Unity’s CEO is stepping down from the company after a weeks-long controversy surrounding changes to the engine’s pricing model. But a change in leadership isn’t enough to bring some developers back to the engine.
Unity announced that John Riccitiello - the company’s president, chief executive officer, chairman, and board of directors member - would “retire” from all of his roles. The announcement didn’t mention the pricing controversy at all, only that Unity was beginning a “comprehensive search process” for the next CEO.
Mega Crit - the studio behind the acclaimed card-battling roguelike Slay The Spire - reacted to the news on Twitter: “cool! anyways, our next game is moving to Godot.” (Godot is another smaller game development engine that’s been gaining popularity since Unity’s troubles.) A change in leadership was seemingly too little, too late for Slay The Spire’s developers, who had previously roasted the pricing changes.
Gregorios Kythreotis, the creative director behind the great open-world indie Sable, had a more optimistic reaction. “Let’s see who replaces him but potentially a big step in the right direction here,” he wrote on Twitter. “Would make a huge difference in how I feel about Unity going forward. I still think they should strongly reconsider their new terms or at least how soon they are implemented.”
A formal apology from the company and an updated fee policy were enough to leave some developers “deeply happy,” while the majority were understandably concerned about Unity's future and were eyeing up other engines. Vampire Survivors’ creator already said the team wouldn’t go back to Unity.
Terraria’s developer also protested the pricing changes by donating money to competing engines.
