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1.5 years of learning unity gone down the shitter. here I come, godot
even if they backtrack, trust is ruined at this point. this only makes sense if you're trying to destroy the company intentionally and short your stock on the way out. what the fuck
1.5 years of learning unity gone down the shitter.
And this is the real damage to their business here. They clearly lost sight of their business model: Create an army of developers who know their product very well, so that it's on a short list of products studios are all but forced to consider.
A wave of developers who know soemthing other than Unity or Unreal has the potential to turn the games development ecosystem totally on its head. They didn't shoot themselves on the foot, they possibly shot themselves in the femoral artery.
They didn't shoot themselves on the foot, they possibly shot themselves in the femoral artery.
I myself have been describing it as them shooting themselves in the chest, and are now bleeding out on the floor asking how it happened.
The CEO did sell a bunch of shares before this was announced, I hear.
That's clickbait journalism.
He sold 2000 shares for $40/share, which he then immediately bought back for $1.42/share.
https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/RICCITIELLO%20JOHN%20S
Which means he sold at the top, then bought more at the bottom so he can ride the train back up to do the same thing again.
This isn't a good thing.
Pretty much the dream insider trading plan. But $80k doesn’t deem like much for a CEO
It's definitely not. It's probably just a free $80k his contract allowed him to get.
Don't forget those skills are transferable!
Streams of events, object manipulation and shit is used everywhere. Just a few minor concept changes, just like from one company to another.
I don't want Silksong developed on Unity. Scrap it, start fresh. I'll wait.
Scrap it. Start fresh.
The number of games that should do this is too damn high
The number of games that can do this is too damn low
The number of gamed that want to do this is pretty much nil
Pain, suffering and debugging
You mean that Silksong could be delayed? pikachu face
It's going to be the new Duke Nukem Forever....
Except it might be good :p
From their FAQ, looks like Unity doesn't have any real way of dealing with pirated or fake installs. Their FAQ says you have to work with them when that happens so they can correct your bill. It doesn't say Unity will automatically filter those installs out.
pirated? they want developers to pay Unity for people pirating their game???
Officially no, but the wording on the FAQ says it's the developer's job to take it up with them to resolve it. So it's clear they don't have any safeguard and only after you're affected you can talk to them lmfao.
Does the Unity Runtime Fee apply to pirated copies of games? We are happy to work with any developer who has been the victim of piracy so that they are not unfairly hurt by unwanted installs.
Same thing goes for "install-bombing":
We are not going to charge a fee for fraudulent installs or “install bombing.” We will work directly with you on cases where fraud or botnets are suspected of malicious intent.
So not only are the fees outrageous, but now devs are responsible for making sure this whole system isn't being abused. It's not gonna be long until people figure out how the install count is updated, and will proceed to weaponize it lmfao.
It's actually neither of those, the biggest impact is free-to-play games. Hearthstone, Legends of Runeterra, virtually every Unity mobile game in the market... Having to pay per install has huge potential for abuse and can cost a fortune for games with millions of downloads.
JFC, I just learned that they are retroactively applying this new rule. This means that games that are out already or have been on sale for multiple years will have to pay the runtime fee too. Insane. They can bankrupt a studio before they even release their next game.
I still can't believe that retroactive fees like that are legal.
Looking forward to pihole lists that block every single domain from ubity.
This needs to turn into a class action suit that results in John Tortellini having his oxygen rights revoked. I can't imagine shareholders will be happy finding out that John Riceroni has been selling off Unity's stock, and I'm pretty sure what Unity's trying to do here is straight-up illegal in the US. Fuck John Rigatoni. God, I was so happy thinking he'd died and gone to hell after EA, but nope, still alive and well.
Can they go retroactively? Aren't there contracts?
You click a check box with a really long user agreement that does in fact allow them to make these changes.
Damn, it works with anyone. I should find a way to make one too.
Apparently they snuck a clause into an update to the ToS at some point, after years of saying they'd never do such a thing. So people agreed to a loophole without realizing. The legality of such a thing is highly questionable, hence the rumblings of potential lawsuits are already brewing.
There is no way they can legally enforce retroactively charging. How the fuck is that even possible or legal?
Unity is not a product, it's an ongoing subscription. You can distribute Unity as part of your game as long as you have a subscription.They changed the terms of the subscription for next year. If you don't have a subscription then you cannot redistribute Unity. So your choice is to either accept the new terms, or pull your game from the stores.
Another reason why everything is subscription based these days, they can change the terms at will
I'm waiting for a Legal Eagle breakdown or something. I've been thinking the exact same thing. Sneakily removing stuff from their TOS in GitHub a while back is dodgy.
I read somewhere that they removed their TOS entirely from GitHub but I would love a breakdown of this too. I’m not familiar with how the Unity agreement works.
This is going to get so bad…Go godot.
For anyone interested to sign I found this petition against the new fee. https://chng.it/kYpqWBBHbB
Hoping with all the backlash Unity is forced to role it back. Thank you to everyone posting alternatives, I will be checking these out :)
I don't think an online petition has ever changed anything in the history of the internet.
Honestly I don't see most of the indie companies keep working with Unity unless they have no choice. Even if they roll it back, who's to say that they won't do that again next year?
The fact that they count you retroactively for eligibility means they want to try and rake as much money as possible.
There was some sort of similar issue a year or two ago and it wasn't enough to drive people away. I suspect the long-term picture is that any given business either slowly grows to the scale that Unreal Engine is a better fit anyway and abandon Unity or very very very slowly we see Indies move to Godot. Though it'll be more that new indies will form studios around breakthrough hits made in Godot and be Godot studios from the start (and replace older Unity studios as part of the natural turnover of small to medium sized studios) until there is a tipping point where there's enough Godot developers floating around that it becomes easier for existing Unity studios to switch than to keep putting up with Unity's shit. That's a slow process though. 5-10 years imho (if ever.)
Thoughts and prayers
Game Dev Story... And every Kairosoft game.
Did they just forget they sell mobile games?
I understand the controversy, especially in light of the recent Reddit bullshit. But I don't think I understand the tech.
For the sake of it, let's focus only on games that are paid for, installed on a system (or downloaded using Game Pass), and do not involve a multiplayer element. (Hollow Knight, Cuphead, etc)
Is there some ongoing resource use (on Unity's end) when people download or play these games? Like, when I play Hollow Knight, my system isn't connecting to Unity to use their servers to run the game on my home system, is it? When I download a game to my system, an I downloading the engine separately from the software, thereby using Unity's servers?
As abhorrent as the Reddit API change was, at least they were charging for the ongoing consumption of some digital resource (Reddit data). Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this just seems more like trying to collect a residual after the fact.
