reportedly enforcing uncompensated overtime, allegedly trying to pay staff below minimum wage, and a toxic work environment cultivated by an alleged abusive leadership
it includes how much they spent on making the DLC and marketing for it. Around 2/3rds of the money still went into fixing/reworking the game from what I can tell
Why do you think it didn’t go into devs? Maybe you are being cynical, but managers and CEOs are definitely devs too, they need their extra motivation to convince themselves the game is gooder.
headline number is only the equivalent of ~200-300 tech employee salaries for 3 years, less for junior, more for senior, less for designers, marketers, more for Directors, VPs, Execs…
Marketing isn’t cheap either. Can’t rely on word of mouth when that word is “shite”. Fixing the code would have been relatively cheap compared to fixing their reputation.
CS2 feels like a downgrade from CSGO in a lot of ways, but CSGO at launch and CSGO at end of life were two completely different games, the same is probably true for CS2. Long term support is what keeps games going.
One of the really fun details about this fiasco is a few years back, after they had made a big PR fuck up like this, Unity stated they would make their Terms of Service version-bound. If you had Unity 2019 and continued to use it forever, you would only have to abide by the ToS for that version. Put simply, they could not retroactively apply new changes to you.
...Guess which segment got quietly removed last year!
I would think their public statements would significantly hurt the ability to do this, even if developers "agreed" to the terms without that clause.
I straight up don't think they could legally do it either way. But if they made public statements specifically addressing this particular thing, it has to significantly weaken their case.
That's the part I don't get. If I bought it in 2020 or whenever that was in the license, how can they decide to violate the license on the software you bought?
It's one thing of you go into the agreement knowing about the fees, but enforcing them retroactively against your own license agreement sounds like you're asking for a lawsuit.
Put simply, they could not retroactively apply new changes to you.
Sounds like they could though?
Jokes aside, this is another in a recent string of "let's pretend our ToS are legally binding documents as fool-proof as the law" actions by major companies because ... well, who's stopping them?
your customers retroactively owe you money just because you unilaterally said so?
John Riccitiello is Unity's CEO, you may remember him from being EA's CEO or for being the guy who said the devs who don't monetize (you know adding microtransactions, loot boxes and all that greedy stuff) their videogames are "fucking idiots". I think that explains all
Only monetized games have to pay. If they stop selling the game, they shouldn't be affected anymore.
Also
Does the Unity Runtime Fee apply to pirated copies of games?
We are happy to work with any developer who has been the victim of piracy so that they are not unfairly hurt by unwanted installs. (source)
As far as I understand (someone correct me if I'm wrong) games that are free / non-commercial and have zero revenue are not affected at all by this, they still don't have to pay anything regardless of the number of installs.
If the game is no longer being sold (and thus no longer commercial / having revenue), then I expect that even under those new rules Unity would also not charge the dev.
“Will games made with Unity phone-home to track installs?
We will refine how we collect install data over time with a goal of accurately understanding the number of times the Unity runtime is distributed. Any install data will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.”
Sounds like they’re gonna add tracking data to the game, so probably pirated installs won’t count
“Will games made with Unity phone-home to track installs?
We will refine how we collect install data over time with a goal of accurately understanding the number of times the Unity runtime is distributed. Any install data will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.” They already do, and fuck you for asking.
I’m confused. I’ve never licensed a game engine, but I figure you’d write what charges you pay into the contract, and as far as I know, you can’t just add additional charges in later without renegotiating the contract. At least, you’d have no way to enforce those. So I’m sort of at a loss how this is even supposed to work.
The game engine is licensed as a subscription. When January 1st rolls around and the dev’s meed to renew their subscription it will have these new terms. Their options are to accept this or to never update their games again.
Makes sense. I hope the unity guys come to their senses. This whole thing seems rather self-destructive on the company’s part. Unity is far from being a monopoly, with one competitor being free and open source (Godot). And pulling stunts like these, even if you walk them back later, does not engender trust.
If you’re playing on ps3 or emulation you can play online using lbpunion.com they’re currently looking into ps4 support, but just know that it requires CFW.
