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.

 

[Ryujin]

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

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.

As the saying goes, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

(Colin Robinson got hit by John Slattery's car in front of the ramen place, around the corner from my uni)

 

[Yora]

When I saw their initial statement started with "It certainly has been a week, hasn't it?", I already knew everything there was to how they are going to treat the whole situation.

Could also have started with "We did a whoopsy." and it would have come across as just as mature and responsible.

 

[FrogReaver]

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

Anything can be hacked…

 

[Gammadoodler]

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.

Some folks can get away with it.

 

[Bagpuss]

They seem to have hit bargain stage


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

Wow that sounds more like WotC every minute.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Some folks can get away with it.
View attachment 295431

He didn't get away with it though, did he? Because of the altered deal Cloud City rebelled Vader's prey escaped.

 

[GreyLord]

As the saying goes, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

(Colin Robinson got hit by John Slattery's car in front of the ramen place, around the corner from my uni)

Well, some implied or quasi contracts ARE written on paper (though are considered unwritten as far as I know) when they are based upon laws. These types of unwritten contracts CAN actually take precedence over written contracts (a good example of this in SOME nations, but not all, are non-compete clauses in contracts. Some of those non-compete clauses in certain nations are invalid and unenforceable because they break the higher contracts created by law, or the legal system).

This of course, depends on the nation or country in which the situation is occurring. The specifics can change per nation though. This affects business and their dealings and how they write things out in each area where they do business. Of course, for a more in depth knowledge of this one should probably talk and refer to their lawyer or legal departments to find out how it would actually affect something like unity's proposals on the subject.

 

[Gammadoodler]

He didn't get away with it though, did he? Because of the altered deal Cloud City rebelled Vader's prey escaped.

Been too long since I've watched Empire.

I don't recall the city rebelling so much as Lando..which does support your point, but also suggests that Vader should have altered the deal further.

Besides that, I kinda think Vader could have had his prey (Luke) regardless of the circumstances of the deal if Vader had employed a bit more situational awareness.

(Note: I am not supporting altering the deal further, and I am aware that this is a digression)

 

[Vael]

Only every first install is what they are saying...now...but they haven't inspired great confidence that they can gather the appropriate data to make the charges correctly.

More to the point, (and insert "I am not a programmer" here), from what I've heard, the only ways to capture said data is either illegal under some data laws and/or requires a fair amount of spyware.

Which is a bit rich given Unity acquired a company that had a history of making malware.

 

[Parmandur]

More to the point, (and insert "I am not a programmer" here), from what I've heard, the only ways to capture said data is either illegal under some data laws and/or requires a fair amount of spyware.

Which is a bit rich given Unity acquired a company that had a history of making malware.

Yeah, the OGL 2.0 was a Bad Idea, but at least they were talking about a reasonable reporting structure that wasn't likely to be gamed by random bad actors to destroy publishers for giggles.