Unity goes full Unity

[Edward850]

On 9/17/2023 at 6:23 AM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

This will be the end of the Asset Flip trend on Steam, for the Runtime fee policy.

No it wont, not at all. Asset flips just use Unity because it's the path of least resistance, it's not the only platform that allows them to do that. They'll just move over to Unreal or Godot.

[scalliano]

Same old chestnut, word for corporate word.

 

The only way Unity is regaining any trust at this point is if they make the engine completely open-source, sack the entire board and fold the company. 

[gibfrag]

What is it everyone is confused about other than why they’re trying to kill their engine? I don’t think anyone is confused on how ridiculous this policy is. Also, the changes will be mostly non-changes. Just rewording to make it basically the same shit but written in a way it is easier to miss what is really going on.

Edited September 18, 2023 by gibfrag

[Man of Doom]

Emerald Failson vibes all the way down, from (seemingly) wrecking a company just to sell off the remains, to culture war weirdo nonsense.

 

case in point,

 

[gibfrag]

I hope everyone moves to other engines after all this. Speed up Unity’s death. 

[Kinsie]

Bloomberg has inside word on the latest bout of internal flailing.

 

Quote

Video-game tool maker Unity Software Inc. said Monday it’s backtracking on major aspects of a controversial new price hike, telling staff in an all-hands meeting that it’s now considering changes including a cap on potential fees.

 

[...]

 

Under the tentative new plan, Unity will limit fees to 4% of a game’s revenue for customers making over $1 million and said that installations counted toward reaching the threshold won’t be retroactive, according to recording of the meeting reviewed by Bloomberg.

 

[...]

 

Marc Whitten, a Unity executive, said the company hasn’t yet announced the latest changes because executives are still running them by partners and don’t want to repeat last week’s communications debacle, which led to several clarifications.

 

One of the most controversial elements of the policy concerned how Unity would track installations of its software. Although the company first said it would use proprietary tools, Whitten said Monday management will rely on users to self-report the data.

 

In the meeting, Riccitiello emphasized that the new policy is designed to generate more revenue from the company's biggest customers and that more than 90% of Unity users won’t be affected. Several employees asked during the meeting how Unity would bounce back from what appeared to be a breach of trust. Executives said the company will have to “show, not tell” and handle future communications more carefully.

 

“I don’t think there’s any version of this that would have gone down a whole lot differently than what happened,” Riccitiello said. “It is a massively transformational change to our business model.”

 

But, he acknowledged, “I think we could have done a lot of things a lot better.”

 

[Mr. Freeze]

It's the same shit time and time again.

 

- Introduce a new, awful way of doing things.

- People get mad.

- Put out the press release: "We hear you...we apologize...changes to come."

- Walk back the worst aspects and keep the rest.

- The rubes scratch their chins and say "well, at least it's better now!"

[magicsofa]

Quote

We don't want to charge for fraudulent installs (install bombs, piracy, etc.)

 

Unity hasn't actually completely figured out how to count installs yet. Whatever the solution is, it will be conservative. It will potentially/probably undercount installs, but definitely not overcount.

 

Wow, that's reassuring. We don't want to rip you off, we promise, and we're pretty sure the system will accidentally undercharge you!

[AmethystViper]

2 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

It's the same shit time and time again.

 

- Introduce a new, awful way of doing things.

- People get mad.

- Put out the press release: "We hear you...we apologize...changes to come."

- Walk back the worst aspects and keep the rest.

- The rubes scratch their chins and say "well, at least it's better now!"

Rockstar, Groove Street Games, and Take-Two did the same with how they handled the GTA Trilogy Remaster; they claim they were committed to fix all the problems with it after the negative word of mouth it got, but ultimately they hardly bother to fix the majority of the bugs and errors they introduced with these games, much less fix the hideous character models, all because these shitty remasters sold millions of copies...

Edited September 18, 2023 by AmethystViper

[HavoX]

5 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Bloomberg has inside word on the latest bout of internal flailing.

 

*snip*

But alas.. it appears the damage has already been done.

 

And for the most part, I was never a big Unity person to begin with.

Edited September 18, 2023 by HavoX
typo

[Caffeine Freak]

Quote

We apologize for the confusion

 

Errm, what confusion? They announced terrible changes and people got angry. Unless they're referring to the confusion people felt over why Unity suddenly planned to turn to all the developers who'd spent the last 10+ years bringing their brand and tech to the forefront of the game industry and kicking them swiftly in the balls, I really don't get why they're apologizing for that or why it's the first thing they mentioned.

[Murdoch]

20 minutes ago, HavoX said:

it appears the damage has already been done.

 

Precisely. Reputation damaged caused by things such as this are almost impossible to undo, even if you walk it back after backlash. I will be shocked if this does not essentially crater the company. Released or in development projects will probably still need to stick with it, because the cost of changing (especially released projects) will probably not be justifiable. But unless somehow they don't hear about it, any new developers looking to use the engine will almost assuredly go elsewhere.

