Unity, Improbable, and Epic Games Spat [Jan 11, 2019, 10:06 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
A
blog post from Improbable discusses heat they are getting from Unity over a
terms of service violation that they interpret as saying "all existing
SpatialOS games using Unity, including production games and in development games
of all developers, are now in breach of Unity’s license terms."
Gamasutra has more on this, saying "That means the company will no longer be
able to fully support Unity developers, some of whom have been forced to
shut
down the servers for their SpatialOS projects." A
post on the Unity Blog responds by saying Improbable's take on this is
incorrect, and that developers should keep working on their SpatialOS games.
According to them, this is not a problem that popped up out of nowhere: "More
than a year ago, we told Improbable in person that they were in violation of our
Terms of Service or EULA. Six months ago, we informed Improbable about the
violation in writing. Recent actions did not come as a surprise to Improbable;
in fact, they’ve known about this for many months." Calling this "Unity's public relations (and dev relations) blunder,"
Gamasutra has a follow-up reporting that Epic Games is wasting no time
in taking advantage of this by establishing a fund to help developers move away
from Unity and towards the Unreal engine and the Epic Games Store:
Epic Games, purveyor of Unreal Engine and the biggest competitor to Unity, said Thursday night that it has partnered with Improbable to establish a $25 million fund to "assist developers who are left in limbo by the new engine and service incompatibilities that were introduced today."
In essence, that means Epic is offering to help pay for game developers to move away from its competitor Unity -- a calculated move that seeks to capitalize on Unity's public relations (and dev relations) blunder.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and Improbable CEO Herman Narula wrote that the fund is "to help developers transition to more open engines, services, and ecosystems. This funding will come from a variety of sources including Unreal Dev Grants, Improbable developer assistance funds, and Epic Games store funding."
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Not a fan of Unity, Epic, or SpacialOS.
Let's just hope this escalates with more fisticuffs.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! - HT
That's a great business decision by Epic! Almost as good as Amazon's purchase of Twitch.
The most exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions.
Mainly this is the issue.
https://improbable.io/games/pricing
When you develop a game with SpatialOS you then are highly pushed towards using improbables cloud servers which you pay highly for. Unity wants a cut of this.
https://improbable.io/games/pricing
When you develop a game with SpatialOS you then are highly pushed towards using improbables cloud servers which you pay highly for. Unity wants a cut of this.
Ozmodan wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 11:36:
Talk about a dumb ass marketing move, that change of TOS is about as dumb a move as you can make. Way to make your engine superfluous. If I was a dev deciding on an engine, I would certainly avoid Unity now.
They said the TOS change was not related to this, as they've been going after Improbable to find a solution for the last year. Anyone developing against SpatialOS or who has released anything using it are free to keep using it. Basically a shit-show created by SpatialOS.
You can read the Unity response here.
warmbluelasers wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 10:36:
I had to look up SpatialOS because I've been living under a rock. Here Unity says they've told Improbable that their OS is against TOS but is saying out of the same mouth that people can keep developing for SpatialOS. Either the Unity people are mental or they're trying to entrap developers. If SpatialOS is against TOS then all projects have to stop or migrate. It would be like ActiBlizzard suing illegal private servers and at the same time telling players "don't worry about it, you can keep playing on illegal private servers."
It's not the same thing at all. They told one company that the work they were doing in particular is in violation of the TOS and everyone else is just fine. From the sounds of it, it would seem that Improbable has been lying to everyone in order to sew confusion.
Beamer wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 11:58:Darks wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 10:21:
You can just picture Tim Sweeney having that big Grinch shit eaten grin on his face as hes rubbing his hands together as all of this unfolds.
Tim? No. Mark Rein? Absolutely, haha.
LOL, yea, him too.
Author of the Neverwinter Nights Eye of the Beholder Series of Mods.
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
Darks wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 10:21:
You can just picture Tim Sweeney having that big Grinch shit eaten grin on his face as hes rubbing his hands together as all of this unfolds.
Tim? No. Mark Rein? Absolutely, haha.
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eRe4s3r wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 11:29:Darks wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 10:21:
You can just picture Tim Sweeney having that big Grinch shit eaten grin on his face as hes rubbing his hands together as all of this unfolds.
Except the tiny detail that nobody gives a damn about SpatialOS or for that matter has heard of what it even is...
I was referring to more of the fact that Epic is offering their Unreal Engine and funding to lure more to their portal.
Author of the Neverwinter Nights Eye of the Beholder Series of Mods.
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
Talk about a dumb ass marketing move, that change of TOS is about as dumb a move as you can make. Way to make your engine superfluous. If I was a dev deciding on an engine, I would certainly avoid Unity now.
Darks wrote on Jan 11, 2019, 10:21:
You can just picture Tim Sweeney having that big Grinch shit eaten grin on his face as hes rubbing his hands together as all of this unfolds.
Except the tiny detail that nobody gives a damn about SpatialOS or for that matter has heard of what it even is...
Re: Unity, Improbable, and Epic Games Spat
Jan 11, 2019, 10:36
Jan 11, 2019, 10:36
I had to look up SpatialOS because I've been living under a rock. Here Unity says they've told Improbable that their OS is against TOS but is saying out of the same mouth that people can keep developing for SpatialOS. Either the Unity people are mental or they're trying to entrap developers. If SpatialOS is against TOS then all projects have to stop or migrate. It would be like ActiBlizzard suing illegal private servers and at the same time telling players "don't worry about it, you can keep playing on illegal private servers."
You can just picture Tim Sweeney having that big Grinch shit eaten grin on his face as hes rubbing his hands together as all of this unfolds.
Author of the Neverwinter Nights Eye of the Beholder Series of Mods.
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition
http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon
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