A harsh judgment from Unity’s CEO last week experienced a fair bit of pushback and criticism from gamers and other studios alike. John Riccitiello publicly lambasted devs who didn’t incorporate monetization techniques as part of the makeup of their games, calling them the “biggest f-ing idiots” for not utilizing aggressive business practices to make a “successful product.”
The blowback from Riccitiello’s quote – and his follow-up, which was to accuse the websites that published the quotes in full of “clickbait” – was so strong that the Unity CEO has now backpedaled hard. In a lengthy apology-slash-explanation to Unity devs, he admitted that his “word choice was crude” and that he holds “great respect for game developers.”
“What I was trying to say, and clearly failed at saying, is that there are better ways for game developers to get an early read on what players think of their game,” he wrote, “and, if the developer wants, to adjust the game based on this feedback.” There’s no apology to the press he maligned, of course, and Unity’s stock is still down 75% over the last year.
To our friends in the #unity community, I owe you this— pic.twitter.com/llJUL1LwXS
— John Riccitiello (@johnriccitiello) July 16, 2022
