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Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

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Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#101

Post by Kapura »

MikusR wrote: post #88
debacle wrote: post #44

I have been revisiting Godot this past week after feeling that I didn't give it a fair shake a few months ago. I don't know that Unity has a future. Unity is still better than Godot, and in some ways by a wide margin, but Godot is gaining ground fast, the learning/tooling ecosystem has exploded in the last several months, and for most "indie" projects, which Unity's pricing change was targeting, Godot is the better c…

How is Godot for Movie VFX work?

You would be better served by Unreal, if that's your usecase.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#102

Post by Kapura »

shadowgovt wrote: post #45
debacle wrote: post #44

I have been revisiting Godot this past week after feeling that I didn't give it a fair shake a few months ago. I don't know that Unity has a future. Unity is still better than Godot, and in some ways by a wide margin, but Godot is gaining ground fast, the learning/tooling ecosystem has exploded in the last several months, and for most "indie" projects, which Unity's pricing change was targeting, Godot is the better c…

How is Godot on cross-platform targeting these days? To me, the most attractive aspect of Unity's offering was the opportunity to port the same game core and assets to multiple targets with relatively little retooling.

It's OK, and getting better. I reckon console support will improve dramatically over the next 1-2 years.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#104

Post by rurp »

ethbr1 wrote: post #60
pmontra wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_Bath_%26_Beyond

The things you miss... I wasn't even aware they'd disappeared. That history is some reading! When your CFO tragically jumps off a balcony, the company might not be doing well. Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script? Surely their margins don't materially change? Low per store sales from bad stores? But the first step seems to be closing store…

A frequent cause is private equity. It's common to buy a well know brand, leverage it to the eyeballs in order to extract short term profits and bonuses, and leave the company with no margin to weather a rough patch or evolve when needed. A number of household brand names have been destroyed following this general playbook.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#105

Post by tivert »

rurp wrote: post #104
ethbr1 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things you miss... I wasn't even aware they'd disappeared. That history is some reading! When your CFO tragically jumps off a balcony, the company might not be doing well. Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script? Surely their margins don't materially change? Low per store sales from bad stores? But the first step seems to be closing store…

A frequent cause is private equity. It's common to buy a well know brand, leverage it to the eyeballs in order to extract short term profits and bonuses, and leave the company with no margin to weather a rough patch or evolve when needed. A number of household brand names have been destroyed following this general playbook.

> A frequent cause is private equity. It's common to buy a well know brand, leverage it to the eyeballs in order to extract short term profits and bonuses, and leave the company with no margin to weather a rough patch or evolve when needed. A number of household brand names have been destroyed following this general playbook.

That's why capitalism is so great, right? Creative destruction.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#106

Post by CWuestefeld »

jerf wrote: post #70
ethbr1 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things you miss... I wasn't even aware they'd disappeared. That history is some reading! When your CFO tragically jumps off a balcony, the company might not be doing well. Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script? Surely their margins don't materially change? Low per store sales from bad stores? But the first step seems to be closing store…

"Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script?" Debt financing. Zigging a bit, my family has been watching The Foods that Built America: https://www.history.com/shows/the-food-that-built-america It seems that about half the episodes tell the same story: Somebody built a new food concept, or polished an existing one in some very useful economic way…

This process doesn't have to be the result of any nefarious intent.

AIUI, it's common when taking on debt for the creditors to try to protect their investment by including specific performance guarantees. There may be numbers that the company has to maintain around revenue, inventory turnover, etc. - or the creditors will have the right to call the debt.

The thing is, the need for the creditors to limit their risk isn't necessarily aligned with the overall best interest of the company. Conforming to these debt covenants can force the borrower to act for short-term numbers at the expense of long-term performance, a sort of Goodhart's Law effect caused by the metrics imposed in the debt covenants.

