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submitted 2 years ago by helloharu@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback.

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[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 192 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Big "I'm sorry you were offended by the correct things I said and did" energy

[-] Hector_McG@programming.dev 19 points 2 years ago

Unity have already established market dominance, if not effective monopoly, as the mobile gaming development platform. They are in a position of power, they have invested large sums of money to get there, and there is really very little game developers with a product 1 or 2 years in development can do about it.

While this is going to be difficult for Indy developers, they really only have themselves to blame. Part of the task when you are making a major software platform decision as a company is to research your vendor’s financial strategy - that’s basic due diligence. Unity has been loss making for years, which either means they are not financially viable (and not a safe bet), or they are engaging in a strategy of establishing an effective monopoly position to later squeeze dependant customers until the pips squeak.

This is likely just the start, whether it’s through runtime charges, Unity control of in-game advertising, or huge hikes in seat license fees. Possibly all three.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 123 points 2 years ago

While this is going to be difficult for Indy developers, they really only have themselves to blame

In the same way that underpaid workers are to blame for not "just" finding and getting a better job or "learning skills". Fuck off with that pro-corporate victim blaming.

[-] Hector_McG@programming.dev 8 points 2 years ago

Not pro-corporate in any way, I don’t see how you could possibly read that into what I posted. But if you choose to sup with the devil, best use a long spoon.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 71 points 2 years ago

In the case of most of the companies affected by the changes, they literally signed up under a different agreement and then Unity changed the terms once they were pretty much locked in and couldn't change to another engine without serious costs and/or difficulty.

There's literally no way indie devs are at fault here and yes, blaming them for being victims of corporate fuckery IS taking the side of the corporation fucking them.

[-] Hector_McG@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Unity have lost huge amounts of money, in fact never made a profit for a single quarter, while establishing more and more market share, and their customers never asked themselves how or why?

[-] Chetzemoka@kbin.social 27 points 2 years ago

They're game devs, not an acquisition and mergers team. "We signed contract to do business with xyz terms" should be plenty reliable enough for conducting business. Not "Lol, whut? You didn't read the fine print? Psyche! We're changing everything."

Unity deserve to get sued into oblivion for this

[-] uranibaba@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

If I buy a service, I care about the service, not how the company is doing financially. In fact, I don't even take the time to look at their finances because who the fuck does that? Are you looking into Netflix each month?

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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
319 points (100.0% liked)

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