Unity has not been in a lot of indie developer’s good books lately. The controversial new fee caused many to turn their back on the development toolkit and its creator. Following on from this, Unity CEO John Riccitiello has now decided to leave the company.
Unity has announced the departure of Riccitiello as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, “effective immediately.” The business executive has been with the company since 2014, having come from Electronic Arts.
As it stands, Unity will be without a permanent CEO for the time being. However, James M. Whitehurst – who has served as Senior Advisor at IBM – will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer. Additionally, the company’s Lead Independent Director of the board, Roelof Botha, has been appointed Chairman.
Unreal that he didn’t go sooner
Many who’ve been following the story surrounding Unity’s proposed “Runtime Fee” will be able to put the pieces together. While there doesn’t appear to be any official statement as to why Riccitiello has resigned, it’s too much of a coincidence for the recent debacle to not be a major factor in the decision.
Some will be pleased that the former COO of Electronic Arts is now out of the picture, though the controversy is still around, it seems. As far as we can tell, Unity intends to go ahead with a version of its contentious new pricing plan. The company did backtrack a little bit on the policy, but some may feel it’s too little too late.
As such, a lot of people–especially independent developers and studios–probably won’t be sad to see Riccitiello leave. However, we don’t know who will take over on a more permanent basis, nor whether this will affect the controversial fee that caused a stir among the gaming community.
