John Riccitiello’s unceremonious exit from video game engine developer Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U) likely didn’t surprise those with a keen eye on the business side of the video games industry.
Riccitiello stepped down as chief executive of Unity, which provides the building blocks on top of which many popular video games are made, after a highly controversial shake-up of its pricing model.
Under the guidance of Riccitiello, Unity decided to start charging developers each and every time a game made on Unity was installed, starting in 2024.
This policy would have been backdated, thus applying to every game previously made on Unity.
Riccitiello planned to charge $0.20 for every sincle download starting from a 200,000 threshold.
The gaming community was furious, accusing the company and its CEO of a selfish cash grab at the sacrifice of independent game developers.
Unity was quick to backtrack, issuing an apology on Twitter/X and promising changes to the policy.
We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…
— Unity (@unity) September 17, 2023
Apologies aside, there was clear reputational damage to be mitigated, with Riccitiello acting as the fall guy, announcing his departure on Monday after nine years at the company.
A dramatic turn of events, but not one without precedent.
Riccitiello was twice the chief executive of global video game behemoth Electronic Arts, first between 1997 and 2004, then again between 2007 and 2013.
Between those stints he ran a private equity firm alongside U2 frontman Bono.
Riccitiello left EA for good after taking accountability for the Need for Speed publisher failing to hit revenue targets.
In the title for the world’s greediest video game companies, EA is often seen as a winning contender, having been a pioneer in the art of microtransactions.
One of the most egregious examples was in Star Wars: Battlefront II, one of the most infamously microtransaction-heavy AAA gaming releases ever.
EA’s culture of rinsing gamers for extra post-purchase cash was nurtured during Riccitiello's tenure.
Such is his love for these monetisation policies that he called anyone opposed to them “some of the biggest f****** idiots”.
Surely his greatest hit came in 2011, when he floated a novel idea to EA shareholders.
“When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you’re really not that price sensitive at that point in time,” he pondered.
Thankfully, charging gamers per bullet never actually came to pass, but Riccitiello’s latest debacle shows that old habits sometimes die hard.