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.

  • Madison_rogueOP
    35•1 year ago

    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.

    • FreeBooteR69
      7•1 year ago

      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.

      • gullible
        6•1 year ago

        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

        • ThunderingJerboa
          4•1 year ago

          I mean you are assuming the person who is trying to murder you is a rational actor but you can’t really be a rational actor if you are threatening death to someone because of their shit monetization policies on your entertainment. Hell some people throw “Death threats” at people because they decide to change a reload speed by a fraction of a second. So yeah “gamers” can be quite unhinged. Hell you had idiots in Jan 6 who loudly stated their intention and beat a cop to death. Hell we have seen situations of weirdos getting close to celebrities (in their heads) then trying to kill them, and I imagine cases like that will only get worse with parasocial relationships getting a bit out of hand with modern influences and streamers.

          • ripcord
            4•1 year ago

            Not trying to justify threats, but freaking out over one 40-year old event seems like overreaction, may not be the best argument.

          • Ferk
            1•1 year ago

            Particularly in the US, where having a gun is relatively easy… to the point that even school kids can end up getting hold of them. I’d be scared.

        • all-knight-party
          2•1 year ago

          That’s the fallacy of trying to understand criminal acts. For the most part, if someone were as smart, logical, and thoughtful as you are when you imagine the best way to commit murder, the kind of person to actually try and commit the murder would not be as smart, logical, or thoughtful to have gotten into that situation in the first place.

          There are exceptions, of course, but it’s enough of a possibility that it’s probably better to take them seriously than not.

          Edit: typed all that, scrolled down, some other dude already said it