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Unity Claims PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo Will Pay Its New Runtime Fee On Behalf Of Devs

⁨406⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨alphacyberranger@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://twistedvoxel.com/unity-playstation-xbox-nintendo-pay-on-behalf-of-devs/

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  • kaitco@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The fact that these decisions are coming down from the ex-CEO of EA Games, who was the CEO when EA was voted “Worst Company in the World”, just makes all this even more entertaining to watch.

    GamePass and probably most cheap sales are all going up in flames because Unity has hired a demon to lead them into oblivion.

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    • reflex@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The fact that these decisions are coming down from the ex-CEO of EA Games . . . .

      This guy speedrunning the enshittification game. Oceangate needs to build another sub, stat.

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    • ArugulaZ@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Microsoft learned never to leave an EA exec at the wheel ten years earlier, with the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. You know, the all seeing, all knowing, all credit card charging privacy invader with its hooks permanently sunk into the internet, and a camera you couldn't cover, like it was some motherfucking episode of Max Headroom. Allow me to say, "Fuck you, Don Mattrick, and the DRM and surveillance-laden horse you rode in on."

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  • Lolman228@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Nintendo is gonna lawyer up at the speed of God before they'd pay unity a fucking cent.

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    • ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You’re assuming Nintendo ever lawyers down

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    • send_me_your_ink@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’m sorry, but I’d be more terrified of Microsoft. A company worth more than nations, (current market cap puts it about the 10th richest country in the world), and who routinely tells other companies to pony up - and they do (look up a software audit if you want to see a corporate shakedown).

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      • spiritedpause@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Sorry to nitpick, but I see the comparison of a company market cap with country GDP a lot and it’s a pet peeve of mine lol. Market cap is the value of the company, while GDP is equivalent to the total “revenue” that a country’s economy generated that year. So a better comparison would be 2022 Microsoft revenue vs 2022 GDP of a country.

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      • canihasaccount@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Nintendo looooves to sue people over so many things though

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  • radix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Right. Here’s how it works: Your game is on Gamepass, and a user installs it. Now instead of Microsoft paying you $0.15, then you paying Unity $0.10, Microsoft will just pay us directly the $0.10, and you still get your $0.05! See, it’s a great deal! Everybody gets their money and you don’t even have to deal with the Unity costs! Please, don’t go!!

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    • hahattpro@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Good business model. I hope Gamepass wil also limit number of game user can install, like, pick only 4 in 100 or so

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  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    And Mexico was going to pay for that southern boarder wall…

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  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah, because Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are companies who would never pass those costs back to the devs or down onto consumers. They'd totally bite the bullet on Unity's new royalty...

    Unity are out of their minds if they think this is at all a good move. All they're going to do by pushing devs away and pissing off the major distributors is inspire the creation/adoption of a competitor.

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    • kautau@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s what happens when your CEO is an ex EA exec who thought that charging battlefield players a dollar to reload their gun was a good idea

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  • LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Nintendo? Like fuck they will

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    • Chariotwheel@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft Lawyers united... that's an enemy you don't want to fight. Each department alone is scary enough. All three of them? Now, that's something you want to be on very solid ground for.

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      • Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        We’ll call them The Objectors

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  • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You can just see the panic coming out of Unity.

    They thought they’d be able to slip this change through and people would just pay it. They were expecting a big payday, not a storm of bad press and angry people.

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    • Uranium3006@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Also now Deva are gonna be skeptical of proprietary game engines. It's too big of a risk to develop on anything proprietary now that this is on the table as a thing that could happen. Change won't ahppen overnight but expect FOSS game engines to start getting big

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      • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Or back to it was in ye olden days where every studio has its own proprietary game engine.

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  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    No they won't! There's no way any of the big console manufacturers will ever agree to those terms, ESPECIALLY Nintendo. Microsoft would just buy Unity out before paying that ransom. You be smokin' some bigtime crack, Riccitello.

