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John Riccitiello has taken to the Unity forums to alleviate concerns amongst a number of developers about his recent appointment as CEO at the company.
Riccitiello, who had been a board member since last November, told developers about the issues he faced at EA to turn the publisher back to profitability, but was keen to move the discussion to Unity.
He said he firmly believes in the company’s long-publicised mission to “democratise” game development, which to him meant putting the developer first.
“I strongly believe this and see it as my guiding light. And, I believe Unity has some awesome people that get this mission incredibly well, and I intend to listen to them,” he said.
He later added that democratisation is also about recognising the difficulties of making a great game, right from development to release and beyond.
“David, Joachim and Nicholas recognised this early, and put Unity squarely in the camp of supporting developers in the journey to help them make the best games possible.” Said Riccitiello.
“I intend to ensure that remains true and also help developers find audiences for their games. Its too early for me to be specific on all of this… and it would be wrong for me to do that until i spend more time with the teams at Unity. Listen first… it allows a better chance of saying something useful later.”
Riccitiello also insisted his primary aim is not to just drive revenue and scale the firm, and was keen to listen to developers’ needs.
“My philosophy is not to get bigger or more profitable for the sake of these things,” he explained.
“I believe Unity needs to continue to pursue its mission … as with as much purpose and greatness as it can. If this means we’re bigger, so be it. But it’s about deciding what is important, what is important to the mission of democratising development, and making great things happen.”
