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It's loving wild looking at that list, it makes applying for jobs a bit of a minefield right now.
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Sep 12, 2023 10:53
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thebardyspoon posted:It's loving wild looking at that list, it makes applying for jobs a bit of a minefield right now. That list is missing some studios, as well.
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Sep 12, 2023 11:19
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pentyne posted:I haven't followed it closely, but did Embracer just go on an acquisition spree and now is suddenly hemmoraging cash and gutting their studios? njsykora posted:I'm gonna quote this post from the games chat thread. They own a loving lot including some very recent games like Remnant 2. quote:3D Realms (the entire Apogee library The original founder and a couple of execs split and reformed Apogee as a separate, unrelated indie publisher who seem to be doing okay, having recently kicked out the excellent Turbo Overkill. kirbysuperstar posted:Why is Free Radical on there? They haven't been called that since 2009 and their current name is already on the list
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Sep 12, 2023 11:24
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The Kins posted:Most of the Apogee library is actually owned by their original developers - they were pretty progressive on IP rights back in the '90s! Most of the stuff they did keep the IP on, like Duke Nukem and Max Payne, has since been sold off for one reason or another. I, uh, honestly don't know what old games they still have the full rights to and not just have a digital publishing deal for. They for sure have Duke Nukem, since Gearbox bought that. I don't know if its Rockstar or Remedy of the Max Payne duo who held onto the IP but Remedy are remaking the first 2 games apparently.
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Sep 12, 2023 11:32
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njsykora posted:They for sure have Duke Nukem, since Gearbox bought that. I don't know if its Rockstar or Remedy of the Max Payne duo who held onto the IP but Remedy are remaking the first 2 games apparently. Rockstar have owned Max Payne since shortly after the first game came out, and my understanding is that they actually have a pretty good relationship with Remedy. I know, I was shocked too. It's both a surprise and not that they're returning to those rain-slicked Noir-York streets.
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Sep 12, 2023 11:41
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The Kins posted:A new studio called Free Radical was formed in 2021 by two of the original founders with the goal of resurrecting Timesplitters. I suspect they might have a bumpy road ahead. The fractured remains of the old Free Radical are currently under the name Dambuster Studios, and I suspect they have bought their continued survival by fishing Dead Island 2 out of development hell in a decent state with higher-than-expected sales numbers. Is it just me, or does it seem like every time someone tries to restart the Timesplitters series, something bad inevitably happens that gets any efforts canned within a few years? I'm not saying Timesplitters is cursed, but I also won't be surprised if the next time it starts to be rebooted, a meteor hits the earth.
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Sep 12, 2023 12:00
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I believe Slipgate still owns a bunch of their essentially unmarketable IPs, like Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure and, I dunno, Paganitzu.
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Sep 12, 2023 12:56
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what in the actual gently caress is this poo poo https://twitter.com/gamedevdotcom/status/1701581428784509380?s=20 how do they plan to even enforce this
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Sep 12, 2023 16:11
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Kith posted:what in the actual gently caress is this poo poo Developers having to pay Unity for every person that pirates their game, what could go wrong
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Sep 12, 2023 16:28
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Honestly, no surprises here. The current CEO of Unity, John Ricitiello (former EA CEO), called game makers who don't want to monetize their games with microtransactions "loving idiots". It happened around the time when they bought malware developer Ironsource, last year. https://kotaku.com/unity-john-riccitiello-monetization-mobile-ironsource-1849179898 At that point it was pretty obvious in which direction he wants to lead the company. I guess they would like to force every game maker to put micro transactions into their game but that is probably coming next year.
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Sep 12, 2023 16:30
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quote:Developers of free-to-play games (which have a much higher install rate than premium titles) will have the option to offset this fee by adopting other Unity services, such as its LevelPlay advertising mediation service. No Wave fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Sep 12, 2023 |
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Sep 12, 2023 16:31
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Kith posted:how do they plan to even enforce this It seems pretty easy to enforce. They are the ones who make the unity runtime after all, so they can easily add telemetry to it and track stuff like this. lagidnam posted:Honestly, no surprises here. The current CEO of Unity, John Ricitiello (former EA CEO), called game makers who don't want to monetize their games with microtransactions "loving idiots". It happened around the time when they bought malware developer Ironsource, last year. And now they're making it basically mandatory to use ironsource's ad product (the above mentioned LevelPlay) if you want to develop a f2p game with Unity.
