Developers of indie puzzle game Orgynizer have claimed that Unity said organisations like Planned Parenthood are “not valid charities” and are instead “political groups.”
In a blog post, the EU-based developer LizardFactory said the plans to charge developers up to $0.20 per install if they reach certain thresholds would cost them “around 30% of the funds we have gathered and already sent to charity.”
As Unity clarified the runtime fee will not apply to charity games, LizardFactory reached out to the company to clarify their game would be exempt from the plan.
However, Unity reportedly said their partners were not “valid charities” and were viewed as “political groups.”
Profits made from the game go directly to non-profit organisation Planned Parenthood and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Michigan.
“We did this to raise money for a good cause, not to line the coffers of greedy scumbags,” the developers wrote in a blog post. “We have been solid Unity fanboys for over ten years, but the trust is scattered all over the floor.”
The developers are considering a move to open-source game engine Godot, “but we will have to recode our entire game because we refuse to give you a dime,” they wrote. “This is a mafia-style shakedown, nothing more, nothing less.”
Today, Unity responded to the ongoing backlash and apologised, acknowledging the “confusion and angst” surrounding the runtime fee policy.
The company has promised that changes to the policy will be shared in “a couple of days.”
Unity management doing an mega-asshole speedrun or what?
More CEO crying for “why isn’t line going up quicker?!? make more now!”
At this point? Fuck Unity!
After all this would there really be any reason to use them especially when Unreal has just been crushing it lately with lumen, nanite, etc.
I’ve used unreal professionally for 10 years. It’s not very good for smaller teams. There is plenty of reason to pick another engine over it. Unreal is great for medium to large studios. 15 people or more. It can absolutely be used with less but the pain of doing so it’s more apparent.
Also before this whole unity fee change, unity was cheaper than unreal. Although I’ve always skipped over it because I want source access.
Devs may as well bite the bullet & switch engines mid development now, because I’m not buying any new games made in Unity.
Okay. I was already annoyed, but now I’m like “seriously, fuck these people.” I hope Unity is driven out of business.
That doesn’t sound like a great outcome: one less game engine in the market, developers having to change all their codes, tons of layoff, c-suites finding a new job like nothing happened.
No, it’s far from great, but it’s better than allowing shenanigans like this to become the norm - and they will become the norm unless Unity pays severely.
Then I’d rather wish for the execs to be fired and replaced. They are the ones making those decisions that should pay for it.
Eh it’s okay. I mean it evens out considering Unity’s no longer a valid gamibg engine…
