Unity CEO John Riccitiello Retires, Whitehurst Appointed Interim CEO And President

Unity Technologies continues to feel the ripples from its extremely unpopular decision to tack on additional fees for every installation of Unity-run games as John Riccitiello retires from his role as CEO, president, chairman, and member of the board of directors effective immediately. He is ultimately the person responsible for the controversial runtime fees which earned the company the ire of game developers the world over.

This isn’t the first time that Riccitiello had been involved in a controversy within Unity Technologies and the video game industry in general. He is apparently disliked by many of the company’s rank-and-file employees, which wasn’t helped by his decision to layoff around 600 employees and shut down half of Unity’s offices to boost short term profits. To be fair, Unity isn’t the only video game company to undergo restructuring and mass layoffs.

The former CEO also gained notoriety last year when he called developers who shied away from monetization schemes “Electronic Arts during the time that the publisher was transitioning to a live service model and the Origin platform. It marked one of the lowest points in the company’s history after it was voted as the worst company in the US in 2012. While live service games are now the norm, he still bore the brunt of the community’s backlash during the switch.

James Whitehurst has been appointed interim CEO and President. He served as CEO of Red Hat from 2008 to 2020 and president of IBM until 2022.

“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,” Whitehurst said in the official press release.

It’s unclear how Riccitiello’s departure will affect Unity but it looks like several concessions to appease angry developers.