John Riccitiello

Since 2014, John Riccitiello has served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and growing interactive, real-time (RT3D) content. Under his tenure as CEO, the company has dramatically increased investment in its core game engine and has established its market leadership in games. After sh... ifting from perpetual license to SaaS-based service offerings in 2016, Unity has brought multiple innovations to market including the Unity engine’s scriptable render pipeline (SRP), unveiled in 2018. SRP is a highly customizable rendering technology that is behind Unity's high definition render pipeline (HDRP) and universal render pipeline (URP), which allow game developers to create more platform-optimized graphics and push the limits of high fidelity. Under John’s leadership, Unity has also consistently built out its industry-defining multi-platform support, reaching any device or platform –from PC to mobile – without ever sacrificing performance. In June 2022, Unity’s new live game development platform Unity Gaming Services (UGS) became generally available. UGS is a suite of tools and services that simplify how developers can create, host, and manage their games in the cloud and from a single dashboard. Unity’s Data Oriented Tech Stack (DOTS) also became fully production-ready in 2022, helping developers create ambitious games with massive detailed worlds, large-scale simulations, and first-class multiplayer support. At the time of Unity’s headline-making IPO in 2020, there were more than 1.5M monthly active creators using the Unity platform. One year after the IPO, Unity crossed the $1B revenue run rate and the applications developed by Unity creators were downloaded more than 4 billion times per month. Today, roughly 50% of all games across mobile, PC, and console globally are made with Unity, including ~70% of the world’s top 1,000 mobile games. Additionally, in less than six years, Unity went from an unknown player to one of the top players in global market share for gaming ads with Unity Ads becoming the company’s largest revenue stream. In November 2022, after completing the merger with ironSource, the company became the industry’s leading end-to-end platform for developers to build, grow, and run immersive, real-time games and 3D experiences – supporting them through the entire development lifecycle. Under John’s leadership, Unity has also been driving RT3D adoption by industries beyond gaming including Film & Entertainment, Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Automotive. Digital Twin has grown to become 40% of the company’s Create Solutions revenue, with customers leveraging its RT3D technology ranging from Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen Group to Boeing, eBay, and Walgreens. Siggraph 2022 marked a key milestone for Unity as the company unveiled its new Lion demo, showcasing its new fur tools, acquired from Wētā Digital in December 2021, biomechanical elastic-body solver from Ziva VFX for soft body dynamic simulation and vegetation delivered by Speedtree - all translated into real-time use with the Unity engine. Unity is now productizing the vast array of artist tools that Wētā Digital has developed (such as Lumberjack, Totara, Scenic Designer, and World Builder) and offering them to developers in gaming and beyond. Unity provides $1.4 billion worth of software to institutions, students, and educators to support technology-related training and make learning Unity accessible and John has personally donated to match Unity's charitable donations to education and other causes. In 2022, he made a substantial donation to the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD). The donation provides a permanent source of financial support ensuring IMGD remains the leader in cutting-edge education and research and continues to be a creative incubator for future professional interactive media creators. Charitable organizations John has supported include Aim High, Australian Committee for UNICEF Limited, Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, International Medical Corps, KIPP Public Schools, Nova Ukraine, San Francisco General Hospital, and Urban Arts Partnership. Prior to joining Unity, John served as President and CEO of video game company Electronic Arts (EA) from October 1997 to 2004. He left the company to co-found and serve as partner of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm specializing in entertainment and media businesses, along with Roger McNamee and Bono. In February of 2007, John returned to EA to serve as CEO until March 2013. After his second tenure at EA, John supported the growth and development of diverse startups and was one of the early investors in Oculus Rift, which was acquired by Meta in 2014. John chaired the Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Software Rating Board during the early 2010s. He has also served on the Haas School of Business' board, as well as the Board of Councilors for the University of Southern California's USC School of Cinematic Arts. John has lived all over the world including in New York City; Chicago; Nicosia, Cyprus; Dusseldorf, Germany; Paris, France; and London, UK. He is married, has two daughters, one step-daughter, and one step-son, and currently lives in the Bay Area.Read More