This has been the case with console addons all the way back to R.O.B. the Robot, if not earlier. People won't buy an addon if there are no games for it. Companies won't make games for an addon if no one buys it. Catch-22.
But… R.O.B. wasn’t an add-on. It was a way to market the NES as a toy rather than a console, in the wake of the video games crash of 1983-85. Was just a way to sideload NES systems into the houses of wary consumers.
You either need the company to commit to making software for it even when hardware sales are lacking (Wii U is a decent example, had really good Nintendo made games despite bad sales), or be a company with such a dedicated fan base that they’ll buy your product regardless of if the software support is there or not (Apple for example).
Not to mention in a more impressive format. I thought Arceus looked graphically barren and I know there are still plenty of people annoyed at the pop-in in Scarlet and Violet. I know it isn’t really Nintendo’s thing to play into the performance competition but a lot of people just expect better these days and the much bigger scope of Breath of the Wild and impressive level of expansion in Tears of the Kingdom has made even Nintendo fans see that there’s better out there.
I’d generally have to agree. When it came out, I definitely recall saying that I’d’ve grown up a pokemon fan (because Digimon was superior in anime 💪🏻😜) if Arceus had come out back then. That said, there’s still plenty of places it could be better. The lack of many of my favourite pokemon was why I ended up quickly dropping it.
While that’s part of it, it’s definitely not “just” that.
Sadly, part of it is that the game has released in a fairly stable/polished state, which is considered a positive in the world of broken releases. The multiplayer also just works with little issue as opposed to some problems of yesteryear.
There’s also a perhaps surprising pent up demand for good co-op PvE focused games. They blow-up hard but tend to fade out depending on gameplay quality. Part of this is the streamer effect, streamers like to play group games with other streamers because it helps cross-pollinate their audiences. Sales are also improved due to group/peer-pressure, if someone can pull in their friend group, that’s a lot of sale multiplication.
I also think that the developers tried to make a game that’s fun. A lot of decisions seem to have followed the rule of cool for this type of game e.g. pal mounts, firearms, catching people, automation of survival elements via slavery.
It also manages to have both a clear and guided progression system while maintaining the freedom for the player to just fuck off and do whatever they want while still at least partially progressing.
My only honest gripes with the game are how world saves are handled (they should use the Grounded system in addition to having dedicated servers) and that I for some reason can’t find the exit button on the title screen so to quit I need to alt-f4, for the rare times I need it.
Nah, it’s actually pretty great. I’ve played hundred of hours of ARK, and this scratches the same “survival-crafting with monsters” itch that ARK does, but with a lot of big improvements (not being heavily PvP-focused, being able to safely store your ‘dinos’ when you’re away, having a reason [loot, npcs, pokedex completion] to explore the worldspace beyond finding dinos or resources, etc).
Idk, it’s definitely not some sort of life changing experience or high art or whatever. It is however kinda cute, a little bit funny, has an enjoyable gameplay loop, adequate exploration, and satisfy combat. It’s also pretty cheap.
The monster mechanics are surprisingly well integrated into the world. Just basic shit like pulling out a burny fox to see when in a cave is pretty immersive. Then discovering special mechanics like the boar that rapidly mines by charging rocks has you throw out your pick and start careening around like a loon.
It only really has legs during the discovery phase I think, but that’s fine. Games aren’t bad if they end.
Id hope they use the popularity to improve it further but I really don’t wanna get invested in the same way I have with valheim, they have been mostly resting on their laurels so far and these developers will probably do the same. I hope I’m wrong tho, seems like a game I’d enjoy if it had more depth.
It would be nice, I wouldn’t bet on it though and don’t recommend buying something in the chance it gets better later. I’m enjoying myself atm and wont be mad if it never becomes more than it is.
Hopefully it’s at least a signal to other devs that there is real market interest in base building + monster collection or just open world monster collecting
Yeah, that’s always good advice, I don’t mind missing out on hype since I’d be playing single player anyway. Enshrouded is also out and it might turn out to be the better option too, who knows. Seems like a good start of the year for survival games enjoyers either way.
It’s a pretty good guess tbh… At worst is October or similar but I expect later on the year but earlier enough so it’s before the holidays but after they showed demos and games in summer conferences.
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