[AmethystViper]

4 hours ago, Murdoch said:

 

Precisely. Reputation damaged caused by things such as this are almost impossible to undo, even if you walk it back after backlash. I will be shocked if this does not essentially crater the company. Released or in development projects will probably still need to stick with it, because the cost of changing (especially released projects) will probably not be justifiable. But unless somehow they don't hear about it, any new developers looking to use the engine will almost assuredly go elsewhere.

That's the thing that I was fearing from all this because there are some up and coming indie games or ports thereof that haven't been finished yet that still use Unity (e.g. Hollow Knight; Silksong, the upcoming Switch port of BallisticNG), stuff that already has been using Unity, or in the case of Vampire Survivors, made the jump from having used an entirely different engine to Unity only to pretty much rework everything again to get away from Unity is going to hurt developers. An animator I follow on YouTube is reluctantly sticking to using Unity since he started his indie game project about 6 years ago on it and he even made tutorials online to help other independent developers get their start with using Unity is looking back at his tutorials to regret spending his time on an engine he's going to abandon ship because of some PoS from EA wanted to destroy developer's livelihoods.

[Gez]

 

 

[lazygecko]

Putting this in a larger context. The idea of "economic rent" is something I've gained awareness about only fairly recently but has existed as a term among economists basically forever (And on a tangential note, history of economics stopped being an obligatory course for PhD programs in the US 40 years ago.).

 

 

[Antroid]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:35 AM, Caffeine Freak said:

 

Errm, what confusion?

There were a LOT of things that were vague, unclear and even contradictory. Even simple questions like "what counts as an install" didn't have a solid answer.

[roadworx]

On 9/17/2023 at 5:56 PM, june gloom said:

Yes, but at what cost?

$0.20. haven't you been following what's happening? frickin stupidface idiot

[Devalaous]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:03 PM, Gez said:

 

 

 

This is the company I left Revilution development to go join, and I can say with certainty, they absolutely mean every word. No PR stunts there.

 

[Mr Masker]

On 9/20/2023 at 11:03 AM, Gez said:

 

 

Consistent, Common and Frequent Terraria Win

Edited September 21, 2023 by Mr Masker

[Cacodemon345]

https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee

[Caffeine Freak]

Quote

 

The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included – unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.

We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version.

 

 

Hm. This is starting to remind me of the Audacity situation, where people who wanted to keep using Audacity simply opted to avoid upgrading to version 3 of the program to avoid the spyware bullshit. 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Caffeine Freak

[Blzut3]

6 hours ago, Caffeine Freak said:

 

Hm. This is starting to remind me of the Audacity situation, where people who wanted to keep using Audacity simply opted to avoid upgrading to version 3 of the program to avoid the spyware bullshit. 

The big difference being the audacity situation was completely overblown by people who just see the word telemetry and normal legal boilerplate and assume it's all part of some massive conspiracy or something.  (Seriously, I do not understand why that blew up as much as it did.)  These fees on the other hand, especially as originally announced, had real implications on the viability of using the product.

[Kinsie]

8 hours ago, Cacodemon345 said:

https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee

And then they torched whatever goodwill they regained within like three hours:

 

 

[Major Arlene]

24 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

And then they torched whatever goodwill they regained within like three hours:

 

 

I have no words. what

[AmethystViper]

And just like that, the Switch port of BallisticNG gets shitcanned thanks to the Unity fiasco.

[Daytime Waitress]

59 minutes ago, AmethystViper said:

And just like that, the Switch port of BallisticNG gets shitcanned thanks to the Unity fiasco.

 

I might never have known that this rad looking game existed if it weren't for all this - thanks, you corporate fucking ghouls!

[Caffeine Freak]

Quote

Genuinely disappointed at how our removal of the ToS has been framed across the internet. We removed it way before the pricing change was announced because the views were so low, not because we didn't want people to see it.

 

It's been over 24 hours since I read this and I still can't understand the logic behind it. Can someone maybe explain this to me? I'm genuinely asking here.

[Kinsie]

1 hour ago, Caffeine Freak said:

 

It's been over 24 hours since I read this and I still can't understand the logic behind it. Can someone maybe explain this to me? I'm genuinely asking here.

It means they think everyone’s fucking stupid. See: a previous example

 

 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

On 9/17/2023 at 8:04 PM, Edward850 said:

No it wont, not at all. Asset flips just use Unity because it's the path of least resistance, it's not the only platform that allows them to do that. They'll just move over to Unreal or Godot.

For some reason the whole "at least there won't be any more asset flips now" idea is one I've encountered several times now:

 

https://www.androidpolice.com/unity-greed-silver-lining/

[Biodegradable]

10 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

For some reason the whole "at least there won't be any more asset flips now" idea is one I've encountered several times now:

 

https://www.androidpolice.com/unity-greed-silver-lining/

 

Considering how notorious flipping Unity store game templates and assets on Steam Greenlight was back in the mid-to-late 2010s, I guess over time some people have become convinced that the entire practice could be solely blamed on Unity, rather than it simply being the easiest place to nab said asset packs from.