Marc Whitten, Unity's chief product and technology officer will resign on June 1st and, following a period of transition, will be leaving the company completely on December 31st 2024.
The news comes from a recent 8k filing which does not reveal any details or reasons for Whitten's resignation or any details regarding the company's plans for his successor. However, the filing does reveal $814,801 worth of benefits that will be coming his way upon his departure.
As a regular presence at every Unity announcement and being front and centre for each Unity's release, Whitten has very much been the dev-facing presence of the company, since joining in 2021 following roles at Amazon and Xbox.
During his tenure Whitten has evangelised the company's future vision and the level of support and quality of tools they wish to deliver to the development community. His departure will leave a large hole in its industry facing which - at the time of writing - it's not clear how the company will fill.
Unity is, of course, in the midst of an ongoing restructure, so this is just one more big change to add to the makeover.
Ongoing upheaval
Following its infamous Runtime Fee farrago last year - their radical and unpopular revamp of Unity's pricing structure designed to finally bring the company into profit - industry backlash prompted the departure of longstanding CEO Jon Riccitiello and rapid internal cuts under a new interim CEO.
Now that that interim CEO, Jim Whitehurst is set to become Unity's chair of the board, it's ex-Zynga COO Matthew Bromberg who'll be picking up the reigns and a clean slate courtesy of Whitehurst's back to basics rhetoric and axe-swinging.
And coming from a games background, Bromberg brings a renewed gaming focus to the company following its broader 'digital entertaiment' and AI-fuelled intents.
However, it seems that the disruption isn't quite over, with perhaps Whitten's long-standing perspective and vision for Unity being at odds with Bromberg's incoming clean sweep.
Also, as Whitten was the public face of the company's apology and winding in of their Runtime plans (but not erradicating them completely), it may be Whitten remains tarred with the Runtime brush.