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Sep 12, 2023 16:37
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Clearly it's Godot's time to shine!
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Sep 12, 2023 16:37
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RPATDO_LAMD posted:It seems pretty easy to enforce. They are the ones who make the unity runtime after all, so they can easily add telemetry to it and track stuff like this. said fee would also apply to existing games on the market, hence my wondering. do they intend to make it retroactive? are successful unity games going to get nailed with an enormous fee out of nowhere?
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Sep 12, 2023 16:48
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Kith posted:said fee would also apply to existing games on the market, hence my wondering. do they intend to make it retroactive? are successful unity games going to get nailed with an enormous fee out of nowhere? They apparently confirmed in a Q+A section that yes, it will be retroactive lol. so this is gonna be a clusterfuck for basically everyone
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Sep 12, 2023 16:51
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To make matters worse, they've stopped offering Unity Plus and automatically switched those subscriptions to Pro, which costs 5 times as much. I know people have said "this will kill Unity" for ages now but this might genuinely do it. Profoundly insane changes. Kith posted:said fee would also apply to existing games on the market, hence my wondering. do they intend to make it retroactive? are successful unity games going to get nailed with an enormous fee out of nowhere? they said it wouldn't be retroactive, thankfully: quote:He also sought to clarify that the Runtime Fee is not retroactive nor perpetual. "We do not charge for older installs, only new installs after January 1, 2024."
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Sep 12, 2023 16:54
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How would Unity even track the number of installs anyways? If I made a game and put it on itch.io, how would they determine how much the project made and if it hit 200,000 installs?
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Sep 12, 2023 16:55
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Mix. posted:They apparently confirmed in a Q+A section that yes, it will be retroactive lol. so this is gonna be a clusterfuck for basically everyone
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Sep 12, 2023 16:56
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This could potentially be used by bad actors to run mass uninstall + reinstall campaigns to financially ruin devs. Like, if they don't go back on this devs are going to be forced to remove their games from storefronts
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Sep 12, 2023 16:59
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Pigbuster posted:This could potentially be used by bad actors to run mass uninstall + reinstall campaigns to financially ruin devs. Like, if they don't go back on this devs are going to be forced to remove their games from storefronts
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Sep 12, 2023 17:04
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RIP Unity, I guess
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Sep 12, 2023 17:07
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No Wave posted:When you say retroactive, I assume that means future installs will cost 20 cents each not you owe money for previous installs (which couldnt possibly be legal). Which again is still a disaster because now the hollow knight devs owe unity 20 cents every time someone uninstalls and reinstalls hollow knight. Like this is totally insane. It still seems questionable/dodgy as hell that they can go "Yeah you licensed Unity from us back in 2020 so now every time someone installs your game you now owe us money despite that never being part of the original license you used".
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Sep 12, 2023 17:20
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to be clear about free to play games, there does seem to be a minimum revenue requirement, so games that are actually free to play (and dont have microtransactions) would be fine. however, unity is still basically nonusable going forward.
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Sep 12, 2023 17:21
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Endorph posted:to be clear about free to play games, there does seem to be a minimum revenue requirement, so games that are actually free to play (and dont have microtransactions) would be fine. however, unity is still basically nonusable going forward. nobody calls actually free games "free-to-play" that has always meant mtx-supported games
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Sep 12, 2023 17:25
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Endorph posted:to be clear about free to play games, there does seem to be a minimum revenue requirement, so games that are actually free to play (and dont have microtransactions) would be fine. however, unity is still basically nonusable going forward. If you do have microtransactions, though, passing that threshold and suddenly owing for all the installations of your game up to that point is gonna destroy you. It's partly why I have hope Unity will go back on this because it practically forces devs to not use MTX and, therefore, not give Unity a cut of MTX money. And it forces them to stop using Unity entirely, obviously, but the MTX money is clearly what Unity is most obsessed with.
