I think enshitification will be the word of the year this year
What is the etymology of this term “enshitification”?
Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
11–20 of 465 posts
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
^H^Hby going public without a business model.
I feel like we've seen a bunch of businesses show what happens when you take private capital and scale on a community based product with out a clear business model that doesn't involve retroactively screwing the community in some way. I mean, Unity's just the latest example. Before it came Hashicorp and Docker. I'm sure we could think of many more examples if we tried. And what's really frustrating is that if these b…
VCs don't like this. How are they going to get their ROI immediately? Having normal investors vs funders changes the mentality of long term to cash grab.
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#13Unity really showing the world how to tank a business by letting a few MBA’s at the top make a decision for profit.
To play devil's advocate... Unity isn't close to profitable, and never has been. At some point money has to be made or the lights get turned off.
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like we've seen a bunch of businesses show what happens when you take private capital and scale on a community based product with out a clear business model that doesn't involve retroactively screwing the community in some way. I mean, Unity's just the latest example. Before it came Hashicorp and Docker. I'm sure we could think of many more examples if we tried. And what's really frustrating is that if these b…
My company is actively using this model now. It's really hard watching competitors raise multi-million dollar rounds though.
Unless your plan is to vest and cash out, you shouldn't envy them.
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#15I think enshitification will be the word of the year this year
What is the etymology of this term “enshitification”?
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#16"More importantly, we've seen how easily and flippantly an executive-led business decision can risk bankrupting the studios we've worked so hard to build, threaten our livelihoods as professionals, and challenge the longevity of our industry. The Unity of today isn't the same company that it was when the group was founded, and the trust we used to have in the company has been completely eroded." Profoundly sad, and c…
This is why it is good to build on the top of open source solutions
Does that really help? Even when open-source, it's only a matter of time before an Oracle or Google or Microsoft or Meta takes it over (if they didn't develop it to begin with).
I wonder if it's less about the source code here but about the people involved, and how to prevent a consolidation of capital and power in the hands of greedy financiers. Maybe developing the projects as nonprofits (like Blender or Mozilla), or at least employee co-ownership rather than VC money or institutional funders?
If only the laid off FAANGers could pool their fat checks and start up something employee-driven and not subject to outside influences, in the style of Valve or similar. And preferably with legal protections against "selling out".
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#17Unity really showing the world how to tank a business by letting a few MBA’s at the top make a decision for profit.
i remember back when Avid decided they were no longer going to offer a Mac version of their NLEs because Apple's new machines were only going to have 3 expansion slots. while admittedly, there were probably a much smaller number of affected users than the Unity decision, it did cause a huge amount of turmoil. urban legend has people dumping their Avid stations on the doorstep of the Avid offices. Avid survived. Unity…
Unity will survive but this could be the start of a steady decline of users, which isn't good for any game engine. Leads to a loss of knowledge which makes the engine even less popular.
Ghe whole situation is somewhat similar to when GameMaker Studio switched to subscription model.
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#18Unity really showing the world how to tank a business by letting a few MBA’s at the top make a decision for profit.
i remember back when Avid decided they were no longer going to offer a Mac version of their NLEs because Apple's new machines were only going to have 3 expansion slots. while admittedly, there were probably a much smaller number of affected users than the Unity decision, it did cause a huge amount of turmoil. urban legend has people dumping their Avid stations on the doorstep of the Avid offices. Avid survived. Unity…
Avid is still around, but it's not looking very healthy. They've fired whole dev teams - one of whom was largely hired by a competitor, who have now developed a competing project that is eating Avid alive in that (fiarly niche) space.
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#19I think enshitification will be the word of the year this year
What is the etymology of this term “enshitification”?
There's a Wikipedia article on it!
Re: Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
#20like getting blood from a stone... Most of those open-source companies turn "evil" stories (like IBM/redhat ) seems to follow the same pattern. IMO, there is a limit of the amount of value one can extract from those venture. Trying to increase revenue beyond a certain limit will always result very bad outcome. But i also think it's a lesson for the gaming industry. Why is something as core are a game engine, not some…
Redhat is evil now?