Let's look at what are they apologizing for: "for the confusion and angst ... [the policy we announced] caused". Not for the policy itself. Right, "we're sorry you got mad".
And what are they going to do about it? "making changes"
As far as corporate non-apologies go, this is definitely one of them.
Business speak apology PR might work on the average gamer.
This is businesses he tried to screwed over.
But it just goes to show that some CEOs have no idea what their product does.
His product sells ads. There's a game engine in there somewhere to get people through the door, but that's not what he considers the product.
It does say "the policy we announced", not "the announcement"
You're right, fixed. I think my point is still valid though.
Yeah, there was no "confusion." They meant what they said the first time.
Believe people when they tell you what they are.
The trust is gone and Unity will never be able to gain it back. The damage is done.
I also wonder if this is just playing out as planned by Unity. Try to push out a change that will piss people off by adding a more egregious change and then say "we hear you" and roll back to the change they wanted to push initially.
Iirc this was the kinda thing Tortellini was doing while he was at EA. Shove out a bad thing, apologize, shove out slightly less bad thing.
Edit: Sure enough, they're trying to push out a less shitty version now. They planned it this way the whole time.
They only way they could even have a shot at getting the trust back would be to do a 180, revert all the shit decision like remove license tracking and whatnot, and in their ToS commit to clear guarantees like the original ToS being applicable not just to the version of Unity you have, but to the whole major version so you apply for LTS updates under the original license you started developing for.
If they want to charge more or extra for free to play games or something, they can still do that, just not in a shit way.
Oh and they should take another look at their data collection to better comply with privacy laws and whatnot.
Their ToS did say that updates would only apply to the current major version and newer of Unity when the updated ToS was released, but they removed that clause without telling anyone about a year ago and are claiming their changes are retroactive, so that can't even be trusted. At this point, I can't see any game dev beginning work on a new Unity project ever again without some kind of ironclad guarantee that this would never happen again. My prediction is we'll see maybe 1 or 2 years of games released on Unity, just from the ones that were already too far into development to start over on something else, and then Unity is done for good.
Ah was it for the major version already? Well they shozuld definitely go back to that, if not even further then to show their commitment (like, say, 2 LTS versions).
But yeah, you are right. We've already seen hundreds of people check out Godot, I hope it only grows from there.
I doubt any of this is going according to plan. After this debacle devs will leave Unity because you know they are gonna think up some new fee to screw devs over.
This at least makes it so that games in development with Unity have a chance to release and pick another engine after that project.
Too late. Never trust them again.
They showed their true intentions
We're sorry you called us out on our bullshit.
We will try to fuck you over more subtly next time.
They lost all trust with the proposed changes. No amount of apologies or non-apologies are going to matter at this point. It's entirely damage control on the Titanic now. I don't believe there's anything that can rescue the sinking ship that is Unity.
Lol.
Lmao even.
Godot.
Theyβre trying to put the lid back on Pandoraβs box. Good luck with that.
"we're sorry that you all didn't agree with our terms demand, so we cancel the term, for now"
Not even that. More like "stop shouting and give us a few days, we'll change some things, we promise".
We have altered the deal. Pray we do not alter it further.
This deals getting worse all the time!
Cool. Still don't care.
You want to prove you're sorry? Fire your CEO. He is going to lose you a LOT of money.
The CEO is not the issue here.
The man sold 50k stocks in the company just this year, 2k of which the day before the announcement, he knows this is suicide.
The board needs to go, but the reality is that unless you go private there's not much to do on that front.
In fact, when they do fire him, don't expect things to change. This is an Ellen Pao maneuver.
let's see someone in the actual game industry comment on what this changes rather than armchair specialists on these threads. Dumbasses who have got nothing to do with the industry circle jerking off themselves is hilarious. People have got their livelihoods on the line and it isn't b/w.
Game industry professional here: We know Riccitello. He presided over EA at critical transition periods and failed them. Under his tenure, Steam won total supremacy because he was trying to shift people to pay per install / slide your credit card to reload your gun. Yes his predecessor jumped the shark by publishing the Orange Box, but Riccitellos greed sealed the total failure of the largest company to deal with digital distribution by ignoring that gamers loved collecting boxes (something Valve understood and eventually turned into the massive Sale business where people buy many more games than they consume)
He presided over EA earlier than that too, and failed.
Both of times, he ended up getting sacked after the stock reached a record low. But personally he made out like a bandit selling EA his own investment in VG Holdings (Bioware/Pandemic) after becoming their CEO.
Heβs the kind of CEO a board of directors would appoint to loot a company.
At unity, he invested into ads heavily and gambled on being able to become another landlord. He also probably paid good money on reputation management (search for Riccitello or even his full name on google and marvel at the results) after certain accusations were made.
