Oct 9 (Reuters) - Video-game software maker Unity said on Monday John Riccitiello would retire as chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The company has appointed James Whitehurst as interim CEO and Roelof Botha as chairman, it said in a statement.

Whitehurst previously served as senior adviser and president at IBM. He joined IBM through the acquisition of software company Red Hat, where he was president and CEO from 2008 to 2020.

Riccitiello would continue to advise Unity and the board would initiate a process to appoint a permanent CEO.

The company behind the Unity Engine software had in September rolled back key parts of a new "runtime fee" pricing policy that sparked backlash from gaming developers. (Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)