John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the company whose 3D game engine had recently seen backlash from developers over proposed fee structures, will retire as CEO, president, and board chairman at the company, according to a press release issued late on a Monday afternoon, one many observe as a holiday.
Out with the old guy and in with the new guy. No change to the incentive structure. I wonder if things will turn out differently this time?
I hope Unity users will get to continue to use the tool they have spent so many hours learning. I also think the industry should try to make things more CEO proof.
The problem is making it more shareholder proof. Enshittification comes from the line go up mandate. Unity is but a single example.
Enshittification might be my new favorite word
This is so true. Shareholders couldn't care less if he was popular with customers. All they care about is whether he can do anything to boost profits. In their world, even the situation with Unity can be spun as "innovative" (in the sense that it introduced another revenue stream for the company) and that even if this initial implementation is scrapped, it can be learned from and improved on for future ones.
I also hope that they continue to be able to use that tool, but at this point, it's clear to me that it would be wise to start learning new tools. For me, it's not just that the company has made a mistake, but that the mistake was a repeat of a mistake they made back in 2019, which indicates that they may well do it again.