Unity CEO Resigns After Controversial Pricing Change That Prompted Customer Backlash

Todd Spangler
·1 min read

John Riccitiello will retire as Unity Technologies’s president, CEO and chairman effective immediately, the video-game and 3D content software company said.

Riccitiello’s resignation comes after Unity last month rolled out a new pricing model — switching from a flat licensing fee to a per-download charge — and retroactively changed its terms of service, angering many customers. Unity backtracked a few days later, instituting a flat 2.5% free for a project’s total revenue, but the move generated a considerable amount of ill-will.

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With Riccitiello’s exit, the company named James Whitehurst interim CEO, president and board member while a search is conducted with an executive-recruiting firm to identify a permanent replacement. Whitehurst, formerly president of IBM and Red Hat CEO, currently serves as a special adviser to investment firm Silver Lake, which owns about a 9% stake in Unity.

Unity independent director Roelof Botha has been appointed chairman. Riccitiello “will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition,” the company said in a statement Monday.

Riccitiello joined Unity’s board in 2013 and stepped in to lead the company in 2014. “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,” Riccitiello said in a statement provided by the company.

Unity sells a platform for developing real-time 3D content and experiences — spanning games, film, animation and other areas — across mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented- and virtual-reality devices.

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