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Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

ramatak.com

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Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#41

Post by chii »

TMM2K wrote: post #6
NotGMan wrote: post #4

>> While Unreal engine currently does not have terms like Unity’s, there’s nothing stopping them from doing something similar. In fact if Unity manages to get away with this it seems likely they will follow suit. Unreal has licenses which allow you to use one version of their engine FOREVER and they cannot revoke that license. So the author didn't fully research this. It is true that for NEWER version Epic can change…

You're contradicting your own points. If it is not a problem that Unreal can change their license for next versions because you can use the old one (which is now unsupported and not worked on) that is fine. For Godot, if we were to stop developing it (and I'd like to note that Godot is one of the most active projects on Github right now) you would still have the version you have now. What is the difference between Ep…

> Except that with Godot at least you could work on it yourself if you wanted to.

let me play the devil's advocate - unreal's source is available (despite it not being actual opensource licensed). This means if Epic ever abandons unreal, you could theoretically also just make the changes you need to support whatever your project required - as long as you didn't distribute those changes (except perhaps the run-time? Not quite sure how unreal engine and the runtime are licensed).

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#42

Post by intelVISA »

kypro wrote: post #12

I kinda feel bad for Unity. The company is in a bad place finacially. They're burning almost $1 billion a year and they have no good solutions to this. Either they try to increase pricing and piss off their customers, or they cut costs (which they've been doing with mass layoffs) and risk losing ground to other game engineers like Unreal. For years the only thing really holding the company a float was their valuation…

The Unreal thing is that Unity has/had ~8,000 employees last year. Sounds like an awful lot for a mobile game engine.

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#43

Post by okamiueru »

raincole wrote: post #40
nokiz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if Godot stops the development? You can also use the old version. Also others can take it from where they left off, since it’s open source, as it's has been pointed.

And this is exactly my point.

The sarcasm wasn't obvious.

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#44

Post by charcircuit »

bsza wrote: post #22
NotGMan wrote: post #4

>> While Unreal engine currently does not have terms like Unity’s, there’s nothing stopping them from doing something similar. In fact if Unity manages to get away with this it seems likely they will follow suit. Unreal has licenses which allow you to use one version of their engine FOREVER and they cannot revoke that license. So the author didn't fully research this. It is true that for NEWER version Epic can change…

> if Godot devs stop working on it Then others can take it from where they left off, since it’s open source. As long as it has a user base, it is guaranteed to live on. Unlike Unreal.

People are free to fork Unreal. People can continue working on Unreal even if Epic stops devoting reosurces to work on it.

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#45

Post by unsigner »

Unity was a dream, or a lie, the lie that you can make games without a somewhat competent software team.

Now TFA gives hope to another dream, or a lie, the dream that magical open source fairies can let you keep getting away without a competent software team. It won't.

Find those programmers, build a team, build a company where this team has a place, adjust your business model (i.e. raise your prices) to where you can afford to pay them.

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#46

Post by nhinck »

TMM2K wrote: post #35
isilofi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a wakeup-call also to do due dilligence and risk management when entering contracts. And yes, clicking "agreed" in the installer is very often a contract that you should run by your legal advisors. Or at least think very hard about. _Some_ kinds of Open Source might help there, since _some_ open source licenses are very easy to comply with and very business-friendly. On the other hand, all the game studios now…

Godot is MIT licensed though, there's very little we can do to screw our users if we wanted to, which we do not :)

You could change the license for future versions and charge for said updates, for the market that godot targets that would be more a little screwing to them.

How long would it take for someone to take over the project (if ever).

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#47

Post by ThinkBeat »

This is written based on my quite poor understanding of the game business. I am sincerely wanting to learn more about how it works and how the new license structure impact developers.

My questions below might be idiotic. (but not intentionally so)

I have no idea how many apps reach above 200.000 installs total or $200.000 income per year.

How common is it for apps to meet the minimum requirements when the fees kick in?

I would guess that if you base the application on a subscription model that this will not be a major problem?

Also doesn't Apple App Store or Google Pay charge far more than this on income?

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#48

Post by plagiarist »

objclxt wrote: post #29
NotGMan wrote: post #4

>> While Unreal engine currently does not have terms like Unity’s, there’s nothing stopping them from doing something similar. In fact if Unity manages to get away with this it seems likely they will follow suit. Unreal has licenses which allow you to use one version of their engine FOREVER and they cannot revoke that license. So the author didn't fully research this. It is true that for NEWER version Epic can change…

> the fact that they are trying to break the Gplay/Apply monopoly shows that the Epic games leadership are not corporate piranhas like Unity's. Epic is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart, they're doing it because it is beneficial to them. Epic is a multi-billion dollar corporation part owned by a massive conglomerate. > BS: in reality it's usually one or two guys who actually do the actual work. Over t…

It's hilarious that their arguments for the commercial engine are somehow both "you can use one version forever" and "you might be forced to use one version of something else forever."

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#49

Post by kgwxd »

hahn-kev wrote: post #28
raincole wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if Unreal changes its term? Your answer: you can use the old version. What if Godot stops the development? Your answer: good luck (???)

You can also use the old version, it's not like an old unsupported version of something is any different for open and closed source

They are different, open source is obviously better in that scenario.

Re: Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source

#50

Post by MarcellusDrum »

charcircuit wrote: post #44
bsza wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if Godot devs stop working on it Then others can take it from where they left off, since it’s open source. As long as it has a user base, it is guaranteed to live on. Unlike Unreal.

People are free to fork Unreal. People can continue working on Unreal even if Epic stops devoting reosurces to work on it.

They are not free to fork Unreal as it is not open source, only code available.
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