[gumballindie]

> A part of me thinks that the CEO (and all the other executive morons who decided to make the installation fee) was sitting there thinking "what are they going to do? Move to Godot?"

Their CEO gives me the impression of a rich but unsophisticated mba type who can only deliver revenue growth by raising prices. I doubt he even thought about captive customers and lack of what he might have thought alternative engines, let along open source and free.

He’s the type that thinks open source is maybe a toy.

I knew he was a stink when i read that he ordered unity employees back to offices. He thought he can order customers a new fee. He confirmed my suspicion. A shame that we as a society and industry allow these zeroes to end up leading tech companies.

[DonHopkins]

I know John Riccitiello from when I worked at Maxis/EA on The Sims last century, and when he was involved with investing in Will Wright's Stupid Fun Club, and later when he was involved as CEO of EA in open sourcing SimCity for the One Laptop Per Child. We (including Eben Moglen, Free Software Foundation general counsel) explained to him why EA should open source the original SimCity source code under GPL-3, and what open source software and GPL-3 mean, and he approved the deal, and I gave him credit and positive feedback and sincerely thanked him. And we earned EA a lot of good publicity during a time when they were considered one of the worst companies in the world.

EA Donates Original City-Building Game, SimCity, to ''One Laptop per Child'' Initiative:

https://ir.ea.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2007/...

OLCP EA Contract:

https://donhopkins.com/home/olpc-ea-contract.pdf

And I've given him credit for doing that here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23251414

When Unity joined the Blender development fund as a Patron member while Riccitiello was CEO of Unity, I also gave him positive feedback and sincerely thanked him again, telling him how important Blender is to Unity game developers, and how important it is for them to work well together.

Unity Joins the Blender Development Fund as a Patron Member:

https://www.blender.org/press/unity-joins-the-blender-develo...

I recommended he watch Ton Roosendaal's excellent "Money doesn't interest me" interview, in which he does not hold back on his feelings about Autodesk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJEWOTZnFeg

And also this video of Ton getting hit by a ceiling tile during a talk. (Presumably perpetrated by Autodesk!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk

Then when Joe Biden endorsed Unity three times in his inaugural address, I asked Riccitiello how much Unity paid for that product placement, but he wouldn't tell me:

>"With Unity we can do great things, important things!"

>"For without Unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury."

>"And Unity is the path forward."

>-Joe Biden's inaugural address.

Then after Unity recently announced they're pulling the rug out from under their developers, I posted to Riccitiello's Facebook page a screen snapshot of the github star ranking table showing that Godot suddenly had a 535.6% increase in stars, and sincerely thanked him again, writing "Thank you for your substantial contribution to open source gaming engines, at the expense of your own company!"

So I'm pretty sure he's aware of open source software, but I don't think he actually meant to benefit the Godot project so much at the expense of Unity.

The Godot folks, who have greatly benefited from this fiasco through no fault of their own, immediately condemned the death threat that somebody (who turned out to be a Unity employee) posted, which caused Unity to cancel an event and close their office.

https://twitter.com/godotengine/status/1702413121086705951

>Godot Engine @godotengine

>We extend our sincere solidarity and support to the Unity workers. The recent reactions have left us profoundly disappointed. Threats of violence should have no place in the gamedev community.

The truth behind the Unity "Death Threats":

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/16j21jg/the_truth_...

>Update: San Francisco police told Polygon that officers responded to Unity’s San Francisco office “regarding a threats incident.” A “reporting party” told police that “an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.

Reddit thread from 8 years ago, with recent posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/3cxogb/til_unity_c...

TIL Unity CEO John Riccitiello was former CEO of EA. He saved EA from declining profits by sellings games EA made online (Origin) rather than physical packages and raising game quality. Also, he's barely known for being CEO at Unity Technologies.

>drakfyre 8 yr. ago

>I am honestly really pleased the hate has died down. Riccitiello is a pretty damn good CEO and Unity's former CEO (though a SUPER COOL dude) really didn't have the practice nor want to be a CEO of such a rapidly expanding company.

>rvc3m8 8 days ago

>now, that didn't age well, did it? ;)

>drakfyre 7 days ago

>No, no it did not, not at all...

[gumballindie]

Interesting. What i fail to understand though is how on earth he could have approved or thought that this may be a good move. I find it hilariously childish. But glad it ignited the idea of open source in game development - hope the industry figures out how to also monetise it.

[PoignardAzur]

This is such a weird post. Why the Biden mention?

[DonHopkins]

Because Biden endorsed Unity so many times in his inaugural address. It was a such refreshing departure and contrast from Trump's obsession with Unreal lies and propoganda.

The 41 most Unreal Donald Trump quotes of 2018:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics/trump-lines-of-t...

JANUARY 20, 2021: A National Day of Unity

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-action...

President Joe Biden 2021 Inaugural Address:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlbyOeMCL0g

Inaugural Address by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/20...

To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words.

It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:

Unity.

Unity.

With Unity we can do great things. Important things.

I know speaking of Unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy.

History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of Unity.

For without Unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.

This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and Unity is the path forward.

And together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear.

Of Unity, not division.

[jimmywetnips]

i just feel like there needed to be a good transition from the serious beginning about the riticiello to the meme at the end. Like it was too jarring to suddenly do the 180 to the presidential speech.

[DonHopkins]

It was in chronological order, from my Facebook Messenger chats with him. Not everything we discussed was serious, sorry to confuse you! How is literally quoting the President of the United State's Inaugural Address a "meme"?

Did you watch the video of Autodesk attacking Ton Roosendaal with falling ceiling plaster? (I didn't make that part up: It happened just after Ton mentioned Autodesk, so he immediately joked: "That was Autodesk!")

Ton Roosendaal gets hit by ceiling at Blender Conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwG-qt-sgk

>During his Blender Foundation/Institute panel, Ton Roosendaal gets almost hit in the head by a piece of plaster falling from the ceiling of the conference center.