Topic: John Riccitello "Resigns" From Position At Engine Maker Unity, Effective Immediately

[Shaymin]

Riccitello to Sony (e5)

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/65167/john-riccitello-resigns-from-position-at-engine-maker-unity-effective-immediately

A recent controversial change to the pricing structure of the Unity engine has apparently led to the ouster of the company's CEO/president/chairman.

Unity have announced in a press release that CEO John Riccitello (ex of Electronic Arts) has resigned as CEO, president, chairman, and member of the company's board "effective immediately". Riccitello's role at Unity will consist entirely of continuing to "advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition".

The company had been under fire in recent weeks due to announcing a controversial change to the cost of the platform which would have resulted of a fee of up to $0.20 per installed copy of the game as well as the mandatory addition of a "made in Unity" splash screen. The fees were later walked back, with personal Unity licenses being exempted and the fee being assessed the lower of a per-install charge based on self-reported installs or a flat 2.5% of revenue.

[Ian Sane]

When Unity backed down on the original idea there were theories that the current model was what they really wanted and that they came up with the ridiculous one as a tactic to "compromise" to what they were really aiming for.  If that was their plan all along then I don't think we would see Riccitello gone.  It looks like it was what it appeared to be, where upper management came up with a ridiculously greedy pricing structure with all sorts of logistics issues and potential legal issues and figured everyone would bend to it, but they didn't and the company's whole future is almost certainly in doubt now.

[UncleBob]

In fairness, I think if that was the case, they underestimated the backlash to the plan and I think a lot of devs are looking at options just because they don't trust Unity.

[ThePerm]

Nobody wants to accidentally have a bill.