The debate on how much, if any, a game is allowed to get away with implementing monetization of any kind -- be it in free-to-play or even fully-priced releases -- is an ongoing and likely never-ending one, with no clear-cut answer. And while there have been (and always will be) plenty of developers and publishers partaking in the practice that will attempt to reframe and paint the model in more PR-friendly speak, it's rare you find someone in the industry providing a more, shall we say, colorful take on the matter.

But that's exactly what CEO of Unity Technologies (the company best known for one of the more widely-used video game engines across the industry), John Riccitiello, has just done. During an interview with Pocket Gamer, Riccitiello -- who served as the former CEO of EA from 2007 to 2013 -- was asked about his thoughts on the continuing pushback, specifically from developers, against monetization in games. To which he described such people as quote: "the biggest f***ing idiots." Preceding this by stating that those studios that decide against monetization in game development stand as but "a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way."

"This industry divides people between those who still hold to that philosophy and those who massively embrace how to figure out what makes a successful product." Riccitiello continues. "And I don’t know a successful artist anywhere that doesn’t care about what their player thinks. This is where this cycle of feedback comes back, and they can choose to ignore it. But to choose to not know it at all is not a great call."

While many, from a business perspective, may not begrudge a company looking to make continuing/additional revenue -- not least in mobile games, where free-to-play releases have dominated the market -- Riccitiello's rather blunt and to-the-point view on fellow developers in the industry is hard to ignore. Especially in an interview that was supposed to be centered around Unity's recent acquisition of software firm IronSource.