I've seen my employer become the beneficiary of this through a couple of periods of tough markets. Privately held with zero debt, our CEO was able to solidify our market position at the same time our competitors were doing obviously dumb things, the result of which is that we came out of those difficult times very much stronger in the industry.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#107

Post by ethbr1 »

jerf wrote: post #70
ethbr1 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things you miss... I wasn't even aware they'd disappeared. That history is some reading! When your CFO tragically jumps off a balcony, the company might not be doing well. Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script? Surely their margins don't materially change? Low per store sales from bad stores? But the first step seems to be closing store…

"Why do so many big box stores seem to follow the huge growth -> saturation -> quick implosion and bankruptcy script?" Debt financing. Zigging a bit, my family has been watching The Foods that Built America: https://www.history.com/shows/the-food-that-built-america It seems that about half the episodes tell the same story: Somebody built a new food concept, or polished an existing one in some very useful economic way…

Reasonable take.

I'd be curious about typical financing terms in retail for physical expansion.

But time at a few solid, well-run companies made me appreciate how important a powerful but ego-less CFO is to success. Someone in the room to say "Doing that will cost a lot in the future. What about this alternative?"

I'd also be curious about the frequency of successful debt management schemes... it seems something of a prisoner's dilemma if you're a large shareholder in a heavily-indebted business.

Either you allow the company to plow revenue into paying down debt (maybe for years), or you preempt your fellow investors and launch a raid to extract value for yourself before it implodes.

It seems like making companies more resistant against raid-and-dump-debt would be good for all involved (companies, their creditors, the entire pool of equity holders... basically everyone except raiders).

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#108

Post by n6242 »

georgeecollins wrote: post #65
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #40

What a joke I was there when the acquisition happened and it was both “yay” and “what?” There was so little communication with the overall staff - even at the M9 level - and the management seemed to be doing their own thing. My prediction: Unity is going to be BedBath&Beyonded

If the management continues to under perform, they will be acquired. The FTC investigation showed Zuckerberg was thinking about it. He probably couldn't for Sherman act reasons. But think about it: they have a good business that has better strategic value for a platform holder. Amazon spent a fortune trying to emulate their business to advantage AWS. That was an incredibly poorly managed endeavor. If they had bought…

> If they had bought Unity they wouldn't have needed Lumberyard.

As far as I know, there have been many attempts to make a non-mobile MMORPG in Unity and they've all ended in failure.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#109

Post by bradjohnson »

techdragon wrote: post #98
gmerc wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was the CEO of president Bioware/Pandemic as part of a VC group he led and was invested in, went to EA, bought the company for almost 1B, laid off the people at pandemic and ran EA into the ground to the point where they fired him.

Unity will either fire him or destroy themselves as a company… he’s not exactly a sharp and savvy businessman with the nuance to master the intricacies of where profits lie in a particular niche of a particular industry … he’s the replaceable cogs at desks make business widget units and if the profits per business widget don’t look good enough then you must do something… that kinda guy…

He's already golden parachuted out of Unity, but it's not solely (or even primarily) his decisions that have driven Unity to this point. The board replaced him with another random suit to continue along this path.

Re: Unity Software with a 'company reset' walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal

#110

Post by techdragon »

bradjohnson wrote: post #109
techdragon wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity will either fire him or destroy themselves as a company… he’s not exactly a sharp and savvy businessman with the nuance to master the intricacies of where profits lie in a particular niche of a particular industry … he’s the replaceable cogs at desks make business widget units and if the profits per business widget don’t look good enough then you must do something… that kinda guy…

He's already golden parachuted out of Unity, but it's not solely (or even primarily) his decisions that have driven Unity to this point. The board replaced him with another random suit to continue along this path.

Oh that’s right… i completely forgot I read about that… I suppose it’s not surprising that I forgot they changed CEO what with the fact that… once the train rolling down hill without breaks is on fire… who exactly is driving the train stops being particularly relevant… the board have been responsible for letting the train get on fire so who was CEO didn’t matter much.
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