Unity’s new CTO is former King exec and Havok co-founder Steve Collins

Unity has named former King CTO and Havok co-founder Steve Collins as its new chief technology officer.

The appointment follows the departure of former Unity CTO Marc Whitten, who resigned in June after the company’s botched launch of the (now scrapped) Runtime Fee. Unity said Collins has been tapped to add key technical leadership and “accelerate product innovation, quality, and stability.”

During his tenure at Candy Crush developer King, Collins led the company’s technology strategy and managed its Shared Technology division. As well as co-founding middleware provider Havok, he also established real-time marketing company Swrve.

Unity CEO Matt Browmberg, who’s currently attempting to regain the trust of developers in the wake of the Runtime Fee debacle, said the appointment of Collins comes at a “pivotal time” for the engine maker.

“[Steve] has deep technical expertise in both gaming and marketing technology and he understands what developers need. Steve will play a key role as we continue to deliver more innovation, quality, and stability to our customers,” added Bromberg in a press release.

Speaking about his decision to join Unity, Collins said he wants to turn the company into an “even better partner” for the development community.

“I’ve followed Unity for nearly two decades as it changed the world of games and real-time 3D content development, enabling creators to realize their artistic visions and reach global audiences across a wide range of devices,” he added. “I’m super excited to be joining the very talented team behind the Unity Engine.”

Today’s news comes shortly after Unity 6 made its official debut, with Unity billing the next iteration of its game engine as the most “stable and performant” version to date.