Unity CEO Steps Down After Engine Runtime Fee Plans

[GFreeman]

Unity CEO John Riccitiello is stepping down as president, CEO, chairman, and board member, effective immediately. The decision comes weeks after a big backslash from developers and community due to the announced Runtime Fee plans for the Unity game engine. John Riccitiello was Electronic Arts CEO from 2007 to 2013, after which he joined Unity as a board director in 2013 and became CEO in 2014, holding the position for over nine years.

"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," he said in a statement provided by Unity. "I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company's future success," he added.



Unity has appointed James M. Whitehurst as interim chief executive officer. Whitehurst is an executive veteran, previously serving as President and Chief Executive Officer at Red Hat and IBM from 2008 to 2020.

"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."

As announced earlier, Unity has partially pulled back its decision to charge developers every time a game has been installed, and said this will apply to Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise plans and, more importantly, will no longer apply to existing games.

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[Arco]

While selling stocks?

 

[phanbuey]

While selling stocks?

well he's certainly not going to hold it after he destroyed the company.

 

[theouto]

The board is still the same, so nothing will truly change, hell the guy coming in could be even worse than Riccitello!

Oh well, let's try to remain slightly hopeful and resume the cynicism once the new guy gets in and proves to be even worse or just as bad

 

[TheDeeGee]

Don't forget to close the door you douche nozzle.

 

[Chomiq]

While selling stocks?

Didn't he sell right before announcing the fees?

 

[Sp33d Junki3]

Didn't he sell right before announcing the fees?

yes he did and others too.

 

[Zareek]

Former EA exec, now the clueless greed move makes so much more sense.

 

[b1k3rdude]

well he's certainly not going to hold it after he destroyed the company.

Ricatello was simply the paid sock puppet. The actual architects of this drama are the equity firms that own Unity, namely Tomer Bar-Zeev (IronSource) and Egon Durban (Silver Lake). These are the same upstanding businessmen that sold significant chunks of Unity stock before the shit hit the fan - https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/U/insider-trades/. And there is lawsuit by shareholders in May 2023 against these same men for insider trading - https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/unity-software-leaders-accused-of-insider-trading-on-bad-metrics.

And regarding Marc Whitten, ex-Xbox (right after a bunch of losses and mass-layoffs ). Remember Unity lost 300 employees in January and then another 200 in June -

- https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-lays-off-almost-300-staff
- https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-lays-off-four-percent-of-workforce-to-realign-resources

So will Whitten be doing another round of layoffs like he did at Xbox?

 

[Prima.Vera]

Sacked, definitely no resignation.
The fact that he came from EA says it all actually...

 

[qlum]

Be it his plans or plans from the equity firms, as CEO he remains responsible, especially for the messaging / execution. The plans caused a lot of controversy, were poorly implemented and thought out, the messaging around it broke a lot of trust, only to be toned down later on.

Him getting ousted is the only logical out outcome here. Even if the plans came from the owners. He could have stepped down to signal they are really not acceptable right then and there or offered a better alternative, he did not.

Especially considering how important trust is for a game engine. Developers put a lot of money in a project that cannot easily be moved, so trust in the platform is extremely important.

 

[unwind-protect]

Especially considering how important trust is for a game engine. Developers put a lot of money in a project that cannot easily be moved, so trust in the platform is extremely important.

The same applies to programming languages. You make a huge investment in your choice and you can't easily recover when something goes wrong with your choice.

As a result practically all programming languages are open source now.

Game developers will need to go through the pain of using software that can't be taken away from you at the whim of a CEO or a board. This doesn't mean that everything has to be OSS at once. The actual engine would have to be, but you could still use commercial tools for it.

 

[Deleted member 229121]

Never knew what this dbag looked like until now....he's Felonius Gru with hair

 

[TechLurker]

They're still pushing through with the rest of their changes, so I expect more still bailing and going to Unreal and other rivals. All Epic has to do is not screw up and advertise Unreal a bit more.

 

[R-T-B]

While selling stocks?

Honestly, the CEOs stocks sold were a really small percentage of their holdings. I feel that is way overblown as they probably do similar on an automated schedule via their broker several times per year. Other figures may be less innocent (and no I do not take joy in defending this CEO but it is what it is).

They're still pushing through with the rest of their changes, so I expect more still bailing and going to Unreal and other rivals. All Epic has to do is not screw up and advertise Unreal a bit more.

Unreal literally costs more than the "per install" plans cap though (2.5% vs 3%).

