John Richittelo appeared on Unity forums
The appointment of John Riccitiello as the new CEO at Unity has caused numerous speculations around the future of the company and John himself. Being a representative of the most democratic company in terms of communication with customers, the new CEO was forced to appear on the official Unity forum and answer numerous questions from developers.
About the company’s own development plans:
I can’t tell you what I’m going to do for a year or a month. Why? Mainly because I won’t be making decisions alone.
About your own philosophy:
My philosophy is not to increase the company in size or its profits to the detriment of [the engine community and the people developing it]. I am sure Unity should continue its mission… at the highest possible level. If it requires an increase in the company, so be it. But this is about setting priorities, about what is important for the mission of democratizing the development and creation of cool things.
About the role in EA:
When I returned to EA [in 2007], the company had been losing money for a long time. The fact that the company might close was a real fear and a logical question. And during my reign, we did some things that some players didn’t like… we reduced the number of games, we tried new business models (and then and now I was sure that disks would cease to be the main way to play the game, and EA at that time earned 95% on disks), we closed some businesses, opened new ones, we created a completely new mobile and online business, we have increased the quality of games, created new IP and got rid of the old ones. And EA has returned to moderate, though not excellent profitability.