If they launched with this, I think the community would’ve been fine with it. But IMO the damage has been done, and a lot of indies are going to look elsewhere.
99% of it was them trying to make the new fee structure retroactively apply to already-released products, and the damage there has already been done. The fact that they think they can change the negotiated fee structure after the fact makes Unity a huge liability to use now. No one can ever be sure they won't suddenly pull a "give us more money or stop selling your game" move sometime down the line.
But there’s also the sketchy (and anticompetitive, and potentially illegal in some jurisdictions) fee vouchers they were using to try to tank AppLovin’s customer base, as well as the silent and sneaky update of their license terms that everyone discovered after the fact. The “apology” makes absolutely no mention of those. And I find that incredibly telling (aside, of course, from the lack of exec team shakeup).
Yeah, in particular them saying now "You will keep the license of the version you use" rings very hollow when they literally showed they can retract that whenever they want ANd get a lawyer to defend that move in no uncertain terms.
Precisely. They’ve already done it, and the people who made that decision haven’t gone anywhere. They will definitely try something similar in the future.
or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month. Both of these numbers are self-reported from data you already have available. You will always be billed the lesser amount.
It’s almost funny. Honestly, the only way I can see them regaining any trust at all is by a complete change in leadership and increased transparency and accountability.
I haven’t calculated how much the new revenue split would be on average so take this as a random scribble on a napkin, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most studios choose to never upgrade to the next version.
Just remember, the current CEO was too greedy even for EA.
It’s almost funny. Honestly, the only way I can see them regaining any trust at all is by a complete change in leadership and increased transparency and accountability.
so obviously it is not happening, and by the time the CEO is replaced it will be too late
Just remember, the current CEO was too greedy even for EA
John Riccitiello is his name. Dude has the anti-Midas touch. Everything he has ever touched turned to shit. How people keep hiring him is beyond me.
That said, the board of directors is also part to blame for this. One name stands out, Roelof Botha. Same guy from Sequoia Capital that backed the whole Elon Musk taking a loan out for Twitter and old buddy of Musk's from PayPal days. He's also been known for some "choice" selections on where to put VC money.
And of course you have Barry Schuler of "I made AOL popular" fame. So… Yeah, he's a choice selection for the board as well.
But on the other side of it, you've got David Helgason one of the co-founders of Unity who has been pretty vocal about "We fucked up!". But to me that is a tell-tell that Riccitiello et al. sold the rest of the board on the change.
Point being, the board is made up of hard going MFers who fuck up along the way and folks who are easily rolled over by promises of $$$. So while the CEO is indeed "a work of something", the board is a perfect storm of "egos and pushovers".
Either way, yeah, I think that since literally no leadership change is coming from this "you put the same chemicals in, you're absolutely going to get the same reaction out." The only thing they have likely taken from this whole thing is that they cannot be as obvious about changes as they were.
You showed everyone who you are, Unity execs. You also pointedly did not even begin to address any of the other sketchy shit, like the vouchers you were handing out to try to sink AppLovin, or the silent and unannounced modification of your license agreement that was discovered by the community after the fact.
They obliterated most of the goodwill they had and long term this stupid greedy move probably will have cost them more than the change could ever have gotten them. This is what quick buck exec’s van do to a company
Cost them more? I don’t think people realize Unity’s been working at a loss every year since the beginning, burning investor money. Just shutting down is quite frankly more profitable than continuing as is.
Almost every tech company functions in this manner today.
Modern tech cycle is basically keep operating at a loss to increase userbase. And then one of the 3 scenarios happen. 1. Most obvious, they run out of investor money and make drastic unpopular changes to make profit as seen here. 2. Sell company to an even bigger tech company, who will then most likely kill it too. 3. Become google/meta/etc. themselves, which is the least likely scenario.
It would have been perfectly fine if they did it this way to start. Tie the new licensing costs to a future engine version, give lead time before you start collecting data, and have the number be manageable.
But trust in such an absolutely critical vendor that your entire business relies on, and they told you they're perfectly fine trying to retroactively change contracts. The uncertainty of legal costs to protect your rights is a huge concern.
Well, I mean, at least it’s good for anyone who working on a project now. Or rather, it’s not terrible for anyone working on a unity project now. It’s not going to clear up the black mark that went down the past week. It’s gonna get brought up every time Unity is mentioned.
Haha, I can’t even read their bullshit excuse because I blocked unity.com and unity3d.com. On the off chance that I play something made in unity, I wanted make sure they can’t collect stats.
The CEO is a shitlord and the board isn’t any better.
I feel for the people doing the actual work on unity, may they find better jobs somewhere that is not such a dumpster fire.
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