Yeah, I meant BG3. I apparently was just mistaken about how it is implemented. Which is actually good in this case, being able to play offline is a good thing.

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 21:09:
But you have to be on-line to play it, right? Or am I mistaken about that?

Are you thinking of Diablo? I'm talking about Baldur's Gate 3. You don't have to be online to play it. I own it from GOG, and like everything, it's blocked by my firewall, so they aren't collecting squat from me.

MeanJim wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 19:42:

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 16:22:
Wouldn't that information be available for any on-line game?

If it were an online only game, but this is a single-player with coop RPG.

But you have to be on-line to play it, right? Or am I mistaken about that?

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 16:22:
Wouldn't that information be available for any on-line game?

If it were an online only game, but this is a single-player with coop RPG.

MeanJim wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 15:55:
I was surprised when Larian published player statistics for most played race, class, etc., for BG3 and no one got outraged finding out that the game is sending everything you do back to Larian.

Wouldn't that information be available for any on-line game?

Unity... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAvt5L__8qY

That's such a big dick move that I'm surprised the article isn't on PornHub. There is so much fuckery here. The main thing is that they can just change their cut whenever they like which effects games already released. Then the charging per-install, not per sale. If a person upgrades or buys a new PC and re-installs a game, the developer has to pay. If someone decides to re-install an old Unity game and play it again, the developer has to pay. How the hell could anyone think that's OK?

Then there's the fact that they're tracking installs. This is why everyone should have an bock-by-default firewall installed. People bitched and whined about Windows 10's telemetry (ignorant that it was there the whole time since at least WinXP), but don't realize that almost every piece of software they have installed also has telemetry phoning home. I was surprised when Larian published player statistics for most played race, class, etc., for BG3 and no one got outraged finding out that the game is sending everything you do back to Larian.

I hope we see godot replace unity soon

The Flying Penguin wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 10:29:
Making it retroactive is a Dick move indeed. Sounds like a new suit taking over and and not understanding the nature of the business model. This is a gaming engine specifically targeted at indie devs. Why kill the golden goose?

I do suspect there will be some back pedaling soon.

Last year they merged with an ad tech company.

Good things always come about when that happens.

Yeah I'd dump unity if I was using it for something immediately. It would suck if you were in the middle or close to the end but there is no way I'd trust any company that would change their pricing policies retroactively. Someone in management thought this was a great idea, but this is probably going to bankrupt them in the long term. No one is going to trust them going forward that they might not do this again in the future even if they do walk it completely back to their previous policy. Trust is something you lose in a second, but takes years and years to build. Good luck to them trying to build that back up while maintaining some kind of income.

Yeah some indie devs I follow on Twitter were freaking out about this today.

Making it retroactive is a Dick move indeed. Sounds like a new suit taking over and and not understanding the nature of the business model. This is a gaming engine specifically targeted at indie devs. Why kill the golden goose?

I do suspect there will be some back pedaling soon.

Retroactive pricing changes like this are always a very bad idea. Something tells me that this clause is buried in the Unity agreement fine print somewhere.

eRe4s3r wrote on Sep 13, 2023, 03:51:
0.20€ per install if you are Pro license with more than 1000k installs (which is what even mid level successful Indy developers usually achieve)
holy shit is all I say there. The fall out in my circles is MASSIVE there is even talk of pulling old games entirely from steam. Ah, and from Gamepass specifically, and ESPECIALLY from Bundles.

1 million sales would be a massive success for an actual indie studio (and not "established but not owned by a publisher"). But this is installs. And after some additional clarifications, each machine you install it on counts as a different installation (they want to send a machine id to their servers to check this).

Now there is one additional condition, for a Pro or Enterprise license (which are subscriptions) the company also needs to have had $1 mil income in the last 12 months before they get hit with the "per install" fee. But Unity is likely to go "We can see a lot of installs in this period, so that means you made a lot of money. Pay us.", which would force the company to spend time and money consulting their accountant (and possibly lawyer). For an indie studio, even a larger one, this added cost could easily kill them.

As an additional note, it seems that Unity now wants to pass the bill on to Microsoft if a Unity game is on Game Pass.
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/unity-runtime-fee-policy-marc-whitten

As for Game Pass and other subscription services, Whitten said that developers like Aggro Crab would not be on the hook, as the fees are charged to distributors, which in the Game Pass example would be Microsoft.

I'm sure that will go over well with Microsoft...

This idea for changing pricing must have come from the higher tiers of management. If the idea had come from the bottom it seems like it wouldn't have made it past the first few meetings before they determined it would be unfeasible.

When asked about how this would work with subscription services, Unity's plan is to charge the subscription providers. I'm pretty sure Microsoft and Sony aren't going to be pleased with that. Unity better start preparing for a fun legal battle with two titans of the industry.

Commander Cody the time has come execute installs numbered 66…

angry players could 'install-bomb' studios

Alternate Headline:
Company Publishes suicide note.

0.20€ per install if you are Pro license with more than 1000k installs (which is what even mid level successful Indy developers usually achieve)
holy shit is all I say there. The fall out in my circles is MASSIVE there is even talk of pulling old games entirely from steam. Ah, and from Gamepass specifically, and ESPECIALLY from Bundles.

This comment was edited on Sep 13, 2023, 04:05.

I suspect they might have to revert this policy due to outrage. One of the dumbest plays I have ever seen.

But, as one dev put it; the damage is done. Unity is now forever an unreliable partner, that may slap fees on your games years later that could cost you tons of money you may not even have.

Unity Technologies, maker of really cool things such as NFT games...

Affected indie devs should consider moving future work to another Engine. IMO Godot is better for 2d dev and quickly catching up on the 3d end.

1badmf wrote on Sep 12, 2023, 23:33:
...somehow darth vader being a model CEO seems less and less far fetched by the day.

Nah. Vader was a monster, but he always faced his enemies head on. He never hid behind lawyers and PR drones. Vader would walk in to a C suite meeting today and kill every last person in the room for being weak and craven.