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Why isn't app version collected in Unity Analytics?

Discussion in 'Unity Analytics' started by Laumania, Sep 21, 2021.

  1. Laumania

    Laumania

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    Hi

    Am I the only one that find to extremely odd that something as important as "app/game version" isn't included in the normal Unity Analytics?
    It's fairly useful to see how many uses various versions of your game - so why isn't this data exposed in an easy way in Unity Analytics?

    I mean, the data is collected, as you can pick it from a list when building "segments", so why not make something as basic as that accessible?

    And if I missed something obvious, please let me know where to see it :)
     
  2. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    We are working on a new version of Analytics that should contain this information. In the meantime, you can certainly send a Custom Event with this information.
     
  3. Laumania

    Laumania

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    Ok that's good to hear :)
    Well, yes I could do a lot of things, but I just assumed something as fundamental as this was in there (which it apparently is as I can see it in the custom segment) and my game is already out, and sadly also pirated a ton, so just wanted to see how many plays what version.

    So adding a custom event doesn't really help me for all the versions that are already out there.

    Anyway, good you have a new one on it's way, what is the ETA on that?
     
  4. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    So you are not able to use the custom segment you are referring to? https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityAnalyticsTerminology.html
     
  5. Laumania

    Laumania

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    Look at the size of the scroll - I have many versions as said - so it will take a really long time and it shouldn't have to be like that if you ask me :)
    upload_2021-9-22_15-40-25.png


    So making one line for each of them is not really an option or something I want to spend time on. Yes it's do able, but so is reaching out to all players (read tens of thousands) asking them what version they have ;)
    upload_2021-9-22_15-42-26.png
     
  6. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    Users would only have the versions of the app that YOU publish. Your users are not running the Unity Editor, they are playing your game. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding. What UI would you prefer to see? Did you publish a version using Unity 2020.5.1 and then publish another release using Unity 2020.12.2?
     
  7. Laumania

    Laumania

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    These versions you see ARE my games versions. I version my game with that versioning structure, that just happens to look like Unity's version numbers :)

    So these are just my versions from updates over the last 2-3 years - so as I said, I have a lot and don't want to put them in this segment each of them.

    I want to see something as simple as, 3% plays version 2021.2.2, 0,5% plays version 2019.12.1 etc. etc.
    Isn't this a really really really common scenario?

    :)
     
  8. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    Having so many versions isn't quite so common. Have you tried with the last 3-4 versions to see if the report would serve your needs? Otherwise, yes, you will need a lot of OR statements. We have a new version coming out in a month or two, stay tuned!
     
  9. Laumania

    Laumania

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    I know it's a lot, but that's not really an argument for not being able to see the graph I want :)

    Yes I could do a segment with the version I think are the mostly used (and cracked) but again, no matter if I had 3 or 100 version, there should be a place to see how many players I have of each in a certain periode.

    But lets hope to new version have that - looking forward to see it :)
     
  10. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    My point was, make a simple test, and see if that works for you. It wasn't suggested as a complete solution. What business problem are you trying to solve? From the data that you would expect, what changes might you plan to make to your game? I often try to encourage developers to consider what actions would be taken from the data they want to capture. Granted this doesn't directly answer your question, but rather, a different way to look at it.
     
  11. Laumania

    Laumania

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    As said, I concretely want to see how many players play another version than the latest from Steam, as that will give me a pretty good idea of how many cracked versions are out there.

    I also want to see how many playes on the experimental branch version, only the closed beta version (maybe the code got leaked).

    The way I "fight" piracy is to contantly updating the game, because crackers have a tendency of not wanting to spend time catching up. That frustrates the players who plays the cracked version, hopefully so much that they end up buying the game, which they have should have done in the first place as it's a parently a game they enjoy, since it annoys them not having the latest version :)
     
  12. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    Got it! FYI you can enforce that users upgrade using Remote Config, either warn them or force users to upgrade. Could you use a custom segment to show ALL users NOT on the current version? To be clear, your request is valid, I'm just suggesting other options in the meantime. If you choose to enumerate your list with OR statements, ensure to test frequently (just in case the segment fails, not sure if we have an upper limit)
     
  13. Laumania

    Laumania

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    I get you suggest solutions in the current solution and thank you for that. But it's not essential or critical for me right now, so I can wait. I was just really surprised it wasn't already a thing, especially because I think I recall is was like that a few years back.

    In relation to enforcing upgrade, hehe, if it was that easy we wouldn't have piracy ;)

    I already have logic in there to make sure players have the game in their Steam library, but funny enough, the crackers just remove that part from the code and they could do the same with that remote update.

    I'm only do that little thing with checking against Steam lib to avoid the easiest way of cracking (simply just copy/paste the game to a friend) but I don't want to spend more time on trying to make my game unable to be cracked, because it's a battle I can't win anyway. When the big AAA companies can't, I can't either.

    That's why I'm "fighting" piracy another way, but providing updates to the people who bought the game, so all the ones with the cracked versions can't have the new fun :)
    At least they have to wait a long time for it :)
     
  14. JeffDUnity3D

    JeffDUnity3D

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    Sorry if I'm missing something, but assume you have a report that shows many users with previous versions. What change would you make to your game?