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Unity: We Have Heard You

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Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#61

Post by panyam »

philipov wrote: post #50
indymike wrote: post #19

There are a few things Unity needs to address (I'm about to go write a couple of games because I've spent a career writing boring business software) before I will consider using Unity: * One of Unity's spokespersons actually said that Unity could add fees at any time, and customers could not do anything about it. Aside probably being illegal in most jurisdictions, this mentality shows a complete lack of integrity and…

They haven't heard anyone. They are just playing the "Overshoot then Back Off" negotiation playbook.

The idea that execs did not see this coming is well - ok may be I am too old think this was not planned.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#62

Post by Guvante »

treprinum wrote: post #47
marcodiego wrote: post #20

>> We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback. I have no involvement and I'm not a game developer (except for small weekend projec…

A peek into the future: "Godot engine after becoming successful due to Unity flopping a decade ago has decided to change its licensing terms, requiring retroactive payments as well as advance payments for future estimated sales. The new CEO from Microsoft Games has stated that this approach brings the most value to shareholders, developers and gamers and brings the long sought stability to the development of the engi…

There is a reason open source is defined by the license. If all of the code is available with a permissive license it is impossible to do this without allowing people to fork your old version and maintain it in perpetuity.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#63

Post by Guvante »

mjr00 wrote: post #48
indymike wrote: post #19

There are a few things Unity needs to address (I'm about to go write a couple of games because I've spent a career writing boring business software) before I will consider using Unity: * One of Unity's spokespersons actually said that Unity could add fees at any time, and customers could not do anything about it. Aside probably being illegal in most jurisdictions, this mentality shows a complete lack of integrity and…

> One of Unity's spokespersons actually said that Unity could add fees at any time, and customers could not do anything about it. Aside probably being illegal in most jurisdictions, this mentality shows a complete lack of integrity and an abundance of power-drunkenness. Part of me really wanted this to happen just to put it to the legal test. So many modern sales, especially digital, are actually an indefinite licens…

I have heard someone said the runtime wasn't covered by the agreement it was just technically free.

However Unity also said the terms came into effect as part of license renewal. Requiring a new fee structure as part of a renewal is bog standard.

The main thing people were pushing back on was it was promised that old titles could preserve the existing terms.

If anyone cut ties with Unity and Unity went after them anyway would have been what you mention.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#64

Post by riwsky »

thordenmark wrote: post #60
marcodiego wrote: post #20

>> We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback. I have no involvement and I'm not a game developer (except for small weekend projec…

This reminds me of when Wizards of the Coast destroyed their D&D business by announcing they were cancelling the OGL. Many people had built a cottage industry around the OGL which helped to grow the player base, which in turn helped Wizards of the Coast make 5.0 the most popular D&D yet. Now everyone despises and mistrusts them, it doesn't matter that they backtracked.

laughs in Baldur’s Gate 3

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#65

Post by glimshe »

VHRanger wrote: post #14
liquidpele wrote: post #4

How about you fire the CEO that allowed such a boneheaded decision? With them in charge, how could one ever trust your company to not make such moves again?

The problem is not really the CEO, though he's the one getting the attention here. It's the new board that got 3 new heads from IronSource and Sequoia VC (who pushed for the IronSource merger).

No. The problem is the CEO. The buck stops with him. When you are at the top making millions, a major strategic failure is always your responsibility.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#66

Post by riwsky »

over_bridge wrote: post #44
timbit42 wrote: post #26

I love watching capitalists crash and burn their companies.

I feel like we need a new default corporate ownership model. A company can be in operation for decades and grow headcount massively but the shareholders at the top retain the same percentage of control as when it was tiny and new. Many people contribute to a company's success and its not reflected in the ownership. If ownership could accrue in employees to a non trivial degree, they would have some power to push back…

It can—just start a company and run it that way. There’s nothing magical about this, and acting like there is disempowers you in the long run.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#67

Post by ninth_ant »

thordenmark wrote: post #60
marcodiego wrote: post #20

>> We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback. I have no involvement and I'm not a game developer (except for small weekend projec…

This reminds me of when Wizards of the Coast destroyed their D&D business by announcing they were cancelling the OGL. Many people had built a cottage industry around the OGL which helped to grow the player base, which in turn helped Wizards of the Coast make 5.0 the most popular D&D yet. Now everyone despises and mistrusts them, it doesn't matter that they backtracked.

By what measure did WotC or D&D get destroyed? The vast, vast majority of public figures in that space seem to have moved on from any opposition, including those who were most vocal about the OGL.

WotC completely got away with it. People will queue up for their new VTT and then be shocked, SHOCKED when Wizards leverages that to achieve the lock-in that they've so desperately pursued for years.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#68

Post by xethos »

treprinum wrote: post #47
marcodiego wrote: post #20

>> We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback. I have no involvement and I'm not a game developer (except for small weekend projec…

A peek into the future: "Godot engine after becoming successful due to Unity flopping a decade ago has decided to change its licensing terms, requiring retroactive payments as well as advance payments for future estimated sales. The new CEO from Microsoft Games has stated that this approach brings the most value to shareholders, developers and gamers and brings the long sought stability to the development of the engi…

This kind of sellout is why we have OpenOffice vs LibreOffice, or Nextcloud instead of Owncloud. If the project stops respecting users, the users can and will leave. And they'll be no worse off, because they can pretty well start off right where they were.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#69

Post by ClimaxGravely »

indymike wrote: post #19

There are a few things Unity needs to address (I'm about to go write a couple of games because I've spent a career writing boring business software) before I will consider using Unity: * One of Unity's spokespersons actually said that Unity could add fees at any time, and customers could not do anything about it. Aside probably being illegal in most jurisdictions, this mentality shows a complete lack of integrity and…

If you haven't already started a project then just don't use unity. There's a lot of really good stuff out there already that don't have such nebulous terms.

Feel free to send me a message and I can send you a list of alternatives. I don't consider myself much of an expert but for what it's worth I've been making games for almost 25 years.

Re: Unity: We Have Heard You

#70

Post by VHRanger »

glimshe wrote: post #65
VHRanger wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not really the CEO, though he's the one getting the attention here. It's the new board that got 3 new heads from IronSource and Sequoia VC (who pushed for the IronSource merger).

No. The problem is the CEO. The buck stops with him. When you are at the top making millions, a major strategic failure is always your responsibility.

The CEO does what the board tells him to do or gets fired ultimately
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