Their language was salty and the message was clear: game developers believed their livelihoods were under threat and they were not going to accept it.
Unity, a US company whose software is used to create and run thousands of games including smash hits like “Pokemon GO” and “Genshin Impact,” announced on Sept. 12 new fees for developers.
The firm was going to charge 20 cents every time a Unity-backed game was installed on any device, a move that analysts warned could collapse studios and nix new releases.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Ten days later, after a spirited and often vulgarity-laden fightback from studios and developers, Unity rowed back some of the changes.
But for many developers, the damage may be irreparable.
“If I’m forced to accept the current conditions, I will leave,” said Alain Puget, director of the French studio Alkemi.
Photo: AFP
Unity claims that its technology underpins 70 percent of the top 1,000 mobile games, and that people download apps made with its software four billion times a month.
Levying even a tiny fee would reap it big rewards.
But there are plenty of alternative “engines,” as the software is known.
Photo: AFP
“Game makers have already begun to consider switching engines,” said Rhys Elliott, market analyst at the Newzoo consultancy.
‘DISCONNECTED FROM REALITY’
It was all very different back in 2005, when Unity launched with promises of democratizing game development. Its software platform was cheap and easy to use, and quickly became a favorite for independent and smaller developers.
The main innovation was that designers could build on elements from other games, such as the lighting of a background or the movements of characters.
Before Unity and its competitors emerged, each game was custom made, with graphics and everything else built from the ground up.
After a stellar rise, the firm went public in 2020.
For many industry watchers, the stock market flotation was the start of the fall.
The firm, which projects revenues of US$2 billion this year, has instituted several waves of layoffs and alienated users by tweaking the software and pricing.
Then came the Sept. 12 bombshell.
“The first proposal they made was completely disconnected from reality,” said Puget of Alkemi.
Hundreds of developers took to social media to slam a proposal they said would kill studios relying on free-to-download games and any smaller outfits that happened to develop a hit game.
“There is no way Unity talked to a single developer before launching this,” developer and consultant Rami Ismail posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The firm returned with an apology — “we heard your concerns,” “you are what makes Unity great” — and a new offer to limit the levy to the most successful games.
Puget believes the firm made a “totally unreasonable” initial proposal so that their later offer, which will still give them a huge windfall, seems more palatable.
‘STOP IT’
The vitriol from developers suggests Unity has a long way to go before it is accepted back into the fold.
Shortly after the initial announcement, an account sprang up on X to collate the responses under the handle “fucked by Unity,” gaining more than 15,000 followers in a few days.
While some developers issued heartfelt letters, others resorted to images of raised middle fingers in front of the Unity logo, or short messages with obscenities of discontent.
“Stop it. WTF?” was the stark response from Innersloth, whose game “Among Us,” made with Unity software, has an estimated 500 million players.
Puget said he was unsure if there was a way back for Unity, saying that “like everyone else” he would look at alternatives.
“It makes me sad to think that I’ve invested 13 years of learning, of research and development, in a solution that I’ll have to throw away,” he said.
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
The US war on Iran has illuminated the deep interdependence of Asia on flows of oil and related items as raw materials that become the basis of modern human civilization. Australians and New Zealanders had a wake up call. The crisis also emphasizes how the Philippines is a swatch of islands linked by jet fuel. These revelations have deep implications for an invasion of Taiwan. Much of the commentary on the Taiwan scenario has looked at the disruptions to world trade, which will be in the trillions. However, the Iran war offers additional specific lessons for a Taiwan scenario. An insightful
Polling data often confirms what we expect, but sometimes it throws up surprises. When examined over time, some patterns appear that speak to something bigger going on. In this column, whenever possible, Formosa’s polls are used. Despite the sometimes cringeworthy antics of Formosa’s Chairman, Wu Tzu-Chia (吳子嘉), the data produced includes detailed breakdowns crucial for analysis. It has also been conducted monthly 11-12 times a year for many years with many of the same questions, allowing for analysis over time. When big shifts do occur between one month and the next it is usually in response to some event in
RSS