Oof. Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello is out. James Whitehurst is now running things temporarily until a new CEO can be chosen. (See the Press Release here.) So how did it happen? Gamers and devs alike joined hands and said, “Naw, fam” and got it done. Because anger gets things done. That’s just how it is – especially when a company overreaches as badly as Unity did. Still, ousting Riccitiello might not be enough.

The sheer damage this has done to the company is staggering when you stop to look at it. Many devs that were able have already fled to other platforms like Godot to do their work in because Unity is just no longer a trusted quantity. Imagine all that good will they garnered down the drain with one pig-headed and greedy move. Of course, Riccitiello has said some dumb things before after calling devs idiots (and more) and forced to apologize.

So what’s next? How can they repair the bridges they burnt down with a single match? I think the first thing to do is make some sort of legally-binding pledge not to do what they had tried to. Something stakeholders in Unity (no, not shareholders) can use to make sure a move like this can never be repeated. But I’m not legal expert so I have no idea if something like that were possible.

Such a darn waste.