David Helgason, Unity’s co-founder and CEO, has stepped down and board member and ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello has been announced as his successor. Riccitiello was CEO of EA, after being President and Chief Operating Officer, but resigned last year. Since then he’s been dabbling in start ups and serving on boards, including Unity’s board of directors.
Helgason won’t be leaving Unity, though, and will continue at the company as Executive Vice President of strategy and communications.
“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,” said David Helgason. “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 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.” said John Riccitiello. “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.”
A couple of weeks ago, there rumours about a possible acquisition of Unity, with the engine developer shopping around for buyers. But Unity responded to the rumours, stating that the company would continue to be independent.