Unity's On Fire Right Now

Not, like, literally on fire after that death threat, but…for the past several days, everyone jumped on Unity as a company and put it on full blast all over social media. Unity had released an update to their pricing model last week, where the pricing metric seemed to be entirely contingent on installs. As in, a game dev utilizing Unity as their primary game development software used to make their game, would be on the hook for a certain amount of money per install to Unity. Didn’t matter if the same game was installed multiple times by the same user, or on separate devices, or if the version was pirated (how would they be able to tell the difference between a legitimate copy or a pirated one?) No one in the gaming industry, let alone their consumer base, were down with this change in the status quo, and were just about ready to jump ship after thoroughly condemning Unitys actions.

Yesterday, Unity publicly acknowledged that they “hear us,” and they’ll be making changes to the policy and will share an update with us in the next couple of days. It doesn’t change the content of my video or my stance, because it doesn’t acknowledge the fact that Unity tried to pull a fast one by changing its terms of use pre-emptively and quietly without even consulting its customer base, which I’m pretty sure is illegal. Not to mention this greed-driven model in trying to turn a profit. It’s no secret Unity hasn’t been doing well in the past few years, what with its sluggish development cycle and a noticeable decline in market performance. I paid attention as VRChat runs on the Unity engine, and so I have a vested interest in its success. In fact, I have to use Unity any time I want to upload a shiny new avatar into VR, let alone worlds. I saw trouble on the horizon several months ago when that merger with IronSource, a company that specialized in the distribution of malware, was finalized. I get Unity’s need to become a profitable company, but this ain’t it, chief.

Can’t say I’m all that surprised given Unity’s present leadership – they made IronSource’s former CEO their third president. Pair that with John Riccitiello, former CEO of EA, and you’ve got a match made in hell. No thank you.

As Promised:

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The Process by Lakey Inspired (https://www.youtube.com/@LAKEYINSPIRED)

Military Mission by idunyi (Envato Market)

Bake a Pie by Lukrembo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Butter by Lukrembo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Slowly by Tokyo Music Walker (https://www.youtube.com/@tokyomusicwalker4038)

Hot Coffee by Ghostrifter (https://www.youtube.com/@GhostrifterOfficial)

Magic by Le Gang (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Bread by LuKremBo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Bored by LuKremBo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Butter by LuKremBo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Biscuit by LuKremBo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo)

Wii Shop Channel Music (Totaka’s Song) by Kazumi Totaka

Mii Channel Music by Kazumi Totaka

Autumn by LuKremBo (https://www.youtube.com/@LuKremBo) Hackers by White Bat Audio (https://www.youtube.com/@WhiteBatAudio)

Time Stamps:

00:00:00 – 00:00:16; Disclaimer 00:00:16 – 00:01:37; Intro 00:01:37 – 00:05:40; Overview 00:05:40 – Unity Announces the Pricing Model 00:06:38 – A Glimpse Of How People Reacted on Social Media 00:06:51 – Pricing Model Per Install 00:07:42 – Unreal Advertises, Customers consider Alternatives 00:08:30 – Unity Changes its Terms of Service (quietly & sneakily) 00:09:05 – How are the Installs Tracked? 00:10:10 – Devs & Customers React on Twitter 00:11:11 – Gary Newman Runs Numbers, Asks Questions 00:11:42 – Why Charge per Install? 00:12:08 – People Joke about Malicious Installs 00:13:15 – Unity’s Current CEO & President of the Company 00:15:15 – John’s Price per Reload Idea 00:17:06 – John Sold 2,000 Shares of Unity Stock 00:19:18 – IronSource & Its Merger with Unity 00:24:48 – READING; Unity plan pricing and packaging updates (blog) 00:35:50 – READING; Game devs statements on the situation 00:46:03 – Unity LevelPlay vs AppLovin’ 00:47:07 – My Predictions 00:47:51 – Alleged insider exposes Unity’s bluff 00:48:43 – John’s Salary & Income as Unity’s President and how he got there 00:50:36 – Sympathies for Unity’s rank and file Employees 00:51:06 – Death threat levied at Unity’s Company Offices 00:51:27 – Unity Acknowledges Public Furor, Says It Will Make Changes 00:51:44 – Death of Unity? 00:52:31 – Closing Thoughts 00:54:33 – End Credits 00:55:28 – Subscribe for More ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcyZLEnKW0