John Riccitiello... it was a name mentioned often throughout 2012 and early 2013. Riccitiello took a lot of the brunt of the consumer angst spawned from one situation after another involving EA. Why? Because he was the CEO, and many saw him as the face of the company. Well, now you're about to see him as the face of a different company.
GamesIndustry.biz recently put up an article following a Unity press release indicating that long-time CEO of the company, David Helgason, is stepping down and is being replaced by Electronic Arts' former CEO, John Riccitiello.
David Helgason stated...
"I'm so proud of everything Unity accomplished in the last decade but now it's time to look forward to an excellent future. Our mission is an important one, so I'm incredibly happy that John has agreed to lend his formidable experience to the role of CEO at Unity,""We've had the chance to work together over the last year-and-a-bit and come to recognize how similar our views are on the importance of the democratization of development to a thriving developer ecosystem and healthy games industry. We're in great hands."
Unity Technologies has been around since 2004, co-founded by David Helgason, Nicholas Francis, and Joachim Ante.
While the Unity Engine started as a small industry software tool, it soon grew, and grew, and grew into something notable and recognizable. In today's development landscape there's two major engines that stand out: Unity Engine and the Unreal Engine.
Over the years Unity Technologies offered up free tools for developers so they could get their toes wet in the development scene without breaking the bank. They took up the task of providing registered Nintendo developers with free tools, as well as raise the bar by including some of the more advanced graphical and mechanical elements of game design, such as Global Illumination.
These advancements and the deep embedded respect that Unity has garnered from the community is something that Riccitiello sees as a prime opportunity to further help the technology grow...
"Unity has been a hugely positive force in the games industry for years. Now it's my incredible fortune to have the opportunity to help guide Unity going forward," … "Unity is more than a great engine or packages of services, it's an amazing and diverse community of developers, many of which are changing the way we think about game design and production. Unity's mission -- to democratize development -- is an important one that I'm very happy to help drive forward."
Given some of the past history of Electronic Arts, I don't know how well gamers will take to Riccitiello being in charge of a company that has largely been seen as pro-community. Unity is also the go-to engine for a lot of indie devs who have their projects on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.
John Riccitiello had resigned from his position as EA's CEO back in early 2013, where he was succeeded by Andrew Wilson.
It will be interesting to see where Riccitiello takes Unity. David Helgason, alternatively, will be taking on the role of being an executive vice president in charge of strategy and communications.
You can learn more about the engine and the company by visiting the official website.
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