Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

That's fair, ten years ago I probably would have pushed back as well. And if we're going back to turn of the century Microsoft, we're back in the realm of 'embrace, extend and extinguish'.

It's easy to forget that Microsoft has the luxury of being magnanimous with their cash and time now, because its built on a decade of them mercilessly crushing their competition. But even so, thinking about what Unity might look like under a decade of Microsoft stewardship is an interesting thought experiment.

 

Ya I felt the same for the few few days. I've gone through the 5 stages of grief:

• denial
• anger
• bargaining
• depression
• acceptance

I'm now using Godot....

 

You can still download Turbo Pascal from some abandonware sites ;-)

 

Just to be clear, Unity said the fees will affect only 10% of indies? Is that correct? Because Unity probably already lost 15% of developer base to competitors over this one announcement, imagine how many more will leave if Unity does start actually charging people, really really really smart guys! I wish I had your IQ

 

I doubt they've lost any of the big studios that fund them and the indie revolt is a rounding error for them financially, so they just don't care. I do think this will have far reaching consequences, however. I doubt the big studios who are explicitly targeted with retroactive business model changes appreciate this and most of the userbase have lost trust in Unity when confidence already wasn't all that high due to engine fragmentation and nonsensical acquisitions. This could easily be the beginning of the end for Unity.

 

the worst thing is that is was never about the money. they had an idiotic proposal, that has only downsides for everyone and turned that into a masterclass in "how to make everyone hate you as a company".

i wouldnt wonder that there will be a new phrase in the future, dont turn a unity on me.
which basically means "dont try to F*** me over with a F***ing stupid idea, that will end up damaging both of us".

its honestly just sad.

 

miHoYo is actively recruiting engine devs right now.
They could very well be planning to build their own alternative "Unity Runtime".
Chinese devs are very good at cloning things "clean room" style...

 

Yeah I checked it out and it seems fine for my purposes. Actually it was way better than I thought. Before I jump in and port I am just waiting for unity's response to see if they come up with something reasonable. I don't know why it is taking them so long, its not rocket science but rather basic math and commonsense. Maybe they want the stock to drop a bit more before they buy back in and ride it up a bit to make more money after they sold the stocks before the announcement. Nah surely not. I hate wasting time I just cannot get my enthusiasm back to even cut code on my game again until I KNOW.

 

They also need devs for their fork of Unity but who knows. Perhaps they're flying solo after Genshin.

 

It's taking them so long because they don't want to let it go and are trying to find a way to rephrase the same thing so we accept it.
They're not backing down.

 

For those trying GODOT and finding it lacking some things, just remember that when you started using Unity you felt the same way. Dig your heels into GODOT and pretend you have always been there. Don't settle in. Just be a developer who uses GODOT.

Also remember that by using GODOT you never have to worry about them doing scumbag moves, lies, borderline illegal activity, and being stabbed in the back, spat in your face, and them telling everybody that you are confused and being unreasonable.

There is nothing here anymore for any of us. If you, within your mind, find a way to convince yourself, that what has happened is accepatble, and that you will continue to use Unity with 100% certainty and that this won't happen again in the future, I will wait for you on the other side, and I will hold out my hand to pull you towards the light. I will do that because I'm not like the Unity management.

 

Here's what dev of RimWorld wrote about Unity 5 years ago:



Unity have F***ed people over since Riccitiello took over. Also, all the other issues are still relevant even today.

 

Oh, I remember very well when Riccitiello introduced the subscription scheme for Unity but they told us not to worry because it was just another option of payment and that we would still be able to pay for perpetual licenses if we reaaally wanted.
Then some months later it was not an option anymore and everybody was like: this is fine.
boiling frogs.

 

We're in some kind of abusive relationship where RJ & co gaslight us, then do the thing they said they wouldn't do anyway. I'm avoiding all companies that'll go public in the future. Once is enough. What a F***ing nightmare.

 

I haven't truly appreciated new features since mecanim and Unet. The latter getting the axe anyhow. Godot reminds me of a simpler time, less features - but also less bloat.

 

I had an interesting idea when I was thinking about what I personally would do if Unity was my company and I was trying to save it. This has been a complete PR disaster, but I have some ideas that might help restore the rep of Unity. What would you guys think about the following:

Problem: Unity needs more revenue. (I'm of course ignoring the crazy purchases the company has made.)
Answer: 4% revenue share for earnings over $300,000 per quarter. (This is a better deal than Flax and eliminates them as competition.) It ONLY applies to NEW users after the date they announce this. ALL previous users are grandfathered in with the Terms THEY signed. (How it should have been.)

