Unity CEO Resigns, Dev Community Still Cautious About Giving Platform A Second Chance

It's been a bad run of weeks lately for the company behind game engine Unity, stemming from a ham-fisted plan to drastically alter its pricing model for developers. When that plan was announced, which involved previously free tiers of the engine going away or being changed, per-install fees to developers that could essentially bankrupt a successful game company if it charged too little for games, and other concerns, the backlash from the dev community was swift and severe. Plenty of developers swore off the platform entirely, while others talked about how the trust between the company and the dev community had been shattered. Obviously when things go that poorly, heads are going to roll.

Earlier this week, Unity CEO John Riccitiello announced his resignation as CEO and Chairman effective immediately. Precisely how voluntary that resignation actually was is anyone's guess, but we can at least be confident that Unity was hoping that the news would be well received by developers and that trust could start to be rebuilt between both sides of the equation. And, on the first of those points at least, it certainly worked, as developers reacted positively to the news.

Long, long overdue,"Gloomwooddeveloper Dillon Rogerswrote, summing up joyful reactions to Riccitiello's departure from across the game development community.

Necrosoft Games' Brandon Sheffield (Demonschool), who wasone of the most outspoken criticsof Unity's initial install-fee plans,wrote on social mediathat he truly did not think [Riccitiello's departure] would happen." The CEO's apparent ouster is the main thing Unity needed to do to start rebuilding trust, so... it's a start," Sheffield continued.

There's more like that from other developers, but please note that that's about as positive as it gets from the dev community. What you're not seeing is any developers suggesting that Riccitiello's exit fixes all of Unity's problems, nor that the trust between it and the developers has been repaired. In fact, many developers are saying the exact opposite, pointing out that the CEO may be gone, but many of the influential voices that caused this whole fiasco still remain.

And sometimes that is put in quite colorful terms.

Other developers see Riccitiello leaving as positive but insufficient as long asthe Unity board memberswho also approved these business changes are still at the company. The position was completely untenable and I hope everyone in the c-suite and on the board who were advocating for install fees have the wherewithal and grace to step down," indie developer Leena van Deventer (Dead Static Drive)wrote. There's no path forward without removing everyone who had anything to do with it."

John Riccitiello sucks ass, but it's also worth noting that Unity went public and now has a board of stakeholders who also seem to suck ass," indie developer Dan Pearce (10 Second Ninja X)wrote. Unless you see meaningful, long-term effort to nurture developers and rebuild trust, then it's still worth keeping one eye on the door."

Everyone sucking ass" is not exactly an indicator that the door is open to rebuilding trust unless more changes are made. That being said, it was time for the CEO to go, so this is at least one good baby step in the direction of Unity making it as a platform. But it's also the easiest of the steps to take.

Now the real work begins, with the platform having to demonstrate through actions, not words, that it will actually listen to its own customers.