Reuters reports that Unity's CEO, John Riccitiello, will retire immediately and replace IBM's former president, James Whitehurst, as interim CEO and Roelof Botha as chairman.
Riccitiello is set to gradually end his nine-year tenure with the company to execute a seamless transition, as the board still needs to convene to appoint and find a permanent CEO.
Riccitiello thanked the people behind the company, according to CNBC, by stating that it has been an honor to oversee Unity for almost ten years while also serving its partners, customers, workers, and other stakeholders who have all contributed to the company's expansion.
Unity's Controversial Pricing Scheme
The retirement announcement comes less than a month after the company's controversial pricing scheme that "upset" a lot of developers, according to CNBC. A 20+ strong band of different game developers, game designers, artists, and business minds expressed their disapproval in a letter of the new "installation-dependent fees."
Unity's controversial pricing scheme was described in the letter by comparing it to a car. Stating that the change is like suddenly charging someone for "every mile driven on a car... bought a year ago." Thus putting hundreds of studios in danger, all without discussion or consultation.
As a response, the group stated what essentially was a boycott of Unity, as the group demanded that until the pricing scheme is adjusted accordingly, they will not monetize with Unity Ads across all projects and urged others to do the same.
As a result of acknowledging the complaints and issuing an apology, Unity eventually changed its version to appeal to developers, as reported by CNBC. This is also after the company reportedly lost 19% of its shares' value when the controversial pricing scheme was announced.
The issued change showed that no company with no substantial success would be subject to the fees, specifically no game with a trailing 12-month revenue under $1 million.
Reuters also reports that the move of the company was also in response to remedy "raising fears" of developers moving "to rival Epic Games that makes the Unreal gaming engine."
Unity's Current Interim CEO
Unity's Current Interim CEO, James Whitehurst, will be set to temporarily replace Riccitiello, who previously held the position of senior adviser and president at IBM. The interim CEO states he is "honored to join Unity as Interim CEO and President at this important time in its evolution."
Unity's now interim CEO said after the retirement announcement that Unity is "well positioned" to enhance its platform and that the company will continue concentrating on its growth and profitability objectives while focusing on its community of users, partners, and developers.
After Riccitiello's retirement announcement, CNBC reported that the company's shares had already lost their value by 1.5%.
Unity is stated to have a market cap valued at over $11 Billion after its first trading day valuation of $17 Billion back in 2020.
