Technology

Unsurprisingly, it's likely that this "death threats" situation was made up by the ceo: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/16j21jg/the_truth_behind_the_unity_death_threats/

It's a reddit link, ik... here's a copy of the post:

The truth behind the Unity "Death Threats"

Unity has temporarily closed its offices in San Francisco and Austin, Texas and canceled a town hall meeting after receiving death threats, according to Bloomberg.

Multiple news outlets are reporting on this story, yet Polygon seems to be the only one that actually bothered to investigate the claims.

Checking with both Police and FBI, they have only acknowledged 1 single threat, from a Unity employee, to their boss over social media. Despite this their CEO decided to use it as an excuse to close edit:~~all~~ 2 of their offices and cancel planned town hall meetings. Here is the article update from Polygon:

Update: San Francisco police told Polygon that officers responded to Unity's San Francisco office "regarding a threats incident." A "reporting party" told police that "an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media." The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.

https://www.polygon.com/23873727/unity-credible-death-threat-offices-closed-pricing-change

Polygon also contacted Police in the other cities and also the FBI, this was the only reported death threat against Unity that anyone knew of.

This is increasingly looking like the CEO is throwing a pity party and he's trying to trick us all into coming.

One threat, from and employee. Sigh.

More realistic outcome - some game loving tweenage hacker does something fantastically destructive in whatever part of their infrastructure they can get into.

This shouldn't be a distraction from the core issue, but obviously people should cut this shit out.

You can't sneeze online without some sociopathic child threatening to slit your throat.

Edit: Annnd it was an employee of Unity that made the threats...

Shitty Executive: “Oh shit, our terrible idea turned out to be wildly unpopular and we’re getting massive negative feedback! Quick, play the death threats card to make us look like the victim!”

No need for death threats. Unity already committed suicide.

I am usually against such and still am, you should never send anyone deaf that's, that is a felonious offense.

That said I don't feel sorry for the victim. You can't blackmail every game developer in the world simultaneously and expect nothing to happen.

I hate humanity sometimes, why would they send death threats? Just don't use their engine; this is the way you actually make a change -- switch to something else, threatening people does not help you prove your point. I hate their new pricing changes too, but death threats are never warranted

Unity is the sort of company Steve Jobs called out in this 2 min video clip. https://youtu.be/tGKsbt5wii0?si=v8_A2jW5uLewhbVS

This is partially what "eat the rich" rhetoric meant when acted on.

Gamers: pointlessly sacrificing the moral high ground since 2014.

One of the issue here, and I am in absolutely no way defending Unity, is that legally an executive team works for the shareholders. They must ensure shareholder return no matter what as they are in the hook for it.

Unity’s biggest issue is that they like many successful companies stopped innovating and have moved from a company run by technical people to one run by sales and marketing. Sales and marketing only know how to extract more out of the product they already have and not how to improve the product to make more in honest ways. I would (have) gladly given Unity more money if they offered tools that truly helped me get to market faster as then my win would be their win. Instead their product has become stagnant, slower not faster since 2019 and more expensive. I am getting less for more and it is unacceptable. Unity is a horrible business partner. But I can see why as they are a sales and marketing company now. Steve Jobs says it best in this 2 minute video. He got it. Why are so many other not getting this?

https://youtu.be/tGKsbt5wii0?si=km7LTxsY6gwD-mvo

Whatcha wanna bet there aren't any death threats? Seems to be a go to for "we're assholes, but look at these imaginary assholes instead!"

So, the leadership of Unity is a complete piece of shit, but death threats (or really, any other threat of violence) are just straight up idiotic. It’s a game engine company. There are much more fun and interesting (and, you know, legal) ways to kill the company in a commercial sense.

Death threats? Really now...

This is pathetic. Why send death threats because a company made a change to their product. Why are these people so entitled? Or maybe they just know there are no consequences to their actions so they behave in a shitty manner. If you don't like the changes then use a different product.

Well looking on the bright side. If death threats are starting to become common for the decisions that companies make then maybe WFH should also be common to protect employees. Can't target employees at an empty office. The employees will have to be careful with social media however.

Nice to see some repercussions for corporate greed