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Unity CEO David Helgason Replaced by John Riccitiello

"What does this mean for Unity? Not too much," says Helgason.

Original photo: EA

Unity Technologies founder David Helgason is stepping down as CEO and will be replaced by former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, Helgason wrote in a blog post today.

Since Riccitiello stepped down from EA last year, he has worked as an investor and adviser to multiple startups, including Oculus VR leading up to its acquisition by Facebook and Will Wright’s gaming company Syntertainment. He joined Unity’s board last November.

“What does this mean for Unity?” Helgason wrote. “Not too much, since John completely agrees with our vision and our strategy.”

Unity makes a game engine — in basic terms, a suite of tools for game development — which is relatively low cost and especially popular with independent developers. It also runs the Unity Asset Store, where those developers can buy things like 3-D objects or even gameplay mechanics from other developers and designers.

Helgason is staying on at the company and said in the blog post that he will be “heavily involved” in its future direction.

A recent report from CNET claimed that Unity was looking for an acquisition, but Unity denied its accuracy. CTO Joachim Ante said on the official Unity forums last week that “we have no plan to sell Unity.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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