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It makes sense the CEO would either step down or be forcibly removed by the board. Unity's mishandling of the Runtime Fee policy announcement has caused perman

It makes sense the CEO would either step down or be forcibly removed by the board. Unity's mishandling of the Runtime Fee policy announcement has caused permanent damage to their reputation. It was a perfect case study in how to undo decades of trust-building in one day. I follow a lot of game developers online. Every single one that uses Unity today is planning to switch engines for their future games.

lofaszvanitt 3y ago
Nah, this was mass hysteria.
- starburst 3y ago
  Nah, people in position of picking the engine for the next project are not going to pick Unity.
  - sbarre 3y ago
    At least one publisher jokingly (but not jokingly) said "developers: make sure you include which engine you're using next time you pitch us a game!"...
    - teamonkey 3y ago
      That's normal and has been for years. Your choice of engine affects your business model.
      - sbarre 3y ago
        Yes but a very public tweet about it in the middle of this Unity debacle was not accidental timing or just a random reminder of this fact.
- readyplayernull 3y ago
  When they tell you that you have to report your installs and sales each month just like you do your taxes, that's when you notice there are other free engines.
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  It's not "mass hysteria" to observe that your business partner is willing to attempt to retroactively change the terms of your arrangement with them, and therefore decide they aren't trustworthy as a business partner. The actual monetary cost to developers is actually quite inconsequential compared to the lack of integrity Unity showed in trying to make this apply to games which were already released.
  - chipgap98 3y ago
    I think the concern is real but I don’t think there is another viable competitor to Unity
    - hackernewds 3y ago
      Unreal
- chrz 3y ago
  "EVERYBODY disliked that" is not hysteria
sorenjan 3y ago
> I follow a lot of game developers online. Every single one that uses Unity today is planning to switch engines for their future games. Will all of them switch to Unreal, or are there other viable options?
- starburst 3y ago
  The biggest share of Unity is 2D mobile games, something Unreal is not particularly suited for and I very much doubted that segment of the market will switch to Unreal.
  - dkersten 3y ago
    Defold, the engine by King that powers Candy Crush, is a solid free contender for 2D mobile games.
    - cornel_io 3y ago
      Unless a very major rewrite happened in the last few years, Defold absolutely does not power Candy Crush, in fact to my knowledge King has never shipped anything in Defold and it's fallen almost entirely out of favor internally. All the Candy Crushes as well as several other games use variants of a custom internal engine that's managed by a fairly sizable central team.
      - dkersten 3y ago
        Ah, you are correct about Candy Crush. After being promoted by your comment to investigate further, I see that King seems to only ever have released one game using the engine: Blossom Blast Saga in 2016, at least according to the showcase[1]. It seems that Candy Crush predates the engine by a few years and that the engine was originally created as a hobby project by one of the King employees, although it’s seen commercial use on mobile by a number of studios and has received backing from King and others over the years. King are not currently listed as a backer of the Defold Foundation, but one of the board members is the “director of engines” at King. [1] https://defold.com/showcase/ https://defold.com/showcase/
Luc 3y ago
Doesn't really matter if they're mostly indie game devs that weren't contributing major revenue to Unity anyway.
- delecti 3y ago
  Indies aren't limited to single-digit sized teams, and even if they were, devs "graduate" out of indie studios into AAA ones (through growth or migration). The skillset of the next decade of new indies deliberately excluding Unity will influence the decisions made by the AAAs that they move to. Anybody too small to be negotiating custom license terms with Unity just learned that they can't be trusted.
- drusepth 3y ago
  In my spheres (full-time game dev), I've already seen ripples down to teachers/professors switching from Unity to Unreal in their courses. Many of the content creators I've enjoyed in Unity are also either switching or considering switching to another engine for their videos. Brackeys allegedly even said he might come back and start a Godot series. It's a long tail of ripples that reduces the number of "Unity devs" at every stage of their lifecycle (learning, starting out, graduating to small studios, etc) which doesn't bode well for Unity long-term. Most A/AA devs I follow are planning to switch to another engine when they can (e.g. not mid-project), but I know a few who immediately started porting to Unreal/Godot. Most AAA devs I know already don't use Unity.
  - chipgap98 3y ago
    Unreal is even more expensive and requires reporting your revenue to pay for it. How is that a better option than Unity?
    - jwitthuhn 3y ago
      Even though the walked back the price change this time, Unity still contends that they have the authority to increase the price and apply that price increase to old versions even if the users don't agree [1]. Unreal lets users stick to a license with predictable fees. By using Unity you are still agreeing to a liability with no limit that can change at any time and your only recourse is to cease development or stop selling your already-complete game. 1. https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-45#post-9297488 https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packa...
adastra22 3y ago
Hold on, unity did not mishandle the announcement. They mishandled the whole policy. It was poison that no game developer would have accepted.
- Groxx 3y ago
  Both fit - the announcement was a massively confusing mess, with slightly different information in many locations and none of it clear, leaving everyone guessing what their soon-to-come-due cost would be for days while they completely failed to get their shirt together.
thrillgore 3y ago
Unity didn't mishandle the announcement. They were actually quite clear about their brazen rentseeking, and that made the decision to switch pretty easy for new development.

