don't expect whomever they hire next will be much better or less greedy, in a perfect world that board would fire themselves too, but sadly we live in this world ;)
Kimyrielle Oct 10, 2023
Ahh, the joy of seeing good news, even in this time and age.
emphy Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: KimyrielleAhh, the joy of seeing good news, even in this time and age.

Provisionally good news for the indie gaming space.

However, still need to keep an eye on where he's going next. Not to mention that unity software itself still needs fundamental changes, not the least of which are that they still haven't fully abandoned the stupid pay-per-installs and them not having sworn off their malware producing acquisition.


Last edited by emphy on 10 October 2023 at 4:53 am UTC
TheSHEEEP Oct 10, 2023
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You could basically let AI write the entire play at this point.

From soulless corporate leaving blabla to soulless corporate replacement blabla and generic corporate statement as glue between those events.
Nobody would notice if any of those things were or were not written by a human being, as everything is just meaningless platitudes anyway.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 10 October 2023 at 7:30 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: TheSHEEEPYou could basically let AI write the entire play at this point.

From soulless corporate leaving blabla to soulless corporate replacement blabla and generic corporate statement as glue between those event.
Nobody would notice if any of those things were or were not written by a human being, as everything is just meaningless platitudes anyway.
Technically, we don't know for sure that isn't how it was done.
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