The same applies to programming languages. You make a huge investment in your choice and you can't easily recover when something goes wrong with your choice.

As a result practically all programming languages are open source now.

Game developers will need to go through the pain of using software that can't be taken away from you at the whim of a CEO or a board. This doesn't mean that everything has to be OSS at once. The actual engine would have to be, but you could still use commercial tools for it.

Retroactive licensing is generally illegal, at least in the USA. The way they were planning on enforcing it was relicensing you the second you downloaded a unity platform "security update." Scummy, but still, avoidable if you don't want to pay, and your game already worked.

 

[unwind-protect]

Retroactive licensing is generally illegal, at least in the USA. The way they were planning on enforcing it was relicensing you the second you downloaded a unity platform "security update." Scummy, but still, avoidable if you don't want to pay, and your game already worked.

Has it ever been determined whether the old licensing terms contain clauses that they can retroactively changed or not? I think that is a key question in the whole affair. I guess it did not, based on them erasing every mention of the old terms.

 

[trsttte]

yes he did and others too.

Ricatello was simply the paid sock puppet. The actual architects of this drama are the equity firms that own Unity, namely Tomer Bar-Zeev (IronSource) and Egon Durban (Silver Lake). These are the same upstanding businessmen that sold significant chunks of Unity stock before the shit hit the fan - https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/U/insider-trades/. And there is lawsuit by shareholders in May 2023 against these same men for insider trading - https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/unity-software-leaders-accused-of-insider-trading-on-bad-metrics.

And regarding Marc Whitten, ex-Xbox (right after a bunch of losses and mass-layoffs ). Remember Unity lost 300 employees in January and then another 200 in June -

- https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-lays-off-almost-300-staff
- https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-lays-off-four-percent-of-workforce-to-realign-resources

So will Whitten be doing another round of layoffs like he did at Xbox?

For the current shitstorm they were all the same automatic orders that go out every month. Market beat doesn't show the complete information but it's publicly available on the exchange page for anyone to see https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/u/insider-activity

 

[b1k3rdude]

Honestly, the CEOs stocks sold were a really small percentage of their holdings. I feel that is way overblown as they probably do similar on an automated schedule via their broker several times per year. Other figures may be less innocent (and no I do not take joy in defending this CEO but it is what it is).

Correct, but your forgetting all the other stocks that were sold, which is heading towards $50 million. And also dont for get the lawsuit as a result of the insider trading.

 

[R-T-B]

Correct, but your forgetting all the other stocks that were sold, which is heading towards $50 million. And also dont for get the lawsuit as a result of the insider trading.

There might be some insider trading but it isn't coming from the CEO, as everyone always seems to claim. That was my sole and only point.

 

[AusWolf]

No one saw this coming... obviously.

 

[MarsM4N]

More like "Unity CEO Got Stepped Down After Engine Runtime Fee Plans". Anyways, trust is already lost & the image of the company ruined.

Former EA exec, now the clueless greed move makes so much more sense.

He was also the guy who recommended to charge $1 per weapon reload in Battlefield. Shows with who you're dealing with here.

 

[AusWolf]

More like "Unity CEO Got Stepped Down After Engine Runtime Fee Plans". Anyways, trust is already lost & the image of the company ruined.


He was also the guy who recommended to charge $1 per weapon reload in Battlefield. Shows with who you're dealing with here.

People like that shouldn't just be fired. They should be prisoned. Surely there must be some law against such douchebaggery.

 

[Xaled]

Not that I like him or not, but apparently Unity is losing, or at least not winning enough or things are not going OK. The guy came up with an "urgent plan"that may've worked years ago, but now, now it's too late for such a way.

I am a developer too but lets be little objective, the platform needs money to stay on feet or to develop and also make my job even easier. Greed from either side is not OK, People should be willing to payback. I am against overpriced software but I am also against not paying anything at all. Paying back should not be voluntarily or optional, as in Blender's donating system, because people simply wont pay enough and this free tools may die one day or be mis-used by greedy companies/people as well. Epic was/is lucky to have Fortinte but Unity doesn't have similar resource.

 

[R-T-B]

People like that shouldn't just be fired. They should be prisoned. Surely there must be some law against such douchebaggery.

Prison for assholes? What could go wrong, hoarding that many assholes in one place? We haven't had an asshole singularity event yet, right?

 

[AusWolf]

Prison for assholes? What could go wrong, hoarding that many assholes in one place? We haven't had an asshole singularity event yet, right?

Assholes turning into black holes due to their immense amount of combined gravity?

If that was possible, I don't think the Earth would still be here.