Let's look at what are they apologizing for: "for the confusion and angst ... [the policy we announced] caused". Not for the policy itself. Right, "we're sorry you got mad".
And what are they going to do about it? "making changes"
As far as corporate non-apologies go, this is definitely one of them.
Business speak apology PR might work on the average gamer.
This is businesses he tried to screwed over.
But it just goes to show that some CEOs have no idea what their product does.
His product sells ads. There's a game engine in there somewhere to get people through the door, but that's not what he considers the product.
It does say "the policy we announced", not "the announcement"
You're right, fixed. I think my point is still valid though.
Yeah, there was no "confusion." They meant what they said the first time.
Believe people when they tell you what they are.
The trust is gone and Unity will never be able to gain it back. The damage is done.
I also wonder if this is just playing out as planned by Unity. Try to push out a change that will piss people off by adding a more egregious change and then say "we hear you" and roll back to the change they wanted to push initially.
Iirc this was the kinda thing Tortellini was doing while he was at EA. Shove out a bad thing, apologize, shove out slightly less bad thing.
Edit: Sure enough, they're trying to push out a less shitty version now. They planned it this way the whole time.
They only way they could even have a shot at getting the trust back would be to do a 180, revert all the shit decision like remove license tracking and whatnot, and in their ToS commit to clear guarantees like the original ToS being applicable not just to the version of Unity you have, but to the whole major version so you apply for LTS updates under the original license you started developing for.
If they want to charge more or extra for free to play games or something, they can still do that, just not in a shit way.
Oh and they should take another look at their data collection to better comply with privacy laws and whatnot.
Their ToS did say that updates would only apply to the current major version and newer of Unity when the updated ToS was released, but they removed that clause without telling anyone about a year ago and are claiming their changes are retroactive, so that can't even be trusted. At this point, I can't see any game dev beginning work on a new Unity project ever again without some kind of ironclad guarantee that this would never happen again. My prediction is we'll see maybe 1 or 2 years of games released on Unity, just from the ones that were already too far into development to start over on something else, and then Unity is done for good.
Ah was it for the major version already? Well they shozuld definitely go back to that, if not even further then to show their commitment (like, say, 2 LTS versions).
But yeah, you are right. We've already seen hundreds of people check out Godot, I hope it only grows from there.
I doubt any of this is going according to plan. After this debacle devs will leave Unity because you know they are gonna think up some new fee to screw devs over. This at least makes it so that games in development with Unity have a chance to release and pick another engine after that project.
Too late. Never trust them again.
They showed their true intentions
We're sorry you called us out on our bullshit.
We will try to fuck you over more subtly next time.
They lost all trust with the proposed changes. No amount of apologies or non-apologies are going to matter at this point. It's entirely damage control on the Titanic now. I don't believe there's anything that can rescue the sinking ship that is Unity.
Lol.
Lmao even.
Godot.
Theyβre trying to put the lid back on Pandoraβs box. Good luck with that.
"we're sorry that you all didn't agree with our terms demand, so we cancel the term, for now"
Not even that. More like "stop shouting and give us a few days, we'll change some things, we promise".
We have altered the deal. Pray we do not alter it further.
This deals getting worse all the time!
Cool. Still don't care.
You want to prove you're sorry? Fire your CEO. He is going to lose you a LOT of money.
The CEO is not the issue here.
The man sold 50k stocks in the company just this year, 2k of which the day before the announcement, he knows this is suicide.
The board needs to go, but the reality is that unless you go private there's not much to do on that front.
In fact, when they do fire him, don't expect things to change. This is an Ellen Pao maneuver.
let's see someone in the actual game industry comment on what this changes rather than armchair specialists on these threads. Dumbasses who have got nothing to do with the industry circle jerking off themselves is hilarious. People have got their livelihoods on the line and it isn't b/w.
Game industry professional here: We know Riccitello. He presided over EA at critical transition periods and failed them. Under his tenure, Steam won total supremacy because he was trying to shift people to pay per install / slide your credit card to reload your gun. Yes his predecessor jumped the shark by publishing the Orange Box, but Riccitellos greed sealed the total failure of the largest company to deal with digital distribution by ignoring that gamers loved collecting boxes (something Valve understood and eventually turned into the massive Sale business where people buy many more games than they consume)
He presided over EA earlier than that too, and failed.
Both of times, he ended up getting sacked after the stock reached a record low. But personally he made out like a bandit selling EA his own investment in VG Holdings (Bioware/Pandemic) after becoming their CEO.
Heβs the kind of CEO a board of directors would appoint to loot a company.
At unity, he invested into ads heavily and gambled on being able to become another landlord. He also probably paid good money on reputation management (search for Riccitello or even his full name on google and marvel at the results) after certain accusations were made.