I’m sorry, but I’d be more terrified of Microsoft. A company worth more than nations, (current market cap puts it about the 10th richest country in the world), and who routinely tells other companies to pony up - and they do (look up a software audit if you want to see a corporate shakedown).
Sorry to nitpick, but I see the comparison of a company market cap with country GDP a lot and it’s a pet peeve of mine lol. Market cap is the value of the company, while GDP is equivalent to the total “revenue” that a country’s economy generated that year. So a better comparison would be 2022 Microsoft revenue vs 2022 GDP of a country.
Market cap isn’t even really the value of a company. It’s just the last trade price times the number of shares. If someone wanted to buy it, the price would be higher. If someone wanted to sell it, the price would be lower.
And gdp is one of the worst ways to measure the economy of the country.
You don’t need to be sorry. I guess I should rephrase my original statement to say Microsoft could buy unity, and the shareholders might not even notice in the quarterly earnings call.
No they won't! There's no way any of the big console manufacturers will ever agree to those terms, ESPECIALLY Nintendo. Microsoft would just buy Unity out before paying that ransom. You be smokin' some bigtime crack, Riccitello.
I think they even played that plan wrong. All MS has to do is announce that unity games won’t be allowed on game pass anymore and the value of unity will drop. It’s probably already in freefall with few new games from this point onwards targeting it.
Lol at this point I wonder if it’s easier for Microsoft to just buy Unity like their other studios they’ve been buying. Then they get free installs and charge out to Nintendo/PlayStation.
They thought they’d be able to slip this change through and people would just pay it. They were expecting a big payday, not a storm of bad press and angry people.
Also now Deva are gonna be skeptical of proprietary game engines. It's too big of a risk to develop on anything proprietary now that this is on the table as a thing that could happen. Change won't ahppen overnight but expect FOSS game engines to start getting big
I would assume their console export options are due to some kind of agreement with console manufacturers, as they keep their dev agreements under heavy NDAs. I wonder how this will play out.
Charging Playstation: They have been quite naughty ever since they released the PS4 (and not in the good way), so a few millions in cash is kinda like karma to them.
Charging Xbox: Game Pass, Backwards Compatibility, Series S, allowing you to legally install emulators in their consoles… If there’s a gaming giant that’s pro-consumer, it’s them (second only to Steam, obviously), they don’t deserve it.
Every console requires an online subscription to play MP aside from a handful of games such as apex legends, fortnite, and rocket league. Not just an Xbox thing.
The one defense I'll give it is that when Nintendo's was free it was absolutely pitiful/unusable. Really you couldn't do any meaningful online MP on nintendo consoles until the switch. I don't like paying for it but clearly it's the only way resources get dedicated to it.
The other consideration - though not really a defense because it's not necessary - is that with Xbox for $60/yr I don't just get the online component, but 3 free games/mo. Most are garbage but I always end up with 4 or 5 games a year that I wouldn't have otherwise played (How I discovered XCOM!) that I really enjoy OR I get super lucky and some game I wanted to buy but haven't ponied up for drops (I got AC: Black Flag for instance one time). It's a hell of a value add at least!
I’d call it, sucking up to the player base to regain market space lost during the last generation. I’m not too proud to take advantage of their desperation.
The fact that these decisions are coming down from the ex-CEO of EA Games, who was the CEO when EA was voted “Worst Company in the World”, just makes all this even more entertaining to watch.
GamePass and probably most cheap sales are all going up in flames because Unity has hired a demon to lead them into oblivion.
Microsoft learned never to leave an EA exec at the wheel ten years earlier, with the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. You know, the all seeing, all knowing, all credit card charging privacy invader with its hooks permanently sunk into the internet, and a camera you couldn't cover, like it was some motherfucking episode of Max Headroom. Allow me to say, "Fuck you, Don Mattrick, and the DRM and surveillance-laden horse you rode in on."
Ya gotta love when a corp realizes they’ve stepped in it and starts trying to create an escape route. I’m more than a little surprised that Unity’s board of directors haven’t taken the CEO’s head on a platter yet.
Right. Here’s how it works: Your game is on Gamepass, and a user installs it. Now instead of Microsoft paying you $0.15, then you paying Unity $0.10, Microsoft will just pay us directly the $0.10, and you still get your $0.05! See, it’s a great deal! Everybody gets their money and you don’t even have to deal with the Unity costs! Please, don’t go!!
This sounds like it would mean charging Valve money for the privilege of using Valve’s own infrastructure every time a player installed a Unity game after a major PC upgrade/reinstall or after uninstalling that MMO they dumped every other game in their library try out.
Steam could probably bake a ban on software that uses installation trackers into their developer/publisher ToS, or ban the collection or transmission of Steam user data related to installations, or something similar.
It’s unclear if Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are aware of this particular change in policy, and whether they’d be willing to comply with Unity Technologies.
If they aren’t already paying royalties to Unity on behalf of the devs, then I can almost guarantee they won’t be paying royalties in the future. If they are doing that, then the devs might want to double check their revenue, because that may mean that Unity’s been double-dipping on royalties (taking royalties from distribution through Sony, MS and Nintendo, and then taking them again directly from the devs).
It’s like when CDPR said everyone could get refunds for CP2077 without talking to the stores first, then were shocked when Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store.
Yep, although at least that was a pro-consumer move on CDPR's part. It's very understandable why Sony wasn't happy about it, but it wasn't a shady move on CDPR's part. Whereas the same definitely can't be said for Unity right now.
It’s more, you gotta let your partners know before you announce something major. The reason Sony had to pull it was because they only allow refunds after a certain point on defective games, and they can’t sell a game they know is defective. So the only way they could do blanket refunds is if the game is labeled defective, which means they can’t sell it. Giving Sony a bit of a heads up might’ve meant they could have changed their policy, which would have been better long run for consumers.
Oh absolutely, I agree! I just wanted to point out that CDPR's move was at least well-intentioned so it's harder to judge them poorly for it. But you're right that communication is important in these situations.
Technically, CDPR being based in Europe were just informing people of their stuatory right to a refund within the first 14 days of any digital or online purchase. This highlighted that Sony have been managing to skirt that legislation with their policy’s and not having a proper refund system in place so they threw a wobbler and took the game down. CDPR were in the right, legally speaking, with that one.
He could be the kind of person who writes things down on his vision board, then sends his thoughts out into the universe to make them come true. Like Elon.
Steam kind of does, I mean, if you have the achievement showcase on your profile, it'll totally say how many games you've gotten all the achievements for. That's about it though. Steam doesn't seem to care all that much about achievements.
twistedvoxel.com
Gorące