Following a large community backlash after the popular game engine creator Unity announced plans for it to charge a "per install" fee; the company has apologised for "confusion" surrounding the plans and have stated that they will be "making changes to the policy" going forward.

For those unfamiliar - a week ago, Unity announced plans for new fees based on game installs. In practice, the proposed changes would effectively cost game publishers up to $0.20 every single time a game is installed or even reinstalled by a user. But unsurprisingly these plans were met with controversy and disdain from those developers using the platform as well as the community at large, with many game creators speaking out on social media with some even going as far as to announce plans to move over to competing game engine platforms.

Today, Unity took to X/Twitter with an apology and said that there was a "confusion" surrounding the plans and that they would be making adjustments to the policy after feedback from the community.

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…

— Unity (@unity) September 17, 2023

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Source

 

[jeremy2020]

“How can we charge more without people hating us?”

- Unity, probably…

I don't think they thought about the 2nd part of that question.

 

[Guacaholey]

Even if they fell on their knees and really apologized, who in their right mind would use Unity for their next project?

A lot of people. It sucks but it's like Photoshop in that respect. It's an industry standard tool at this point so most developers who don't want to use an in-house engine will be using Unity or Unreal (maybe Cry Engine if you're making an FPS or first person action game).

It's kind of like using GIMP or the Affinity graphic design software. It'll do what you need but it won't be as compatible with other people's setups and it won't be as efficient (and I say this as a huge fan of both of those software, fuck Adobe).

 

[SylverReZ]

"Sorry that we're being a bunch of dicks for preloading spyware into Unity to spy on our game devs"

 

[KingVamp]

I feel like they need to completely backtrack and fire the people that thought this was a good idea, before gaining any trust again.

In other news, looks like people are trying to get EU involved.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

"Sorry that we're being a bunch of dicks for preloading spyware into Unity to spy on our game devs"

Yeah, some people have actually been missing this part, which actually makes the whole thing worse. It's not just the fact they're trying to charge people more; they're also attempting to slip in spyware and expecting people to be too distracted by the new fees to notice.

I feel like they need to completely backtrack and fire the people that thought this was a good idea, before gaining any trust again.

In other news, looks like people are trying to get EU involved.

So...fire their entire executive branch, as well as the people who brought the concept to their attention.

Also not surprised that people are trying to get EU involved. When it comes to stuff that's perceived as a breach of privacy, everyone tries to get the EU involved because they think EU's laws translate to "no messing with someone's private information in any way at all (even for metric purposes to determine where your budgets need to go), even if they agree to provide it". Though if Unity makes the spyware thing a non-negotiable aspect that you can not opt out of (unlike everyone else's privacy policies which ARE opt in/opt out), people might have a case here.

 

[Ampersound]

'Confusion'
That yummy gaslighting-

 

[Guacaholey]

Though if Unity makes the spyware thing a non-negotiable aspect that you can not opt out of (unlike everyone else's privacy policies which ARE opt in/opt out), people might have a case here

That's probably what they were planning to do, otherwise they'd be running on the honor system, cause they can't track pirated installs otherwise.