Problem: The trust is lost.
Answer: ALL upper management have their salaries reduced to $1 per year and are given stock in the company as payment. They can then sell their stock as frequently as they would like. Daily, Monthly, Yearly, it doesn't matter, what matters is that their salary would be DEPENDENT on how the company is doing. If the company does well, they make more money selling it, the company does bad, they make less. They would have a much more vested interest in the success of Unity. Vulnerability has the potential to regain public trust.

 

New potential billing model:

Every second of thought spent on Unity to be charged at rates reflective of your nation's average IQ.

It's not thoughtcrime, it's paytime. In this way, Unity maximises the returns on contention and any and all rage against themselves they're able to drum up through ever more diabolical practices and policies.

Embrace the Love, and the Hate.

 

Godot now have reached the third of the support Blender Fund has: https://fund.godotengine.org/ It has real potential of becoming the Blender of game engines due to the momentum behind it. It also doesn't yet list the 100k donation and 1k/month from Terraria devs, which was recently announced.

 

Wake up.

They arent going to backdown. They arent going to reverse their decision. Its done. Its over.

Move on, no use beating a dead horse.

 

That's mostly what's happening now for John R. He receives ~1/3rd of a million in cash and a variable amount in stock that is currently around $11 million.

https://www1.salary.com/John-Riccitiello-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-Unity-Software-Inc.html

 

This wouldn't work. Unity are bleeding cash now. This desperate, poorly thought out move is designed to cash in on Genshin Impact, Raid Shadow Legends and all the other huge GaaS mobile games made with Unity. A business model change that applies only to new projects wouldn't bring them in any immediate money they need to stay afloat and it might give even more room for pivoting new projects away from Unity.

 

It should be the first sign to bail.

If a company removes perpetual licenses, then immediately pack up and leave. I've seen this happen for the last 20 years now. Literally every single time its always the exact same thing. People need to seriously reject subscriptions and force perpetual licensing back.

 

I think making their salary stock would have the opposite effect, it incentivises short term pumping over long term management.

 

So I think its safe to assume now we aren't getting this walked back in any meaningful way.

Thinking about it, its obvious, the whole thrust of these changes appear to be directed to grab as much of those fees from massive games like Genshin, but to achieve that Unity have to get the fees to apply to games already released under different TOS, hence the retroactive and stealth changes to TOS and the whole fixation on installs.

That is why this can never be resolved as to do so in a way that restores trust for us, means losing the fees Unity wants from the biggest games.

The question I have in my mind is whether there was really no other way to support Unity through subscription price increases and a more ethical, fair, and simple revenue share type deal that only comes in with a specific version of Unity such as 2023 LTS. If there was no chance that would work, I wonder what the numbers will be like in a year or two when the Unity community is gutted and fractured across half a dozen engines. Plus I can't see those companies being happy losing such a high amount of money to Unity from these fees, so they will either change or make their own engines.

 

They already get paid an obscene amount of stock, to the order of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of it.

 

Let's hope all this Unity debacle makes people realize this.

 

Ohhh.

I get what you're saying.

That's very true I guess. I didn't think about that.

Oh boy.

 

Safety in numbers. The more it grows, the more tutorials you'll find.

 

indeed lol

 

Love how the indie community is so bullish on making Unity pay:
https://twitter.com/unormal/status/1704268923045134369

 

And, at this exact moment, these behemoth companies are porting their games to other engines or working on their proprietary solution...

 

Problem: The trust is lost.
Answer: It's upper management's job to have a company that can be trusted. Fire them.

 

That's absolutely my stance, yes.
Those C-suits don't know what it's like to play chess against a pigeon!

 

I read an email from Unity I’m pretty sure it gave me another year of plus if I renewed subscription b4 expire otherwise I could only get pro, I have deleted email does this sound correct

 

Why do you think this Terry Davis(at home) here came crawling out of his cave. Don't take our toys.

