They’ve proven they can’t be trusted. The people who devised and attempted to enact this plan - the exec team - have not gone anywhere, and they aren’t going to. They have shown the industry who they are, and they clearly don’t give a shit about business ethics or even legality (the AppLovin shit smells an awful fucking lot like anticompetitive market interference). They will definitely try something similar in the future.
It’s just that everyone who’s actually responsible for the decision is on the exec team, and it seems pretty clear that neither they nor the board have any plans to go anywhere. And if they try to crucify some middle management type who was just trying to do their job… well, that’s gonna be a fucking HUGE wrongful termination lawsuit, perhaps with some slander complaints thrown in.
This whole thing is a masterclass in machine gunning one’s own foot.
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.
I don’t really care if or how Unity reacts to the accusations. The fact remains that they did it, and their response is trying to deflect attention from the fact that they did do it.
The exec team isn’t changing. They didn’t even mention the scummy anticompetitive (and potentially illegal in some jurisdictions) fee vouchers they were handing out to try to steal users from AppLovin, nor was the sneaky update of their license terms that was done to enable the whole snafu addressed.
I don’t think Unity is coming back from this. The industry doesn’t trust them anymore, and nothing has been done to materially address the root cause of that lack of trust: the exec team and the board.
If they do a leadership shakeup, it’s possible they can save it. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.
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).