An open letter to our community • Hacker News Board

Re: An open letter to our community

#41

Post by PaulKeeble » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:09 PM UTC

cmcaleer wrote: post #4

I think it might be too little too late. I do wonder if this was always the plan with classic door-in-the-face technique, but I can't imagine they would have anticipated the absolute magnitude of backlash. Their product certainly isn't as special as they clearly think it is, and the fact that they attempted to unilaterally change the contract in as egregious as way as they did is unacceptable and not behaviour I woul…

You don't build buildings on sinking sand regardless of whether for now it appears not to be sinking. Once the footing has proved unstable its best to build elsewhere.

Re: An open letter to our community

#42

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:09 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

[deleted]

Re: An open letter to our community

#43

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

[deleted]

Re: An open letter to our community

#44

Post by msk-lywenn » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

Huh? Who then?

Re: An open letter to our community

#45

Post by Macha » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

So, if this had been what they launched with out the window, I don't think they would have had the same uproar. I don't think this is a door-in-face technique planned retreat (compared to the "leaked" proposal earlier this week which basically just started the install count at 0 and increased a revenue threshold, but still maintained it applied to existing games developed under the current deal).

I don't think this is enough that I would consider Unity for a new project (compared to my niggling doubts on my projects using Godot and Bevy in the past that maybe I should just bite the bullet and learn the "grown up" engine, until this announcement). That would require something a bit more iron clad renouncing their claim to be able to change the deal like this.

I don't know if Unity considers it a success that they've moved from their customers being in a "port everything now" rush to "Well I wouldn't take that deal, and a lot of customers will now not be upgrading Unity or developing their next titles in Unity".

But I guess as a consumer this moves my position to "someone should sue them for a declaratory judgement that making this retroactive is not legal" to "Well, guess I'm not investing in learning Unity".

Re: An open letter to our community

#46

Post by cmrdporcupine » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

But they were at one point. I'm not in gamedev but I do recall people being enthused about it some years ago.

When you lose that audience and enthusiasm among the people who influence next year's technical decisions, eventually you enter the dustbin of history.

Re: An open letter to our community

#47

Post by PaulKeeble » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #32

EA-3167 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the bottom line damage is that no one is going to develop new games on Unity if they have any other choice. Even if Unity walks this back 100%, why would a dev trust them not to pull this again in the future? Maybe some large projects will stop looking at migration in the short-term, but any new work is going to start happening elsewhere for sure.

> Even if Unity walks this back 100%, why would a dev trust them not to pull this again in the future? This is why I stopped paying JetBrains, despite them 100% walking back their idiotic licensing change proposal many years ago. I love(d) the products, but could no longer trust the decision-makers.

They went back to the monthly billing with no option for buying a version permenantly. I think you can still fix your version for a while without upgrades but they will force an upgrade at some point now. The original issue I complained about has returned.

Re: An open letter to our community

#48

Post by Macha » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

It feels like any game developer or publisher big enough to be dictating engines top down probably has their own engine?

Re: An open letter to our community

#49

Post by Waterluvian » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:11 PM UTC

eitally wrote: post #37

aeyes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that this letter isn't written by the CEO, maybe the board is already in the process of axing the guy.

I'd be more surprised if the board hadn't been included in the review process for the previous change.

Boards are often presented pre-packaged answers via CEOs with slide decks. They are rarely given the flat truth about reality. Good boardmembers know this and how know to smell and cut through bullshit. Sales gonna sell.

Re: An open letter to our community

#50

Post by drpossum » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 6:12 PM UTC

intelVISA wrote: post #36

cowsup wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity lost a lot of goodwill among developers, and it took over a week for them to admit fault. I seriously doubt they planned all along to present a temporary horrible plan, to make their “real” plan easier to swallow. If this were a 48- or 72-hour turnaround, maybe. But Unity lost a lot of goodwill amongst developers and there are some they may never get back as a result.

Developers aren't the ones choosing Unity most of the time...

If you're working in a development environment where management is drawing hard lines at choosing your tooling you should find a place that's going to succeed.