Unity CEO retires after controversial pricing policy

Unity Technologies, the company behind the popular video game development platform Unity Engine, announced yesterday that their CEO, John Riccitiello, will be retiring effective immediately. This decision comes about a month after Unity's controversial decision to charge developers based on the number of games they have running on the Unity engine.

In an official statement, Unity announced that James Whitehurst, previous president of IBM, will be appointed as interim CEO of Unity Technologies. Whitehurst had joined IBM when the company acquired the American software company Red Hat, where he was President and CEO from 2008 to 2020. 

Last month, Unity overhauled its pricing model with the introduction of Unity Runtime Fees, which charged developers based on installations exceeding set thresholds, depending on their Unity subscription.

However, this move faced intense resistance from the developer community, citing concerns over increased financial strain and the potential for inaccuracies in installation counts or abuse by malicious actors. The backlash was so severe that some US-based Unity offices temporarily shut down, prompting law enforcement intervention in response to threats received.

In September 22, Unity rolled back some details in their new pricing policy, with one of the key changes being that games with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will not be subjected to the fee.

Some very popular video games are made with Unity Engine, including but not limited to Among Us, Fall Guys, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Genshin Impact, and Pokémon GO.