Unity Reportedly Says Planned Parenthood And Children's Hospital Aren't "Valid Charities"

18.09.2023 - 14:51 / thegamer.com

Unity reportedly told game developers that Planned Parenthood and a children's hospital were not "valid charities". This means that their charity game, Orgynizer, will be charged the same installation fees as all other games made using Unity, despite much of the money made being sent to charity.

According to the devs, Unity told them that Planned Parenthood and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital are "political groups", meaning Orgynizer would not fit the definition of a charity game. The devs have labelled the move a "mafia-style shakedown", telling Unity, "You wanna fuck us, but we are not bending over."

Related: Unity’s Install Fee Could Destroy The Indie Game Scene

"We made Orgynizer as a sex-positive fun romp while supporting women's reproductive rights in the US, something that has been seriously threatened recently," says developer LizardFactory, addressing the Unity controversy in a blog post. "Sadly, out of the blue, the engine that we built the game with decided that they want to charge us 0.12-0.20 USD for each game install.

"If this goes through, it would cost us around 30 percent of all the funds we have gathered and already sent to charity."

To avoid this, LizardFactory says it reached out to Unity to ensure it would be exempt as a charity game. That, however, doesn't appear to be the case.

"They believe our targets (Planned Parenthood and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.) would NOT counts [sic] as “valid charities” and more 'political groups'" the statement continues. "I speak on behalf of all of us when I say: GET F*CKED!"

Like many other developers, LizardFactory says it is looking into switching engines, even if it involves recreating the entire game. As well as doing this to prevent long-term losses from the new arrangement, it also seems to be a matter of principle for many, as the trust devs had in Unity is clearly shaken.

Unity must be aware of this too, as earlier today, it "apologized for the confusion" caused by the announcement. However, it's unclear if this means we'll see a total reversal in policy, which is what many developers are calling for.

"We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy," says Unity. "We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback."

Wording it as "changes to the policy" doesn't inspire much hope. Then, there's the fact that - if LizardFactory's account of the situation is correct - Unity doesn't consider a children's hospital and a resource for reproductive rights to be worthy charitable causes. We've reached out to Unity for clarification on this, and will update this report should it respond.

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