Summary
Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello sold 2,000 shares of the technology company last week. While not an unusual move on its own, this decision was followed by achange in how Unity charges developersthat angered many devs and affected share prices.
On September 12, Unity decided to charge devs using its engine every time that their game is installed. The new Unity Runtime Fee will affect developers that had a revenue of more than $200,000 during the previous 12 months and have over 200,000 installs in a game.Unity is used in several popular games, such asPokemon GO,Return of the Obra Dinn,andGenshin Impact, and this decision has been unpopular, to say the least. Among the main concerns, devs are worried about not having control over these fees and Unity’s lack of transparency about how the numbers are measured.
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Now, on the heels of the unpopular announcement, the investment media outlet Guru Focus uncovered that John Riccitiello sold 2,000 shares ofUnity’s stock on September 6. Soon after this week’s announcement, Unity’s stock plummeted, going down from $39 to $36 fairly quickly, a reduction of almost 10%. However, it should be noted that, according to Guru Focus, this is part of a larger trend. Riccitiello sold 50,610 shares during 2023 and bought none, so there’s no direct connection between him selling these stocks last week and the recent announcement. Also, Kotaku reported that other members of Unity, such as the company’s president of growth Tomer Bar-Zeev have also been selling shares, getting rid of 37,500 of them on September 1, while board director Shlomo Dovrat sold 68,454 shares back on August 30.
So far, the backlash from the controversial decision has not only affected share prices. The devs behind the popularCult of the Lambhave threatened to delete itby July 18, 2025, the date on which the changes proposed by Unity would take place, as part of a protest to these changes.
Overall, 2023 does not seem like a very good time for Unity. For instance,Unity laid off hundreds of employeesthis year. Over 600 people were fired from the company, and plans were revealed to cut down offices from 58 to 30. At the moment, Unity’s next move is unclear, regarding whether these unpopular pricing changes will be kept or rolled back, or how they may affect the company’s profitability.
