In an explosively frank interview with sister site PocketGamer.biz last week, the Unity boss referred to some developers using its ubiquitous development platform as “fucking idiots”.
The harsh words came as the site’s Khai Trung Li drilled down into Unity’s merger with ironSource and the resultant new monetisation features the platform will be able to offer as a result. This in a world where any kind of post-purchase monetization of games grows increasingly knotty (and naughty) with the hardcore gaming community.
After suggesting that implementing monetisation earlier in the development] process has seen pushback from some developers, Riccitiello laid out his opinions in plain and simple English.
“Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives,” he began. “It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with – they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They’re also some of the biggest fucking idiots.”
Hey, but at least they’re beautiful, pure and brilliant, right?
‘Clickbait’
However it seems that Riccitiello’s words weren’t well received with that extract doing the rounds on developers forums and further cementing dubious devs ire into the mergers intentions for the platform.
Riccitiello first took to Twitter to dismiss his comments and the story as ‘clickbait’ and ‘out of context’ which didn’t make much of a dent in the wall of gripes surrounding him as it was observed that he was essentially standing by what he said.
Clickbait. Out of full context. Deeply sorry if what I said offended any game dev. Absolutely love the people that make games. Creative, hard work. #Unity
— John Riccitiello (@johnriccitiello) July 15, 2022
But – phew – an end to all that. It’s alright now – Riccitiello has officially apologised. Again, via Twitter, Thus:
To our friends in the #unity community, I owe you this— pic.twitter.com/llJUL1LwXS
— John Riccitiello (@johnriccitiello) July 16, 2022
The crux of the backtrack comes down to the below when Riccitiello corrects his original statement to, “What I was trying to say and clearly failed at saying is that there are better ways for game developers to get an early read on what players think of their game. To learn from their feedback. And, if the developer want to adjust the game based on this feedback. It’s a choice to listen and act or just to listen. Again very valid choices. If I had been smarter in choosing my words I would have said just this… We are working to provide developers with tools so they can better understand what their players think and it’s up to them to act or not based on this feedback.”
Riccitiello then wraps up with, “Anyway, That’s it. Lots of words. And a sentence that I wish I had never said.”
Phew.
Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the world's biggest entertainment, home and tech media brands. He's reviewed all the greats, interviewed countless big names, and reported on thousands of releases in the fields of video games, music, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors, garden design and more. He’s the ex-Editor of PSM3, GamesMaster, Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes fun things for great websites.
