A Potential Earthquake in the Videogame Industry: UNITY Install Fees

[MoonSong]

They seem to have hit bargain stage


Unity tweeted it yesterday. Will they have to make the runtime Open source?

 

[CleverNickName]

One step closer to Acceptance, right?

 

[darjr]

“You’ve won and we did too!”

 

[CleverNickName]

“You’ve won and we did too!”

"We're listening to you. So, basically, that means we're the heroes in this situation."

 

[Scribe]

“You’ve won and we did too!”

 

[GreyLord]

Unity would probably have gotten away with it, if the changes only applied to future development but in attempting to retroactively apply it to people that had already entered into development under different terms and conditions, that was always going to set people off.

And trying to rewrite contracts (even unwritten contracts) is always a terrible idea. It's like trying to tell someone that now that they've used your product, you are going to force them to pay you more money retroactively. That's not an easy thing to say you should be allowed to do when the judge is looking at you.

 

[Lidgar]

"We're listening to you. So, basically, that means we're the heroes in this situation."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

"But we don't charge for installs associated with charity initiatives! (... except when we do.)"

Unity reportedly told dev Planned Parenthood and children's hospital are "not valid charities"

Developers of indie puzzle game Orgynizer have claimed that Unity said organisations like Planned Parenthood are "not v…

www.gamesindustry.biz

.

It's charity when I agree with it, politics when I don't.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Theoretically it wouldn’t be hard for a game to send basic install info to themselves near the end of the install. Game company now has data to combat overestimates.

Except that sort of rubbish can be hacked in minutes. Is like anti piracy software, a complete waste of time

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

They seem to have hit bargain stage


Unity tweeted it yesterday. Will they have to make the runtime Open source?

I read all corporate press release apologias in the voice of Matt Berry.

And trying to rewrite contracts (even unwritten contracts) is always a terrible idea. It's like trying to tell someone that now that they've used your product, you are going to force them to pay you more money retroactively. That's not an easy thing to say you should be allowed to do when the judge is looking at you.

Well, in my experience, I would say that the best protection when you're in front of a judge is to have everything in a written contract that specifies things clearly. As opposed to relying on "unwritten contracts" and assumptions.

That said, people often confuse what's legal with what is ethical, and what is permissible with what should be done. The Venn diagrams of those may occasionally overlap, but they are hardly perfect circles.