Penny Arcade

The Unity debacle has been discussed to death elsewhere. I'd like to try to summarize, but it's almost impossible given how quickly the situation is evolving.

1. Last week, Unity announced a change to its fee structure. Developers would be charged, in addition to licensing fees and profit-sharing, a per-install fee. That is, when the Unity runtime is installed on an end-user machine, it would be tracked and, assuming certain thresholds were hit, a fee would be charged to the developer.
2. The backlash this prompted caused Unity to walk back its announcement, but not enough to satisfy people. It has since gone dark and issued a statement that it's reconsidering the whole business.

By "countless people," I meant developers. I know this isn't trying to get to gamers (directly).

I mean, again, don't people already have Unity without this extra code installed to charge them? I mean, I have Unity downloaded (though I've used it like twice), what's preventing me from passing it around for free?

You need a Unity license to use the development engine, as I understand it, so you can't just pass around the editor arbitrarily. Although maybe you mean passing around an old installer version so devs can use their existing account with it, in which case, sure... unless Unity disables access to it.

Some people noticed that the change to the licensing terms didn't apply to current versions of the engine, so you can (apparently) avoid the new terms by refusing to upgrade from whatever LTS version you're currently on. I don't know the details, though, as I'm not a developer.

Obviously, if the runtime you distribute with your product doesn't have the code to phone home to Unity, it wouldn't be able to track the installs.

Maybe they have some workaround for it, but it seems like none of this was thought through. The sheer obliviousness of Unity's actions is what's so baffling to people.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 18th 2023 at 9:47:51 AM

This seems to be a scheme to get in on the sales of popular games. I guess Unity was no longer satisfied with just earning money from licensing fees.

And yes, it does sound like someone in management had a "great idea" for creating revenue and didn't think through the consequences, like a massive public backlash.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 18th 2023 at 4:03:35 PM

Unity's current CEO John Riccitiello used to be EA's CEO. Which probably explains a lot.

Riccitiello is on record as saying that indie devs are leaving money on the table if they don't fully monetize their games. The install fees are intended to generate extra operating revenue, sure, but even more they are meant as a companion to that philosophy. Unity is operating as if every developer is taking maximum advantage of its players' wallets and getting its own piece of that pie.

Yeah, that suggests he doesn't realize he is now selling a very different product to a different set of customers now. The idea is clearly to make money off of game sales, even though his business is one layer removed from game sales, so he can only do so indirectly.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 18th 2023 at 5:00:05 PM

Part of the backtrack is that Unity declared it would be charging distribution platforms for the install fees (Valve, Microsoft, Epic) rather than developers. That one got changed super fast, since the stores would just refuse, and there's no privity there. Valve doesn't have a contract with Unity and would never sign such a contract if offered.

Sounds like someone did not consult the lawyers on that one. This sounds like a textbook example of someone having a "great idea for generating new revenue", not asking the lawyers or the PR people if this was a good idea, and barging ahead with it anyway, leading to a whole lot of trouble for themselves and the company.

Usually these "great ideas" don't get very far because someone in management realizes what is going to happen and stops it before it gets out of hand, but when it is the CEO doing it, there usually isn't, unless the board catches wind of it in time.

Mick Jagras

It is an interesting phenomenon that some of these AR mons apps seem to be designed to encourage home invasion and trespassing.

Not so much designed as being an unintended consequence, I guess. Either developers didn't realize, or just assumed people wouldn't break the law to play the game.

This is like midlife crisising your birthday.

Gabe's birthday strips are legendary. Weird that he does them precisely once a year.

I hadn't really noticed the pattern before, but I guess you're right.

I wonder what his actual birthday party is like.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 27th 2023 at 4:15:39 PM

Rainy Day Recess

Tycho maintaining continuity: his desire to end the world and bring forth the Final Days is well established.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 29th 2023 at 9:29:45 AM

Gen VFX

I bet all the idealistic young people who went into the VFX industry didn't expect to be animating CG dicks exploding. I haven't watched The Boys, so I can only hope this is a satire and not something that actually happens in the show.

I assume this particular example is satire, but yeah, you have to animate some fucked up shit for certain genres of films and games these days.

Yeah I believe there was some controversy over the developers of MK having to look at actual gore for the Fatalities which... wasn't very pleasant.

Worst Class

Man, I remember the glory of the COVID years, when even the most plaguéd individuals could be thwarted by wearing masks. I do hope Tycho manages to avoid turning into a Plague Spawn.

Once again the art is glorious: incredible talent dedicated to depicting such a mundane event. But I notice that they aren't wearing seat belts. That's against regulations.

Edited by Fighteer on Oct 11th 2023 at 8:36:39 AM

You only have to wear those during landing and take off.

With Not One But Two Clowns

You know, I would not be at all surprised if this actually happened in Activision's boardroom. Kotick is getting a nice $300M golden parachute.

Edited by Fighteer on Oct 13th 2023 at 2:35:14 PM

Demonic Tutor

I think the tag on the comic is wrong: it says Horizon Worlds when it's about Forza. Also, I guess the new Forza has insanely aggressive AI?

A stripper pole in a ball pit, huh? That's the imagery you wanted to go with?

a man dont judge a mind palace can be anything you want it to be!

Rejuvenator

Penny Arcade weighs in on the disruption in the independent games journalism industry, the most recent example of which is the firing/resignation of the entire video content team of The Escapist, including Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame.

While they applaud the effort to unshackle from the corporate grindstone, they aren't fans of the logos.

(In case anyone is reading this who doesn't know the details, GAMURS.com, parent of The Escapist, fired a chunk of its content team, including the Editor in Chief, Nick Calandra. This prompted the resignation of everyone else on that team, and they have joined together to form a new independent journalism brand named Second Wind. The Escapist as a site had nothing to do with it.)

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 8th 2023 at 1:38:40 PM