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thewayneYeah, that's the word to be used: debacle.
A few weeks ago the makers of the Unity game engine, a very widely used game engine, announced a change to price per install which would have had major ramifications on small organizations, not to mention developers who had bought a license that they thought exempted them from such. It also would have exposed developers to 'hate installs' where someone could fire up a scripted virtual machine to install the game, delete the VM, create a new VM, reinstall the game, ad infinitum, to rack up charges against the developer.
A mass revolt of the install base began.
Some operations were too far into their projects to change engines. Some cancelled projects, others swore their next and future projects were going to other platforms. Word began to spread about another game engine called Godot that claims to be able to import all your Unity assets and you can hit the ground running.
There are two big new stories over the last couple of weeks and a huge one today. Initially, Unity was all 'We are surprised, but not bending'. On 9/22, the president of Unity, Marc Whitten had a press conference and said 'We're on a mission to earn back developer trust.' Which, of course, is weasel words to say 'We massively fucked up, it's obvious that it's really going to screw over the company, and we've got to suck up and try to get everybody back! Unity scaled back the fee structure, the question became whether this would be enough? The developers felt quite burned as they'd been assured that said structure would never have been changed in the first place.
I'm not going to go into the details of the new fee structure, you're welcome to read the Ars article. Regardless, a major serving of humble crow pie and the shareholders telling the board to dig in.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/09/unity-exec-tells-ars-hes-on-a-mission-to-earn-back-developer-trust/
https://games.slashdot.org/story/23/09/25/0245233/unity-president-apologizes-thanks-devs-for-feedback-pledges-sustainable-future
Literally the next DAY, the oldest Unity developer's group DISSOLVED! This group had been in existence for thirteen years, and they pulled the plug. Clearly it didn't happen as a direct result of the interview, you don't dissolve a group like this overnight - it takes some planning. BUG, the Boston Unity Group, was founded in 2010 and says that there's nothing preventing Unity from doing this backstab again.
From the Ars article: "Since its founding in 2010, the Boston Unity Group (BUG) has attracted thousands of members to regular gatherings, talks, and networking events, including many technical lectures archived on YouTube. But the group says it will be hosting its last meeting Wednesday evening via Zoom because the Unity of today is very different from the Dave Helgason-led company that BUG says "enthusiastically sanctioned and supported" the group at its founding.
"Over the past few years, Unity has unfortunately shifted its focus away from the games industry and away from supporting developer communities," the group leadership wrote in a departure note. "Following the IPO, the company has seemingly put profit over all else, with several acquisitions and layoffs of core personnel. Many key systems that developers need are still left in a confusing and often incomplete state, with the messaging that advertising and revenue matter more to Unity than the functionality game developers care about."
Again, it looks like the company going public and stock-based, having to answer to share holders and Wall Street, was the big moving force behind the per-install charges.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/09/oldest-unity-game-developer-group-breaks-up-over-lack-of-trust-in-the-company/
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/09/26/2151223/unity-dev-group-dissolves-after-13-years-over-completely-eroded-company-trust
Now here's the biggie from today.
The CEO of Unity has resigned from the company in hopes of 'avoiding a stock panic'!
So clearly it was all about the Benjamins from the beginning.
https://venturebeat.com/games/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle/
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/23/10/09/2129255/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle
It will be interesting to see what the next chapters of this debacle look turn out to be. They can't revert their pricing/licensing scheme to what it was before this all happened: the shareholders won't let them, and they've already burned their developers. Any budding game developers are going to be looking at other platforms because they've now seen how Unity treats their devs.
Anyone want any action on 'Fire sale for the corp in less than five years?'
A few weeks ago the makers of the Unity game engine, a very widely used game engine, announced a change to price per install which would have had major ramifications on small organizations, not to mention developers who had bought a license that they thought exempted them from such. It also would have exposed developers to 'hate installs' where someone could fire up a scripted virtual machine to install the game, delete the VM, create a new VM, reinstall the game, ad infinitum, to rack up charges against the developer.
A mass revolt of the install base began.
