Former EA CEO John Riccitiello becomes new head of Unity

Former EA CEO John Riccitiello has stepped up to become the new CEO of Unity Technologies following its co-founder David Helgason's resignation.

Riccitiello left EA in March of last year and he's been on Unity's board of directors since November 2013. Meanwhile, Helgason will remain at Unity as executive vice president in charge of strategy and communications.

"Unity has been a hugely positive force in the games industry for years. Now it's my incredible fortune to have the opportunity to help guide Unity going forward." said Riccitiello in the company's announcement. "Unity is more than a great engine or packages of services, it's an amazing and diverse community of developers, many of which are changing the way we think about game design and production. Unity's mission - to democratise development - is an important one that I'm very happy to help drive forward."

"I'm so proud of everything Unity accomplished in the last decade but now it's time to look forward to an excellent future. Our mission is an important one, so I'm incredibly happy that John has agreed to lend his formidable experience to the role of CEO at Unity," added Helgason. "We've had the chance to work together over the last year-and-a-bit and come to recognise how similar our views are on the importance of the democratisation of development to a thriving developer ecosystem and healthy games industry. We're in great hands."

Unity is currently being used by over 600K developers, ranging from big budget publisher projects to students.