• circuitfarmer
    link
    fedilink
    3110 months ago

    What a cluster. I feel for devs who are in a bad spot here thanks to yet more corporate greed.

    I hope that one positive that stems from this is less trust in corporate solutions, since ultimately they are always beholden to profit – unlike things like Godot, that now also hopefully get the support they deserve.

    • FreeBooteR69
      link
      fedilink
      2010 months ago

      I feel for them because i switch games all the time on my deck, even with a 1tb sdcard on top of the 512gb, you have to remove games and install games all the time. I’m not going to feel guilty about this, they are my games, i paid for them and will install and uninstall as i see fit. Not out of malice, but because this is expected behavior. I imagine there are going to be a lot of lawsuits over this, and more than a few bankruptcies. They also can’t remove games you’ve already paid for, so this is going to get interesting.

      • Icalasari
        link
        fedilink
        1410 months ago

        A lot of Nintendo and Pokemon games are on Unity, including Pokemon Go. Sony also has plenty of games on Unity

        I predict we’re going to see a slaughter - That’s two of the big three console manufacturers. They ain’t going to let Unity screw them over

      • Baŝto
        link
        fedilink
        010 months ago

        Unity made it clear that reinstalling on the same device doesn’t count. Though installing on multiple devices counts since they don’t track who installed it.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          210 months ago

          Did they clarify how they track “the same device”? If I replace my SSD, is that’s new device? Gpu? Motherboard? Cpu? Get more ram? Reinstall the OS?

          And even then, I usually install on 2-3 different devices. And what happens when 10 years down the road I want to okay it again and install it on 2 more devices?

        • Doug
          link
          fedilink
          010 months ago

          @basxto
          Interesting to see how they determine what a new “device” is, and how they record that. The EU will definitely have views.
          @FreeBooteR69

          • Baŝto
            link
            fedilink
            English
            110 months ago

            Do installs of the same game by the same user across multiple devices count as different installs?

            We treat different devices as different installs. We don’t want to track identity across different devices.

            Is collecting the install data GDPR and CCPA compliant?

            The method we are using to calculate installs is currently derived from aggregated data from various sources collected in compliance with all privacy laws and used to build a confidence around our estimate. If anything changes, we will provide you with notice and compliance mechanisms to assure all parties remain in compliance with applicable laws. Please note we will always work with our customers to ensure accurate billing.

            Will games made with Unity phone-home to track installs?

            We will refine how we collect install data over time with a goal of accurately understanding the number of times the Unity runtime is distributed. Any install data will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.

            https://unity.com/pricing-updates#unity-runtime-fee

            They likely don’t track identities because that would be personal information, which is what GDPR protects.

            • Doug
              link
              fedilink
              010 months ago

              @basxto I appreciate you running point for Unity on this, but “from various sources collected in compliance with all privacy laws” says nothing.

              Easy enough to wait and see how they do phone home, and with what data they send back though.

              • Baŝto
                link
                fedilink
                English
                110 months ago

                Their posts sounded a lot like they already collected that data based their pricing on that. They are desperate to become profitable, I don’t think they themselves thought this was the best idea.

                I would like to see godot rise.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    2610 months ago

    Nebulous is still in early access and it’s a 3 man team. This will effectively end an incredible game before it can fulfill it’s early access.

    I hope John Riccitiello has chronic pain for the rest of his life. No one should be able to unilaterally fuck over so many people.

    • qaz
      link
      fedilink
      310 months ago

      Isn’t papers please using Haxeflixel?

      • Baŝto
        link
        fedilink
        410 months ago

        It seems they switched from Haxe/OpenFL to Haxe/Unity in march

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          110 months ago

          Wouldn’t unity just block the games from running if they don’t connect? I guess you could crack the games, then maybe we’ll have some weird future where devs encourage players to crack their games…

          • AverageDood :sanic: :blobHaj:
            link
            fedilink
            110 months ago

            @Nemoder Cracking the games doesn’t do shit in this matter. It’d block the online functions of the game if they depend on anything else, or on license checking (one simple example, Steam/Epic based servers)

            To put an example of this, you can pirate Baldur’s Gate 3 and still log in with a Larian account, connect the Twitch integration and even setup a multiplayer campaign like it’s nothing.

            There are Unity related DLLs that take the role of the telemetry, and thus, don’t care about cracks (in fact, Unity have said that the developer should contact them to avoid getting charged by piracy, meaning that those DO count)

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              110 months ago

              Yeah that makes sense for how it works now, but I imagine if they plan to monetize installs they’d also make the telemetry required for all game functionality. That assumes they actually cared about the data and didn’t plan to just make it all up and charge whatever they want.

  • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]
    link
    fedilink
    610 months ago

    One of the biggest games I can think of on Unity is Rust, and Facepunch has shown that they don’t really give two fucks about switching engines. Unreal doesn’t really have fairer pricing, but it’s way simpler so they’re gonna lose a lot of business to them

    • chaogomu
      link
      fedilink
      310 months ago

      Rust currently has a 30-day average player count of just under 75k.

      My current favorite (Rimworld) has one of 16k.

      That’s still a lot of unhappy gamers.

    • Baŝto
      link
      fedilink
      110 months ago

      You also have to run them and let unity engine phone home

      • Rassilonian Legate
        link
        fedilink
        010 months ago

        @basxto
        I’m not entirely sure that that’s how it works, cause if it is my GOG copy of hollow knight has quite a lot more DRM than is normally accepted of that platform by their users

        • Baŝto
          link
          fedilink
          English
          110 months ago

          Well it sounds a lot like they’ll track it with the engine and then send bills to the developer. That’s also not DRM if they collect usage data.

          How is an install defined?

          An install is defined as the installation and initialization of a project on an end user’s device.

          How is Unity collecting the number of installs?

          We leverage our own proprietary data model and will provide estimates of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project – this estimate will cover an invoice for all platforms.

          https://unity.com/pricing-updates#unity-runtime-fee

  • transigence
    link
    fedilink
    510 months ago

    Can prospective developers use engines like Id Tech 3 or Unreal 2 commercially without paying?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      910 months ago

      Id Tech 3 is GPLv2, so for that one, yes. I’m not aware of similar being true for Unreal Engine 2, so I’d assume, no.

      But if you’re just generally looking for an engine that won’t bite you, Godot is a better choice.

  • darkmogool
    link
    fedilink
    110 months ago

    I’m not up-to-date. What’s the thing with Unity right now?