cypher_greyhatSep 14, 2023

Unity close office due to ‘credible threats’.

https://lemmy.world/post/5057297

Unity close office due to ‘credible threats’. - Lemmy.world

Show threadbloopernovaSep 14, 2023

I could imagine that there’s some very angry and confused developers who might feel violent towards unity right now.

Not that threats are the answer, just that I could see people might feel their livelihood is threatened.

Show threadSerdanSep 14, 2023
I think threats are perfectly fine when CEO’s who are completely disconnected from reality destroy your livelihood so they can get a slightly larger bonus next quarter.
Show threadmo_ztt ✅Sep 14, 2023
  • There’s a big difference between “start charging money for their software in a way you disagree with” and "destroy your livelihood."
  • I’m gonna take you at your word that it sounds like you’re saying threatening violence against the Unity management is okay. So even in the case of genuinely abusive and damaging companies (Nestle, Shell Oil), I think changing the rules so they’re answerable to a justice framework is a way better way to go, as opposed to abandoning the justice framework and hoping nothing bad will happen. MLK and Gandhi came to this understanding when faced with a lot more evil systems than the Unity developers. Basically, there is an answer, but if the problem is that they hold the power and they’re abusing it, taking the contest in the direction of a more power-based and less justice-based dynamic is tempting but it definitely isn’t gonna get you the results you want. It’s just gonna make things worse.
    • Show threadatrielienzSep 15, 2023

    “But under the changes announced today, Unity Personal and Unity Pro users will pay fees if they hit $200,000 in revenue in a year and 200,000 lifetime installs. For anywhere from one to a million installs, those users will pay 20 cents per install. “It’s a price increase.”

    If I have a mobile game selling for $1 on the apple store for instance and it uses Unity, and has has three hundred thousands downloads/installs I then owe Unity $300,000 for an app that I didn’t even make $200,000 on because app stores like apple’s charge a 30% cut. But that doesn’t in any way directly affect my livelihood as a developer or anything. Right?

    Show threadsugar_in_your_tea

    AFAIK, the retroactive nature of it doesn’t apply to already released games, but to games released with the new license terms. So if you released that mobile game last year, you wouldn’t need to pay $200k or whatever next year. However, if you release that same game next year, you would have to retroactively pay that $200k once the downloads exceeded the stated max.

    So the solution is: don’t use Unity next year, especially if you’ll be selling a game for $1. It sucks since in-progress games would have to be reworked, and Unity should suffer for that, but it shouldn’t ever come to threats of violence.

    Sep 15, 2023 at 3:07pmWeb
    Show threadatrielienzSep 16, 2023
    That’s actually fair. But the point is that the popularity of a game could tank a developer with this business model.
    Show threadsugar_in_your_teaSep 16, 2023

    I guess I’d have to read through the contract, but generally these things only apply to games released after the new terms take effect, but updates to games released prior. So the dev would be fully aware of the policy at the point of releasing the game.

    Unity seems to be catering to games with a recurring revenue model (ads, microtransactions, etc), and discouraging other revenue models, and I think most developers will recognize that with this pricing model.

    So I don’t think Unity is trying to screw already released games, they’re just trying to limit their appeal to a certain type of game revenue model.