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    • lester@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Microsoft would just buy Unity out before paying that ransom

      Maybe that’s the plan lol

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      • maynarkh@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        TBH that would explain the decision. Pump up the projected revenue numbers right before an acquisition and exit.

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  • DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox claim “no the fuck we won’t…”

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    • jarfil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They’ll just increase all prices by $1, and done.

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  • bouh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I wonder if it’s purposeful sabotage at this point. You can’t be that stupid and still be paid millions of dollars to do your job can you?

    Capitalism is truly amazing if it can happen.

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    • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      See: a certain owner of a (much less than) $44 billion social media company.

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      • ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Well he was trying to sabotage Twitter, he just fucked up and ended up holding the reins of the company he undermined.

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    • TrashJack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The CEO of Unity did sell off most of his own stock in the company shortly before the original announcement. It’s an open-and-shut case for insider trading charges if ever I had heard one.

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  • Savaran@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I wonder how they’d enforce that exactly since none of those companies are likely to have a contract with Unity that says they’d pay anything like that. Their distribution contracts are with the studios… and the studios, if they keep their subscriptions would be the ones contracted with Unity. Good luck telling MS or Sony that your little indie company bound them into a contract with your engine vendor.

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  • Sabata11792@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fastest way to have all traces of your engine scrubbed from realty.

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  • VelociCatTurd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    By the definition of “distributor” this would include Steam, GOG, Epic, etc. as well.

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    • colonial@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      In before one of them starts stripping or firewalling the phone-home code. What’s Unity gonna do? Valve hasn’t signed any contracts with them!

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      • Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I don’t want another attack vector for some hacker on my computer. That phone home code will be the second coming of the Sony rootkit.

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      • TotesIllegit@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This sounds like it would mean charging Valve money for the privilege of using Valve’s own infrastructure every time a player installed a Unity game after a major PC upgrade/reinstall or after uninstalling that MMO they dumped every other game in their library try out.

        Steam could probably bake a ban on software that uses installation trackers into their developer/publisher ToS, or ban the collection or transmission of Steam user data related to installations, or something similar.

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    • 4am@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Apple has Unity games in Apple Arcade I’m sure; which is like “iCloud GamePass”. So add another behemoth with almost more lawyers than money.

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      • VelociCatTurd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Lmao, Unity is not going to get away with this.

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  • Anonymousllama@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Good luck doing that too Nintendo. They’re professional dicks

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  • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Oh, so is this the result of some negotiation with them, or are they just saying random shit again?

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    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They are trying to make a power play against these companies to strike out a deal due to their market share

      A problem I see with it is that games that push console sales are made on Unreal (or internal engine) not Unity

      However the amount of negative press is overblown as they are starting far in order to give things up during negotiations. And despite saying it’s only charged on first install; I’ve seen people claim it will bankrupt devs

      I support devs switching from Unity to Godot but I feel like in a year’s time it won’t really matter as people are more likely to get hired for Unity

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      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        However the amount of negative press is overblown as they are starting far in order to give things up during negotiations. And despite saying it’s only charged on first install; I’ve seen people claim it will bankrupt devs

        It’s charged on ever reinstall, not only on the first.

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  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Because picking a fight with some of the world’s biggest companies is the best form of damage control…

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    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’d like to watch them try to send an invoice to these companies.

      Most likely they won’t ever try, it’s just a blatant lie because they have no grounds to even attempt it. They have a deal with the gamedev studio, not the platform owner.

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      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        They have a deal with the gamedev studio, not the platform owner.

        They don’t even have that because they’re trying to back date this shit, and you’re very much not allowed to do that. Otherwise what’s the point in even having contracts?

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  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Listen peasants, if you don’t like the freeholder fees we charge, the surely Lord Microsoft will shelter you on his lands as a serf, and pay your fees for you behalf.

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    • lorez@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Wrong!

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  • amenotef@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Actually…consumers end up paying for it. Companies will just increase prices as when the Government taxes them.