 

https://unity.com/pricing-updates

 

they could lay off most of their managment and streamline what is important. all they did was hiring more people and then go into ipo to get valuated heigher. 50% of mobile games are made with it and now they basically killed their ad buisness for good. only people consider taking it are those with a gun to their head.

we now probably will get a less S*** deal. but still S***. fee per install is just beyond stupid and they did so hat we buy their other S***, like some scammy car dealer.

im pretty sure, really 99% sure, that unity is dead. i worked on a game for 5 years like crazy, but heart and soul in it, but yeah sometimes S*** hits the fan.

ill finish it, see how much unity tries to F*** me over. and im gone. if i dont like the deal or how much they make from me, ill just delete it to stay under a treshhold.
for me its also about principals. i do not want to support such people with my work. the damage unity did to its image is beyond repair and only if they get rid of their managment and anyone responsible to make those stupid decisions, ill ever considering going further.

godot and unreal are the future.

 

Terraria devs will see how well the money will be spent on a engine that is stuck on the same place since 2018.
It's a shame, because in a month when unity refuges find out that not a single 3d feature of godot works completely they will just return to unity, not that it matters, those are the devs that most likely will never release a comercial game anyway.

Unreal is not so scary as you guys think, disable the default sky and the editor will run even on a potato, what is so hard on doing the right thing anon?

 

If that's true it sounds like we'll be right at home.

 

I don't think anyone on the top understands what's happening. They're too far removed, the vast majority of them haven't worked in games or play games. All they care about is stock value, and the per install fee contributes to that positively on paper. We already had a bunch of clueless analysts posting projections of Unity stock booming, which of course didn't happen.

If management understood the import of what's happening now, they wouldn't have taken the weekend off, they would've gone in full crisis management mode and resolved this ASAP. Instead they're fumbling along and trying to think up ways of making this change palatable to the wider userbase while Godot and other options are receiving unprecedented support.

 

Depends if you want a landlord or not. A lot of people here got burned. Not everyone will be a success, but I'd wager most people are inspired by dreams of success. And that inspiration fuels the hobby and/or profession. Game creation is certainly a hodge-podge of pragmatism and creativity.

 

Are you talking about Unity? Sure sounds like you're talking about Unity.

I find that not a single feature of any number of dimensions works completely in Unity.

From this, sounds like Unity and Godot are about at parity right now.

 

Oh, no no, it could totally happen!
Clueless investors happen all the time, and if enough people believe it you can make the share go up.
That will not save Unity though, it will only make Unity's execs richer when they dump everything again.

 

What happens to Unreal when Sweeney retires, makes Epic public or just suddenly combusts or is assassinated by Tencent mercs in a hostile takeover? He's getting in on the years. Fortnite won't be the golden goose forever either.

 

As the days go on I'm hearing rumblings from various sources that large companies, the ones Unity most wants to nickle and dime, feel so betrayed that they're ready to re-staff, re-train, and re-align with companies and tools invested in their success. These things aren't overnight and will take time to manifest, but the decisions have already been made.

At this rate indies or students who stick with Unity will have no jobs to pivot into in the industry in 2 years. Maybe less. Legacy work might still exist from time to time, mostly for old hands with a decade of experience, who have the know-how and who will charge 3x the previous rate for the opportunity cost of spending time on a dead-man walking when they could spend it on skills with a future.

It's really not a question of whether you should stick around and wait to hear what ways Unity's upper management can come up with to massage this into a more palatable turd sandwich. It's well and truly time to look elsewhere and expand your skills where they'll actually benefit you. Even studying GameMaker would be a better use of your time. You'll never get a job in the industry, but at least if you make a runaway indie hit they won't charge you a runtime fee.

 

Hey guys!! I integrated Godot with Rapier physics engine today! Was super ez using gdnative!

 

Well UE thrives and gets more new exciting features . Tough UE5 was kinda not too stable, since it was new release but on 5.3 so far I havent got any crash and Editor is as snappy as ever.

 

Ofc You have to choose the best tool for what You produce. But staying in Unity means anxiety "what will they try to push in the future", but then there may be not enough developers yet to outrage and push the new ideas back .

Its always a tough choice

 

Nah, the real anxiety will be "why aren't there any more Unity developer jobs on LinkedIn? Where did they all go?"

There should be 20% remaining by this time next year.

By 2026, perhaps you'll hear about people needing a Unity engineer to maintain an old system or push out a promised feature through the grapevine. Or a friend of a friend. But nothing new. Nothing.

 

https://twitter.com/MikeDiskett/status/1704275823828803799