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So, big news yesterday. I'm appalled at the impact this will have on the ecosystem, and at large. There's just no way this can lead to anything good for anyone.

is getting a lot of positive attention in reaction, so I want to address a few things. 🧵

Rémi Verschelde

Many Unity devs rightfully feel threatened by this change, and want to abandon ship after a series of bad leadership decisions.

Lots of people say they'll switch to Godot, or are considering it. I strongly believe that foundational tech should be , so I welcome this, but...

I also strongly believe that such decisions shouldn't be rushed, and taken out of spite and anger.

Unity's install fee will likely be withdrawn given the backlash, but the writing's on the wall and the trust is broken. Use the time you have available to consider options fairly.

I love that you're eyeing Godot, but take your time to weigh the pros and cons.

It's a great engine, but no software is perfect and we don't want you to come to it in panic, and end up frustrated that it might not be the drop-in replacement for what you had to leave behind.

More than anything, we want people to have access to technology that empowers them to create the games they want to make, and have a good experience doing so.

Godot is one such option, but there are many others, both FOSS and proprietary. Try out a few before settling again!

If you need insights into where Godot is at currently, and where it's headed, I'm happy to discuss it. You can ask questions in this thread, or DM me or @Emi.

If you're going to consider Godot for your games, we want you to do it in the right conditions so you can thrive.

@akien @Emi I totally agree with you.

I have the opinion that many just overreacted to the news. At the same time I don't think that Unity decision is just pure greediness. If a game is making $200000 with more than 200000 installations, it'll be *honest from my side* to pay the tool that's making this possible.

We could discuss if $0.20 for installation is too much, anyway.

That being said, developers should show their appreciation by supporting (with $$$) even FOSS products like Godot.

@mode13h @akien @Emi I think the issue is distrust. Someone brought up that the installation fee is really per "installation", not per "purchase", so if I buy a game, then reinstall it three 3, I just cost the developer 60 cents. This could be used for malicious intents (there's people out there).

Furthermore, someone raised the flag that this sounds like Unity is implementing spyware in games without developer's consent (or end-users).

@TheMarshmallowBear @akien @Emi Unity has clarified this point, only single purchase are counted (multiple installs of the same don't sum up).

Spyware? It they would be using some kind of DRM it would be only reasonable. We are all protesting about it (i.e. DRM) since... ever! :D

@mode13h @akien @Emi I feel like I heard conflicting reports. I saw unity confirmed that if someone reinstall a game it counts as two installs.

@TheMarshmallowBear @akien @Emi I just think there's a lot of confusion at the moment. :)

@mode13h @akien @Emi do you mind linking me to where they clarified it?

@TheMarshmallowBear@gamedev.place @akien@gamedev.place @Emi@gamedev.place gamesindustry.biz/unity-clarif

However, it seems like that the same game installed on *different* type of device is counted as separate.

GamesIndustry.bizUnity clarifies new fee plans amid developer backlashBy James Batchelor

@mode13h that seems fine, I don't really know many games that "cross" platforms except Steam>SteamDeck.

@TheMarshmallowBear It seems legit to me, too. It's not that different that buying the same game for different platforms (PS3, then PS4, or Steam)...

@mode13h @TheMarshmallowBear @akien @Emi How do they “count the purchase” of a DRM-free game bought on GOG without getting numbers directly from GOG? How do they differentiate a game bought in a Humble Bundle (that they claimed to not include)? How do they count installs for a WebGL game? How do they count installs for a Gamespass game?

@mode13h I think most people working with Unity would be perfectly happy to pay them more, and that most of the anger is caused by the intransparent and confusing nature of the new scheme and its announcement. Developers and publishers need to be able to know how much the tech stack is going to cost in licensing, and Unity has made that *incredibly* hard.

(And broke a lot of people's trust by forcing this to apply to already released products, etc.)

@mode13h @akien @Emi the majority of games barely make money, the majority of people reacting to this will probably never reach any threshold to pay for Unity (myself included).

But that's not the problem. It's beyond repair now: the problem is trust. So it's not an overreaction.

There's also so many other things behind this: how are they going to track? Is the Runtime now going to track stuff and is it going to be a kind of DRM?

What about game archival and preservation? And more.

@alfredbaudisch @akien @Emi When I was saying that everyone is overreacting I was referring exactly to the fact that most games won't even reach a quarter of the threshold for the payment to be applied. Sadly.

In terms of trust, yes, you have a point. But while this this is definitely an issue... we are talking about Unity, which has never been *totally* trustworthy, IMO.

Game archival and preservation is a serious issue, anyway, that saddens me a lot.

@mode13h @akien @Emi I am one that now wants Unity to just... get fucked.

I am going to lose months of progress, but I'll rollback my game to another engine (or my own, since I started my own framework in April). It's a side project, albeit big, so I have the luxury of choice here.

I cannot have a long term relationship with this shitty company anymore.

Sad thing is that it took me months to prototype with all engines until making a decision and I settled down with Unity in March. 😭

@alfredbaudisch @akien @Emi Oh, damn! Sorry to hear that!

I guess you are likely to switch to Godot, am I correct?

@mode13h @akien @Emi dunno yet. Godot 3D Physics for now left me traumatized (I even have 3 opened bug reports), unfortunately.

But probably yes too, because I'm not going to Unreal (not putting all that effort into another big company product again). My hope is that the addon Godot Jolt solves all the problems I had, then it will be Godot, of course (specially since I am a Godot contributor myself and I actually *LOVE* Godot and the community).

@alfredbaudisch @akien @Emi Happy to hear that! I love Godot and its community, as well!

@mode13h @akien @Emi to be honest, I really miss making Godot projects, experiments and contributions to the Editor itself.

@akien @Emi I'm mostly wondering if Godot can handle a game of scale of something like Civilization (since that's the project I am working on in Unity). I'm mostly concerned about the inherent performance of rendering large hexes, storing the data, and handling all of that. (I'm sure LUa and SQL are doable inherently).

A lot of what I read about 3D was kinda sus in terms of viability.

@akien Rémi, you're a treasure. The Godot project wouldn't be anywhere near as great without you doing what you do. Thank you.