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    • NOFF@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Companies will just increase prices whenever they can get away with it

      Fixed that for ya.

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      • amenotef@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Also valid. Yeah

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  • capt_wolf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Meanwhile, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony: Image

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  • lorez@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Weirdly they don’t mention Steam…

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    • dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Steam is just a storefront, not a publisher. And traditionally Valve only publishes their own games. While Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are more broad game publishers. Imagine Casio trying to charge a watch store for every time you look at the time in the watch you saw there. Complete bonkers.

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      • lorez@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        But when Microsoft has in its store a game by Rockstar published by Take Two isn’t it the same thing?

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  • Thrickles@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Waiting to see if Unity games will get yanked from those platforms.

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    • Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They already are. They’re being yanked all over.

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    • spriteblood@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I would assume their console export options are due to some kind of agreement with console manufacturers, as they keep their dev agreements under heavy NDAs. I wonder how this will play out.

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    • magnetosphere@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      if how fast

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  • Madiator2011@lm.madiator.cloud ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So this is why we go ps plus and xbox game pass prices go up :D xd

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    • Toribor@corndog.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      People keep telling me that PC gaming is expensive and yet I pay no subscription fees and have plenty of choice for which storefront to purchase from so game prices tend to stay low outside a few exceptions.

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      • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I just recently locked in 3 more years of game pass ultimate for $180. That’s $5 a month to play 100+ games on console or PC. Granted, much of the catalog is games I already own or games I’m not interested in, but if I play just one full priced game a year from game pass it is paying for itself. Most recently that would be Starfield, and when I got bored after a couple hours there was no pressure to “get my money’s worth”. I simply uninstalled and moved on.

        I realize game pass prices are going up and this deal won’t be available forever, but this is my 2nd time around already so the last several years of console gaming have been cheap as shit.

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      • FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I used to make comments like this and stopped a month ago because peeps hated me saying this or got argumentative with me. Look at you now! LMAO

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  • echo64@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    No, they won’t. Unity has an agreement with not

    all that will happen is that unity games won’t appear on subscription services

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  • Tronn4@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Somehow this cost will be pushed to us gamers

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    • Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Not sure about costs in this shitty ass economy but there’s going to be delays up the wazoo now.

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    • 4am@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It may cost more than money, if the games can’t be converted to a new engine…

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  • CaptObvious@literature.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Mares eat oats and does eat oats.

    Ya gotta love when a corp realizes they’ve stepped in it and starts trying to create an escape route. I’m more than a little surprised that Unity’s board of directors haven’t taken the CEO’s head on a platter yet.

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  • qyron@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Aren’t there enough FOSS gamw engines out in the wild to keep indie authors and small companies working without concern for this kind of crap?

    Contributing with a cash amount to have work done on any engine would be cheaper and more useful for all parts involved than having to deal with these vampires.

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    • wahming@monyet.cc ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There is a viable open source competitor, godot. The issue is that for many developers who have invested years into their current project, moving engines midway is a ton of effort that might break them financially.

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      • drbluefall@toast.ooo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Viable, yes, but I don’t think Godot currently matches up to Unity in terms of capability. I do think this will very much get an impetus going for people & studios to invest into Godot’s development, though.

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    • lauha@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There is at least godot

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      • sodiumbromley@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        And some pretty well known recent indie games have been made in Godot, like Cassette Beasts.

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  • x4740N@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That cost will be passed on to the studios

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    • lorez@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Who’ll pass it on us.

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      • dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You see, making games is so expensive nowadays. So, now the starting price will be $80 and there will be a convenience fee for every install. No, it doesn’t matter that the game doesn’t use Unity, we will charge it anyways, just in case.

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  • Stowaway@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So what your saying is games and consoles could have been cheaper this whole time?

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  • wave_walnut@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think they would do Hostile Takeover to Unity

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  • Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Unity is delusional. They’re behaving like a despot. Down with unity!

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