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Sep 12, 2023 17:26
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https://twitter.com/Ehksidian/status/1701631759962534057?s=20
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Sep 12, 2023 17:33
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RPATDO_LAMD posted:nobody calls actually free games "free-to-play" plenty of people call free games free to play... i see it all the time...
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Sep 12, 2023 17:38
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also yeah how the gently caress will it be legal for them to charge devs of years old games for this, did the contract they signed all those years ago allow for this kind of poo poo?
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Sep 12, 2023 17:39
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Pigbuster posted:also yeah how the gently caress will it be legal for them to charge devs of years old games for this, did the contract they signed all those years ago allow for this kind of poo poo?
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Sep 12, 2023 17:43
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Whoever wished for “No more games on Unity”, please give up your Monkey’s Paw so the next person can use it.
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Sep 12, 2023 17:45
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ive played many perfectly good unity games. maybe a game is as good or bad as it's devs and not it's engine. hosed up...
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Sep 12, 2023 17:49
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Endorph posted:plenty of people call free games free to play... i see it all the time... I usually see "free to own" if you actually get a game and not a microtransaction hellscape. Or just "free".
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Sep 12, 2023 17:50
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The 7th Guest posted:
Also a preview of what happens when the famously factionalized politics of MS comes a cropper for the gaming division at some point. Before someone jumps down my throat, no they wouldn't leave consoles, but it might be rather ugly when the power shifts in a way not totally friendly to them. Randalor posted:Is it just me, or does it seem like every time someone tries to restart the Timesplitters series, something bad inevitably happens that gets any efforts canned within a few years? I'm not saying Timesplitters is cursed, but I also won't be surprised if the next time it starts to be rebooted, a meteor hits the earth. Almost as bad as the curse on the WOD IPs; guess the spirits their naming conventions appropriate are rather defensive of their image, and not having lawyers are enforcing trademark in their own fashion. 
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Sep 12, 2023 17:51
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No Wave posted:It would only apply to future downloads in any case. But whether they can get away with it or not will probably vary from country to country. Unless the contract they signed back when the game was released had a section that said "Unity reserves the right to charge a game installation fee in the future" they can't do that, though. Only the contract signed back then matters. It's possible the dev even stopped using Unity and has never signed another contract, so Unity couldn't just up and start charging them for something they never agreed to. You can't just announce a "gently caress you" fee of 50 million dollars to everyone who ever signed with you.
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Sep 12, 2023 17:55
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Pigbuster posted:Unless the contract they signed back when the game was released had a section that said "Unity reserves the right to charge a game installation fee in the future" they can't do that, though. Only the contract signed back then matters. It's possible the dev even stopped using Unity and has never signed another contract, so Unity couldn't just up and start charging them for something they never agreed to. You can't just announce a "gently caress you" fee of 50 million dollars to everyone who ever signed with you.
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Sep 12, 2023 17:58
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Feels Villeneuve posted:ive played many perfectly good unity games. maybe a game is as good or bad as it's devs and not it's engine. hosed up... Tell that to every armchair developer on YouTube. I am just making a crappy joke!
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Sep 12, 2023 17:59
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Pigbuster posted:You can't just announce a "gently caress you" fee of 50 million dollars to everyone who ever signed with you. Quick, someone tell JR about this!
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Sep 12, 2023 18:03
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It's so baffling because they could've just increased their share of the revenue split if they're so jonesing for cash; tying an additional fee to installs is just bizarre and complicated. It's like they got creative to avoid news articles about the revenue split going up and came up with something far worse
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Sep 12, 2023 18:06
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I think it's pretty cool of Unity to give Blizzard's legal team something to do that isn't putting out PR fires (Hearthstone is built in Unity right?)
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Sep 12, 2023 18:07
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I suspect their choosing installs as their revenue thing rather than purchases is to try and get a cut of games that get onto Game Pass, PS+ and whatever other subscription services crawl out there.
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Sep 12, 2023 18:07
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