lofaszvanitt 3y ago

Nah, this was mass hysteria.

starburst 3y ago
Nah, people in position of picking the engine for the next project are not going to pick Unity.
- sbarre 3y ago
  At least one publisher jokingly (but not jokingly) said "developers: make sure you include which engine you're using next time you pitch us a game!"...
  - teamonkey 3y ago
    That's normal and has been for years. Your choice of engine affects your business model.
    - sbarre 3y ago
      Yes but a very public tweet about it in the middle of this Unity debacle was not accidental timing or just a random reminder of this fact.
readyplayernull 3y ago
When they tell you that you have to report your installs and sales each month just like you do your taxes, that's when you notice there are other free engines.
bigstrat2003 3y ago
It's not "mass hysteria" to observe that your business partner is willing to attempt to retroactively change the terms of your arrangement with them, and therefore decide they aren't trustworthy as a business partner. The actual monetary cost to developers is actually quite inconsequential compared to the lack of integrity Unity showed in trying to make this apply to games which were already released.
- chipgap98 3y ago
  I think the concern is real but I don’t think there is another viable competitor to Unity
  - hackernewds 3y ago
    Unreal
chrz 3y ago
"EVERYBODY disliked that" is not hysteria

sorenjan 3y ago

> I follow a lot of game developers online. Every single one that uses Unity today is planning to switch engines for their future games. Will all of them switch to Unreal, or are there other viable options?

starburst 3y ago
The biggest share of Unity is 2D mobile games, something Unreal is not particularly suited for and I very much doubted that segment of the market will switch to Unreal.
- dkersten 3y ago
  Defold, the engine by King that powers Candy Crush, is a solid free contender for 2D mobile games.
  - cornel_io 3y ago
    Unless a very major rewrite happened in the last few years, Defold absolutely does not power Candy Crush, in fact to my knowledge King has never shipped anything in Defold and it's fallen almost entirely out of favor internally. All the Candy Crushes as well as several other games use variants of a custom internal engine that's managed by a fairly sizable central team.
    - dkersten 3y ago
      Ah, you are correct about Candy Crush. After being promoted by your comment to investigate further, I see that King seems to only ever have released one game using the engine: Blossom Blast Saga in 2016, at least according to the showcase[1]. It seems that Candy Crush predates the engine by a few years and that the engine was originally created as a hobby project by one of the King employees, although it’s seen commercial use on mobile by a number of studios and has received backing from King and others over the years. King are not currently listed as a backer of the Defold Foundation, but one of the board members is the “director of engines” at King. [1] https://defold.com/showcase/ https://defold.com/showcase/

Luc 3y ago

Doesn't really matter if they're mostly indie game devs that weren't contributing major revenue to Unity anyway.

delecti 3y ago
Indies aren't limited to single-digit sized teams, and even if they were, devs "graduate" out of indie studios into AAA ones (through growth or migration). The skillset of the next decade of new indies deliberately excluding Unity will influence the decisions made by the AAAs that they move to. Anybody too small to be negotiating custom license terms with Unity just learned that they can't be trusted.
drusepth 3y ago
In my spheres (full-time game dev), I've already seen ripples down to teachers/professors switching from Unity to Unreal in their courses. Many of the content creators I've enjoyed in Unity are also either switching or considering switching to another engine for their videos. Brackeys allegedly even said he might come back and start a Godot series. It's a long tail of ripples that reduces the number of "Unity devs" at every stage of their lifecycle (learning, starting out, graduating to small studios, etc) which doesn't bode well for Unity long-term. Most A/AA devs I follow are planning to switch to another engine when they can (e.g. not mid-project), but I know a few who immediately started porting to Unreal/Godot. Most AAA devs I know already don't use Unity.
- chipgap98 3y ago
  Unreal is even more expensive and requires reporting your revenue to pay for it. How is that a better option than Unity?
  - jwitthuhn 3y ago
    Even though the walked back the price change this time, Unity still contends that they have the authority to increase the price and apply that price increase to old versions even if the users don't agree [1]. Unreal lets users stick to a license with predictable fees. By using Unity you are still agreeing to a liability with no limit that can change at any time and your only recourse is to cease development or stop selling your already-complete game. 1. https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-45#post-9297488 https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packa...

adastra22 3y ago

Hold on, unity did not mishandle the announcement. They mishandled the whole policy. It was poison that no game developer would have accepted.

Groxx 3y ago
Both fit - the announcement was a massively confusing mess, with slightly different information in many locations and none of it clear, leaving everyone guessing what their soon-to-come-due cost would be for days while they completely failed to get their shirt together.

thrillgore 3y ago

Unity didn't mishandle the announcement. They were actually quite clear about their brazen rentseeking, and that made the decision to switch pretty easy for new development.