Tech

Why EA's former boss believes the 3D tech that powers video games will make way more money outside of gaming

Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello speaks onstage during Day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 at Moscone Center on September 5, 2018 in San Francisco, California.
Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
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There's a good chance that the last mobile video game you played was powered by Unity Technologies, the 3D engine used in most of the industry's smartphone games, from "Pokemon Go" to "Super Mario Run"

But if Unity CEO John Riccitiello's bet pays off, you could soon end up benefiting from the company's software when you repair a leaky pipe in your house, customize your next car, or get a preview of your next house.

Riccitiello, who took the reins at Unity four years ago, believes that traditional businesses— such as construction, car design, and film making — will eventually replace video games as Unity's main customer base and source of revenue.

That's a bold prediction coming from someone who's entire career has been build on gaming —Riccitiello served as President of gaming giant EA in the late 1990s and served as CEO from 2007 to 2014, a span of time in which EA's annual revenue swelled into the billions of dollars.

Read the BI Prime story to learn why the former EA CEO thinks it's time to move beyond games.

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Alexei Oreskovic is the Tech Features Editor for the Business section of Insider.  Based in San Francisco, Oreskovic has covered technology and business for more than 20 years at publications including TheStreet.com, the Industry Standard, and CNET. Before BI, he was a correspondent at Reuters for six years, where he was a finalist for the 2013 Gerald Loeb Award in the Breaking News category for coverage of the Facebook IPO.  As Insider's Tech Features Editor, Oreskovic has overseen groundbreaking investigative stories on Uber, Snapchat, Tesla, Facebook and Google. He was the editor on the Snapchat and Facebook stories that won the Sabew 2018 Larry Birger Young Business Journalist award for former BI reporter Alex Heath. Oreskovic has covered the booms and busts of the tech industry since the first dotcom bubble of the late 1990s, and has interviewed the industry's most important players including Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. He has made frequent guest appearances on TV and radio, including CNBC and BBC World News.  Disclosure: Oreskovic has a direct family member who owns shares in Compass.