Last week, we asked you share moments basking in the moonlight of a game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
The Week in Unity, or How to Kill a Brand - Hardcore Gamer
15.09.2023 - 07:47 / hardcoregamer.com / Unity Pro / Hardcore
For a good few decades the gold standard on how to tank a brand was New Coke. In 1985 Coke decided to change its flavor, and that went over so well it became the textbook example of the a company being completely disconnected from what its userbase needed. Then Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and the fallout made the Coke decision seem like corporate management at its most thoughtful, but there’s still enough life left in the platform that this Tuesday’s Unity announcement practically caused it to explode. When a company that’s as ubiquitous in gaming as Unity decides it wants to compete with 1985 Coke and 2022 Twitter in terms of spiking its brand, people are going to talk.
The gist of the announcement is that in addition to its annual per-user fees, where each developer pays a set rate to use whichever tier of Unity they subscribe to, the company is introducing a Unity Runtime Fee based on installs. The way it works is that each tier of Unity has a minimum amount of both revenue and installs before the per-install fee kicks in, with the free level, Unity Personal, starting at 200,000 installs and $200,000 in revenue. The low-priced ($399 annually) Unity Plus is being discontinued with subscribers being automatically moved to the next tier up, Unity Pro (5x the cost at $2040 a year) with the first year at the old Plus rate. The top tier for big studios is Unity Enterprise, and the download and revenue minimums are the same for Pro and Enterprise at 1,000,000 apiece. The chart below has the per-download fee once both minimums have been exceeded.
Tuesday’s announcement hit the gaming scene like a bomb for a huge number of reasons, with the new Unity pricing structure being a fractal vortex of suck that only gets more hideous, stupid, and blatantly user-hostile the more you think about it. For example, it’s retroactive, so if you made a game that met the thresholds in 2019 then you’re on the hook for monthly charges on all new installs when the change takes effect in January. How is this legal? Well, Reddit user Darkfrost discovered Unity not only changed the terms of service in its licensing structure but also deleted the GitHub that tracked those changes, so when the paragraph that locks in the terms of service for the version of Unity a project shipped with was removed there was no alarm.
That’s just a diversion to the real problem, in that Unity is charging its fees per install rather than based on sales, completely independent of the developer’s revenue. Sell a game for $30, $5, or $1, once the thresholds are exceeded the per-install fee kicks in. Initially Unity presented this as every install no matter what, but have since downgraded that to per-machine. Install a Unity game on your
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hardcoregamer.com
26.09.2023 / 16:35
October Real-World Challenges, More Content Announced for F1 23 - Hardcore Gamer
Today, EA Sports and Codemasters have revealed the updated content for October coming to F1 23. This will also include the ability to race against EA SPORTS ambassadors Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc across the upcoming Grand Prix’s in October. There is also a new Max Verstappen Pro Challenge video that can be watched below in celebration of his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix this past weekend. More chances to win exclusive in-game items is on the board, along with the long-waited addition of the F2 2023 season. Liveries will be updated to corresponding races, as well, to help coincide with the real world grand prix races. Max Verstappen currently holds first place in the championship by nearly double the points over second place, which is his teammate Sergio Perez. A list of the updates are below.
gamesindustry.biz
26.09.2023 / 14:51
Has Unity repaired the damage done by its Runtime Fee plans?
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hardcoregamer.com
25.09.2023 / 21:23
FFXIV Patch 6.5: Growing Light Arrives Next Week - Hardcore Gamer
Warriors of Light should prepare themselves for new Final Fantasy XIV content arriving next week. In a live Letter from the Producer during the recent Tokyo Game Show, Director Naoki Yoshida has unveiled details for what to expect in Patch 6.5. A brand new trailer offers players a look at upcoming adventures that set the tone for the latest story content. Growing Light sets the stage for Dawntrail and will not only introduce new scenario quests, but also brings a plethora of new content to enjoy. Along with the new main scenario, a new dungeon awaits in the Lunar Subterrane.
ign.com
25.09.2023 / 14:57
Unity ‘Debace’ Forces Dev to Cancel Nintendo Switch Port of WipEout-Style Racer
Controversy and upheaval around game engine Unity has forced the developer of a WipEout-style racer to cancel its planned Nintendo Switch port.
rockpapershotgun.com
23.09.2023 / 21:37
Unity are changing how their heavily criticised "runtime fee" works
Unity have announced that they're making changes to their "runtime fee" in response to overwhelming negative feedback. The key changes are that the fees no longer apply to developers using Unity Personal, and will only apply to developers using Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise who upgrade the next version of Unity which ships in 2024.
eurogamer.net
22.09.2023 / 21:05
Unity announces significant changes to its controversial new pricing plan
Ten days after Unity successfully enraged huge swathes of the development community by announcing sweeping, and wildly unpopular, changes to its Unity Engine business model, the company has said it's «sorry» and walked back on significant aspects of its new pricing plan.
pcgamesn.com
22.09.2023 / 20:13
Unity “sorry” about controversy, makes changes after “hard feedback”
Unity is the cross-platform engine used by many of my favorite developers to create everything from small indie gems to bigger, more well-known games. The company recently disclosed upcoming changes to its fee policy which would see developers pay per-install of their games. The out-of-the-blue announcement was controversial, prompting a variety of game devs to respond detailing why this would have a negative impact on their work, with some creators going as far as backing out of using the engine altogether.
techradar.com
22.09.2023 / 18:21
Unity is making some changes to its controversial Runtime Fee, thanks community for its “hard feedback”
The president of Unity Create, Marc Whitten, has published an open letter responding to the backlash over the recent Unity Runtime Fee announcement, and has outlined a number of changes that are going to be made to the policy before it’s enforced in 2024.
blog.playstation.com
22.09.2023 / 16:17
Share of the Week: Baldur’s Gate 3 – Companions
Last week, we asked you share which companions make your heart sing in Baldur’s Gate 3 using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
gamesradar.com
21.09.2023 / 12:15
An under-the-radar rom-com overtakes One Piece as Netflix's most-viewed title of the week
Look out, Straw Hats. A new Netflix title has overtaken One Piece as the streamer's most-viewed title of last week: rom-com Love at First Sight.
gamedeveloper.com
18.09.2023 / 10:25
Is Unity getting into the dream-killing business?
Since speaking with Unity Create president Marc Whitten about the poorly-received Unity Runtime Fee, I have tried to take him and the company in good faith. However, with the repeated clarifying statements and changes to the Fee that the company has made this week, that's become harder and harder with each passing minute.