Some operations were too far into their projects to change engines. Some cancelled projects, others swore their next and future projects were going to other platforms. Word began to spread about another game engine called Godot that claims to be able to import all your Unity assets and you can hit the ground running.
There are two big new stories over the last couple of weeks and a huge one today. Initially, Unity was all 'We are surprised, but not bending'. On 9/22, the president of Unity, Marc Whitten had a press conference and said 'We're on a mission to earn back developer trust.' Which, of course, is weasel words to say 'We massively fucked up, it's obvious that it's really going to screw over the company, and we've got to suck up and try to get everybody back! Unity scaled back the fee structure, the question became whether this would be enough? The developers felt quite burned as they'd been assured that said structure would never have been changed in the first place.
I'm not going to go into the details of the new fee structure, you're welcome to read the Ars article. Regardless, a major serving of humble crow pie and the shareholders telling the board to dig in.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/09/unity-exec-tells-ars-hes-on-a-mission-to-earn-back-developer-trust/
https://games.slashdot.org/story/23/09/25/0245233/unity-president-apologizes-thanks-devs-for-feedback-pledges-sustainable-future
Literally the next DAY, the oldest Unity developer's group DISSOLVED! This group had been in existence for thirteen years, and they pulled the plug. Clearly it didn't happen as a direct result of the interview, you don't dissolve a group like this overnight - it takes some planning. BUG, the Boston Unity Group, was founded in 2010 and says that there's nothing preventing Unity from doing this backstab again.
From the Ars article: "Since its founding in 2010, the Boston Unity Group (BUG) has attracted thousands of members to regular gatherings, talks, and networking events, including many technical lectures archived on YouTube. But the group says it will be hosting its last meeting Wednesday evening via Zoom because the Unity of today is very different from the Dave Helgason-led company that BUG says "enthusiastically sanctioned and supported" the group at its founding.
"Over the past few years, Unity has unfortunately shifted its focus away from the games industry and away from supporting developer communities," the group leadership wrote in a departure note. "Following the IPO, the company has seemingly put profit over all else, with several acquisitions and layoffs of core personnel. Many key systems that developers need are still left in a confusing and often incomplete state, with the messaging that advertising and revenue matter more to Unity than the functionality game developers care about."
Again, it looks like the company going public and stock-based, having to answer to share holders and Wall Street, was the big moving force behind the per-install charges.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/09/oldest-unity-game-developer-group-breaks-up-over-lack-of-trust-in-the-company/
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/09/26/2151223/unity-dev-group-dissolves-after-13-years-over-completely-eroded-company-trust
Now here's the biggie from today.
The CEO of Unity has resigned from the company in hopes of 'avoiding a stock panic'!
So clearly it was all about the Benjamins from the beginning.
https://venturebeat.com/games/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle/
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/23/10/09/2129255/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle
It will be interesting to see what the next chapters of this debacle look turn out to be. They can't revert their pricing/licensing scheme to what it was before this all happened: the shareholders won't let them, and they've already burned their developers. Any budding game developers are going to be looking at other platforms because they've now seen how Unity treats their devs.
Anyone want any action on 'Fire sale for the corp in less than five years?'
no subject
Date: 2023-10-10 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-10 06:45 pm (UTC)It does seem to be an increasingly common story. Buying stock used to be considered an investment with risk, now it's supposed to be guaranteed returns or we'll destroy your company.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 03:41 am (UTC)I can't believe there isn't one already. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon
no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 06:28 pm (UTC)Nope. They screwed the proverbial pooch on this one.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-13 04:57 pm (UTC)Where I see this eventually going is that Unity, the corporation, will dissolve, but Unity, the engine, will be able to continue. Probably through either being open-sourced or abandonwared.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-13 07:41 pm (UTC)Difficult to say. I can see the final board flipping the finger to developers and never releasing it as open source before they dissolve the corporation, I can see the assets being bought out and a new corporate entity that recognizes the former brand try to reinvigorate things and do a reset, I think there's just no telling what will happen. But I think the likely outcome is that the current incarnation of the Unity corporation will die, though it may take a few years.