Unity apologizes and updates their infamous Runtime Fee
An open letter from Marc Whitten to the Unity community in September 2023.
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They're still doing it, albeit in a slightly pared back fashion.
Not really good enough, honestly. Backpedal further, guys, you're almost there.
But they’re not almost there.
The exec team isn’t changing. They didn’t even mention the scummy anticompetitive (and potentially illegal in some jurisdictions) fee vouchers they were handing out to try to steal users from AppLovin, nor was the sneaky update of their license terms that was done to enable the whole snafu addressed.
I don’t think Unity is coming back from this. The industry doesn’t trust them anymore, and nothing has been done to materially address the root cause of that lack of trust: the exec team and the board.
If they do a leadership shakeup, it’s possible they can save it. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I thought at minimum they needed a sacrificial lamb. The screw up was too big and their first response too blithering.
I was watching a YouTube video of one game Dev saying he's met John (CEO) and said he's quite pleasant and has a great rapport with staff. However, this move shows a complete and utter lack of competence.
Oh, 100%.
It’s just that everyone who’s actually responsible for the decision is on the exec team, and it seems pretty clear that neither they nor the board have any plans to go anywhere. And if they try to crucify some middle management type who was just trying to do their job… well, that’s gonna be a fucking HUGE wrongful termination lawsuit, perhaps with some slander complaints thrown in.
This whole thing is a masterclass in machine gunning one’s own foot.
“In machine gunning one’s foot”
All the cool companies are doing it, tech companies eating tide pods for fear of death is a based sigma gigachad (and all the other words zoomers use) move now!
While they didn’t directly address the retroactive license changes, they did counter the argument. The following text being relevant.
The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included – unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.
We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version.
I thought I had read that that text had been conspicuously removed from their terms (which, again, might have been illegal in itself). Was it restored, or did I misunderstand?
I don’t really care if or how Unity reacts to the accusations. The fact remains that they did it, and their response is trying to deflect attention from the fact that they did do it.
This reminds me of the WOTC OGL debacle. They walked back the retroactive license change that they knew probably wouldn't have held up in courts, but they maintained that they could have retroactively revoked the license. Which of course just nuked a lot of the goodwill they had with 3rd party developers.
If they started with that proposal 2 weeks ago, there would be no drama at all. I hope studios will stand by their words and will not continue to collaborate with Unity in the future.
If they started with that proposal 2 weeks ago, there would be no drama at all.
Agreed, but now they've kicked this hornet's nest, they're going to need to go back further than their starting point to make up for it.
Like wizards of the coast. Not only did they walk back their shitty new open gaming license, they made a better and stronger open gaming license and dumped a ton of material into creative commons. The damage is still done, but props to them for acting in self preservation.
Exactly the example I had in mind!
Plan was always 2 steps forwards 1 step back
