Too late, the damage is done. A lot of people are getting off the Unity bandwagon.
Developers fight back against Unity’s new pricing model
Submitted 1 year ago by shish_mish@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/15/23875396/unity-mobile-developers-ad-monetization-tos-changes
Comments
Dekthro@lemm.ee 1 year ago
BombOmOm@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yep. Even if they reverse course, they can’t be trusted not to make a similar retroactive change in the future.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think that may be the greatest dammage they’ve done to themselves. They used to be trusted as one of the good players. Now they can’t be trusted anymore.
verysoft@kbin.social 1 year ago
They would have to have a complete change of management for the engine to even be considered.
Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
I’m actively avoiding unity games and unity development, so there’s that. Can’t put that genie back in the bottle. They massively fucked up.
ninjakitty7@kbin.social 1 year ago
I don’t understand how unity has any legal standing to retroactively charge new fees to developers who have already made their games. You’re only required to abide by terms agreed to in a deal as it was written at the time of agreement. Isn’t that literally how EVERYTHING works?
Alimentar@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Even in their old TOS they said if you didn’t agree with any future TOS updates they could stay on their current version and the old TOS applies.
But obviously they deleted that part in April, which makes this much worse and most likely illegal.
anlumo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Unity doesn’t give out perpetual licenses any more, it’s a subscription model. If you don’t like it, you can leave at any point in time, but then you also don’t have a license to distribute their engine along with your game.
The problematic part (for Unity) is that they used to have a clause in the contract that said that you could keep using the old license terms as long as you didn’t update the engine. They removed that last year, but developers who are using an older version than that should be able to have a chance at the court. The problem is just that small indie devs don’t have the money for this multi-year legal battle.
fluxion@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This feels like Reddit all over again. There’s no saving it, their CEO has long touted the “gotcha bitch!” approach to extorting money from users and called people who didn’t “fucking idiots”. This is all he knows.
wax@lemmy.wtf 1 year ago
Let’s boycott it until October 1st, that’ll show them! /s
sebinspace@lemmy.world 1 year ago
God what a useless fucking gesture.
BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 1 year ago
So far the most popular games ive seen pushback from are Slay the Spire, Cult of the Lamb and Darkest Dungeon. Those games also have the benefit of dedicated fanbases. Those people will easily follow them.
Anonymousllama@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Let’s see how this pans out over the week, still heaps of opportunities for unity to fuck this up further
pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
How could Unity possibly fuck up any worse than they already have?
Chailles@lemmy.world 1 year ago
An uninstallation fee for users to prevent them from defrauding devs by repeatedly reinstalling.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 1 year ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“As a course of immediate action, our collective of game development companies is forced to turn off all IronSource and Unity Ads monetization across our projects until these changes are reconsidered,” the letter read.
Beyond monetary concerns, developers are also angry because the new pricing represents a breach of transparency Unity established with regards to its terms of service.
The action caused outcry in the community, and in response, Unity reinstated Improbable’s license and committed to keeping users informed for future terms of service changes.
According to an email reviewed by The Verge, a Unity representative acknowledged that the company’s ad monetization programs had been paused for an app and remarked that it was likely because of the new fees.
“The new regulations from Unity will affect every project that doesn’t generate sufficient income per user,” said Nikita Guk, CEO of PR firm GIMZ, who organized the letter.
“Pushing developers to either migrate to alternative game engines or place even greater emphasis on monetization, at the expense of creating immersive gameplay experience.”
The original article contains 893 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
The thing that gets me is that there are some Wall Street analysts who are more bullish on Unity in our current context, which is hilarious to me, because given how they’ve (perhaps illegally) pissed off so many different and critical parts of their ecosystem, the only clear trajectory I see for Unity at this point is down.
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 1 year ago
Is there’s a way to know the games engine of the games I have on my Steam account?
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
If you go to a game on Steam, find the gear icon, go to Manage and select Browse Local Files…
For most Unity games you will find a file called “UnityCrashHandler…” executable right in the folder that opens.
EnglishMobster@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Not easily, but if you become a game developer you can start to tell at a glance. Unity games have a very specific type of jank and look + feel. (So do Unreal, Source, and Godot games.)
Even if a game is highly stylized, a Unity game always “feels” like a Unity game. Kerbal Space Program, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Pokemon Go, Cuphead, Untitled Goose Game, Cities Skylines, Valheim, etc. It’s a combination of physics, shaders, and input latency that’s hard to put into words.
The closest I’ve come to seeing a game that breaks out of the “made in Unity” feel is Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, which was made in Unity but pretends to be made in Source (the original Stanley Parable was made in Source).
over_clox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but last I know of, any games made with Unity start up with their name and logo first, or at least shortly after their intro.
Schmeckinger@feddit.de 1 year ago
Its only forced on the personal plan. On other plans its optional.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
Unity engine sucked anyway
Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
We’ll definitely be seeing more variety in output, hopefully, going forward.
chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Honestly I agree. If you are building a game with the same mechanics of other games that already exist its fine. Once you reach a point where to need access to the engine code itself to make something a reality, you are fucked.
Haha@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I hope this will have an impact.
PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
ohlaph@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s wild. Good for them.
mino@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
I don’t care then
Bipta@kbin.social 1 year ago
You should maybe care about people even if you don't like their games...
LetMeEatCake@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Unity cares. This whole fuckup is Unity trying to further monetize mobile games and get a stranglehold on mobile game advertising. Console/PC games are just collateral damage.
If this costs Unity enough money it might work. I’m not holding my breath but stuff like this has a better chance of working than PC indie devs abandoning Unity does.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s where Unity is making a great deal of their money.
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You might not understand where unity gets it’s money then.