1y ago

Unity cancels town hall over reported death threats

www.theverge.com Unity cancels town hall over reported death threats

Unity’s CEO was to address employees at the meeting.

The Unity pricing debacle has taken an unfortunate, dangerous turn. In a new report from Bloomberg, the company has reportedly canceled a town hall meeting due to what the publication called credible death threats. According to Bloomberg, Unity CEO John Riccitiello was set to address employees Thursday morning, but the companywide meeting was canceled and two of Unity’s offices were closed because of the alleged threats.

Gaming @beehaw.org

Unity cancels town hall over reported death threats

www.theverge.com /2023/9/14/23873628/unity-death-threats-john-riccitiello

1 3

21 comments

He was the CEO of Electronic Arts when the controversial loot box monetization was added to FIFA 09. He made news when he called developers “fucking idiots” over some developers’ reluctance to introduce monetization schemes earlier in the development process. There’s also the infamous clip of Riccitiello talking during a shareholder call about charging Battlefield players a dollar to reload their guns.
Look at this guy...I couldn't read all of the Bloomberg article due to paywall, so I don't know if this jackass actually provided proof of these "death threats."
While I don't condone them, it seems awfully convenient that an executive who's known to stir controversy with his monetization strategies received "alleged" death threats. I have a hard time believing it without proof because this guy is a sleaze ball greedy mofo.
- In any group of people there will always be a tiny subset of the population who will pull this unhinged bullshit. It's unfortunate, but now the CEO gets to play the victim, and anyone who's against his bullshit gets to be painted with the same brush as the unhinged guy.
  
  I never understand freaking out about death threats. If someone actually wanted to murder you, they’d be quiet and methodical about it, not grandiose. To be fair, I’ve never received a death threat so perhaps I’m not theeeeeeeeeeeee

John Riccitiello
Dude is fucking cancer in the gaming industry. Completely unwanted and unhealthy for the gaming community but too insidious to fucking stomp out.
Everything this guy touches becomes shit nobody wanted.
- He is a reverse midas. Turns gold into shit

Unity is done for. Nobody is going to start a new project with their product. Devs are risk adverse. Making a game that is original is already a big enough risk for any studio. Why add an infinite amount of risk but building your game on an engine with unstable management. It is even worth retraining people to use a different engine.

so like, do it online, smart guy.
also WTF?
Some have threatened to never use Unity again and are encouraging players to pay for but not download their games to avoid incurring the new fees.
- Only scenario I could imagine where a developer may want you to both buy and pirate their game.
  
  Unfortunately, Unity has no way to tell legitimate installs from pirated installs, as far as I have read. This means someone with a massively pirated game who has just broken the $200,000 revenue barrier could potentially be on the hook to pay Unity more money per install than they've even made.
- It was a joke. The dev said if you buy their game, don't install it. Come over to their house and play it on their computer, they'll make you some food while you're at it. Sounds like it's been decontextualised beyond understanding

lol owned

21 comments