MAJOR developments in the Unity game engine debacle

Yeah, 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?'

Remember Russia had a problem with radiator leaks on the International Space Station? Guess what!!

In the last twelve months, twice Russia has had leaks on Soyuz space craft radiators, resulting in them dumping all of their coolant into space.

Well, it's happened again.

In this case, it's their Nauka science module, and an unused coolant loop. That is to say, a coolant loop that is not currently in use, it's planned for use with future experiments. Something happened and it has or is in the process of dumping all its coolant.

The two Soyuz leaks were blamed on micrometeorite impacts, what will take the blame for the Nauka leak? One micrometeorite? Okay, plausible. Two? When nothing has damaged any of the American equipment in similar fashion? Why don't we instead talk about the terrible state of the Russian space program: the funding cuts, the very low morale, the poor quality control.

I think you might find a lot of micrometeorite accumulation if you looked there.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/for-the-third-time-in-a-year-russian-hardware-on-the-space-station-is-leaking/

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the film Demolition Man!

I have to say, this movie brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. I love this film! It's pure, grade-B cheese, but I love it none the less. Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, and Nigel Hawthorne?! How the hell did they get Nigel in a piece of schlock like this?!

Nigel, to American audiences, is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the film, The Madness of King George. Or, in England, The Madness of King George III, since they need to differentiate the different Georges over there. He also was the Permanent Private Secretary in the series(es?) Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, two other series that I absolutely loved.

As it happens, I read Nigel Hawthorne's biography, and it was a fantastic read. And he specifically wrote about Demolition Man. And he absolutely HATED the experience! It was, as I recall, his first experience making a Hollywood movie, and he couldn't believe the egos of Stallone and Snipes. Said it was the worst experience of making a film in his life. Sadly, he was only 72 when he died of AIDS 22 years ago.

But I'm here to rant about the movie, not one actor in it.

If you're a fan of this film, you really ought to read this article. It has lots of great bits and information on the making of it that you wouldn't have otherwise have learned, such as a link to the film Heathers, a tie to Schwarzenegger, and some interesting commentary to our current socio/political climate. One thing that I particularly liked about the film was the shots of the San Diego Convention Center: I used to go there for ComicCon but stopped 20 years ago when it just got too damn crowded.

If you like the film, B-movie that it is, read the article and tell me what you enjoy. If you don't like it, why did you read this far?

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/10/enhance-your-calm-demolition-man-turns-30/