this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Unity May Never Win Back the Developers It Lost in Its Fee Debacle::Even though the company behind the wildly popular game engine walked back its controversial new fee policy, the damage is done.

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[–] torpak@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago

When you make your business dependent on a single supplier, that's a massive risk. I don't quite understand why many Managers don't grasp that concept. There are two solutions: build your own infrastructure or use something that's either publicly available (like open source software) or easily replaceable (like a library with a common interface that many others also implement in a way that would also solve your usecase).

If you don't do that, one day in the future your supplier will increase the cost until it's just below the cost of switching. If the cost of switching is more than you can afford at that point, you are screwed.

Cloud computing anyone?

[–] PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's the trust thermocline again. When will companies learn to do more ground level research before pulling bullshit like this?

[–] KingPyrox@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes shrugs

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago

I'd hope not. I hope the devs realize that its a gamble to put all your eggs in one basket

[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unity could get them back if they fired their CEO, John Riticello

[–] sebinspace@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep. No matter the CEO. The fact the even can do it means they'll probably try.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We don't know if they can do it. They walked their plan back before it could be tested in court. There's a very good chance that what they were doing (particularly their changing the terms of an agreement without any action from the other parties) was illegal.

[–] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

If the software would not be propietary, game studios could patch versions they already have so Unity won't be tamptes to mess with it.

[–] Jamie@jamie.moe 2 points 1 year ago

Imagine if Microsoft did the same thing with Windows? Allowing software companies to just suddenly change the rules like that could be a terrible precedent. They would probably get hit with antitrust for like the 50th time since they opened their doors.

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[–] gr522x@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's time to revisit the question of why these corporations exist as "people" under the law, when they clearly operate without humanity. The perversion of justice that granted them this right was taken directly from the 14th Amendment in 1886. That amendment was written to grant citizenship to freed slaves. What a coincidence that slavery ended, but was immediately replaced with a new structure called corporations.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's a practical policy. You want corporations to be able to enter into contracts, pay taxes, have legal responsibilities, etc.

Corporations already existed before the 14th amendment. So many valid critiques of capitalism but I don't understand the fixation with this one.

If they weren't "persons" then contracts would simply change their wordings but would still be functionally the same. It's like changing the color of a sports team jersey.

You should be more concerned with the workers owning the means of production. That can happen with or without corporate personhood. And that will be what actually brings us an equitable society.

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Once they cheat on you, you can’t trust them again.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Am not sure why anyone would stay with them at this point. Even if they have a huge project which is massively popular, they have every reason to move away from them since they wanted to apply those changes retroactively. Imagine if they came up with half a million in fees years after your project has stopped selling and you have invested money into new project or elsewhere. Sure, it might be illegal to do so, but good luck fighting them in court.

New projects I wouldn't even think twice. They backpedaled on this occasion but their goal is clear and there was no guarantee they won't try this kind of thing again which leads me to thinking it's only a matter of time when they will try more sneakily to squeeze changes in.

[–] xia@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Trust is a very strong but brittle thing. Once broken it tends to shatter like glass. I'm sure this situation would feel like a sword of Damocles to anyone who has significant investment in the unity platform, and who would want to voluntarily walk into such a position now?

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