Former EA boss lands at Unity

Former Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello has found a new home as the chief executive of Unity Technologies, the company behind the hugely popular Unity game engine.

Riccitiello takes over from Unity founder David Helgason who is stepping down but staying with the company in a different role. Helgason explains that Riccitiello has the right skillset and experience to help guide the company through some of the changes it is currently facing.

’He’s the right person to help guide the company to the mission that we set out for ourselves over a decade ago: democratize game development!’ said Helgason. ’This is an amazing win for Unity and the community.’

The regime change should ultimately mean very little for the game engine itself and no major changes to Unity have been planned, with Riccitiello apparently completely agreeing with the company’s current vision and strategy.

Helgason’s new role will involve working more on the company’s strategy and reaching out more to developers that use Unity.

Riccitiello stepped down as EA’s chief executive last year, taking responsibility for the publisher not meeting operational forecasts and its financial woes. He was succeeded temporarily by Larry Probst who was in turn succeeded by Andrew Wilson who took over in September 2013.

Earlier this month, rumours circulated that Unity Technologies might be up for sale with Google being one of the potential buyers. This was subsequently denied by the company which added that Unity has no plan to changes its status as an independent company.