I think everything is calmed down about runtime fee changes and I tried to understand how it works for scenario where for example some freelancer make playable ads for clients and they can potentially have much more than 1 million installs. I’ve checked Runtime fee estimator and as far as I understand this freelancer will pay 0$ unless he will start making more than 200K$ a year. After that he should buy Unity Pro and pay ~2K a year? So basically amount of installs doesn’t matter in this particular case?
In a freelance scenario, the client is supposed to provide the freelancer with a Unity license. Similarly, the runtime fee is paid by the runtime distributor, which typically is not the freelancer. All licensing and fees are client based, not freelancer based.
If either the freelancer or the freelancer’s client make more than $200k then you need to pay for the freelancer’s license, plus any licenses the client requires (eg even if the client only wants to make the builds themselves for whatever reason).
If the client doesn’t provide the freelancer with licenses, it’s the freelancer who can (and should) charge the client for the required license.
There is a difference between a discussion and a shitstorm.
It‘s also not censoring if the lengthy thread on the topic remains as is and is closed for further comments because EVERYTHING has already been said. There is simply NOTHING left that needs further discussing, and 95% of that thread is pure hyperbole anyway.
Consider who benefits from blowing this out of proportion!
Company changes pricing plans.
Shitstorm ensues.
Who is to blame?
We can DISCUSS the changes but by far and large that has not happened. Far, far less than 10% of contributions to the discussion were serious concerns, questions and feedback. Everyone else just came running straight from their favourite influencer to open their mouths, vomitting their rage on their keyboards, and posted that as a reply. This is just sad.
We should really shitstorm he influencers more often because they do little besides spreading FUD and benefitting from their antisocial behaviour financially. This is far more despicable than the changes Unity had planned to implement.
The one that changed pricing plans is to blame, obviously, because shit storm is a form of user feedback.
The runtime fee thing in its original form could be only explained by unity’s sudden desire to commit suicide. So reaction and shit storm was fully deserved.
Discussing, however, was quite pointless. As unity normally does not listen to anyone and there is no dialogue, so discussion makes as much sense as debating with a wall. Same amount of practical result. This particular time the shit storm was strong enough to make them reconsider. So it was far from being useless, as users anger is an indicator of incoming financial loss, while user’s discussion is something that can be safely ignored… The damage is still done though.
A shitstorm is the equivalent of a three-year old throwing a temper tantrum. It is an emotional reaction that turns into a test of strength and authority, it is not a form of feedback.
Absolutely! There is no point discussing or arguing with a raging crowd of Internerds infused by FUD that was amplified by influencers.
How many times was it required to correct someone repeating the same misconceptions, such as that free games would now have to pay Unity? Yeah. Shitstorm is not feedback. It’s an angry mob.
On the other hand, the valid concerns that were raised is what IMO ultimately caused the company’s direction to adjust. Certainly not the 102,340,329th comment that “Unity is dead”, most of them by people who have never spent a dime on Unity and would have never had to spend one.
By seeing all the valid questions and pressing issues it quickly became obvious that the pricing plan changes were either not well thought through or rushed, or both. Answers to even the most obvious issues were not available at the time (which fueled the FUD machine of course).
We can all be angry at the unpreparedness of the change, both that no one expected it and that it was unexpectedly inexplicable in many important details. But the shitstorm was just blown out of proportion with some influencers fueling it purposefully. In the process it was common to see people getting attacked personally if they did not fully subscribe to the shitstorm narrative.
Hey, let’s not rewrite history. Unity couldn’t answer many important questions for days and some of those answers were batshit nuts, like charging for WebGL plays on each WebGL game load, which only added to the fire. They didn’t listen to their own employees who had the same questions and concerns and paid for it. Excusing management failure is not productive.
No, and it sounds like you’re trying to demean people that were upset.
Sure, there are always a few angry people when something changes, but when there’s an avalanche, that’s an indicator of major screwup. And runtime fee feedback was a tsunami, not a mere avalanche. Those people were unity’s customers from the whole industry, the source of income. Takes a lot of effort and dedication to piss off so many people at the same time. Hence it is an indicator and feedback, and not an “accident”.
Also, in my experience, Unity does not care about polite feedback, sound well thought out argument or discussions. Never cared. I’ve been here for a quite long time, the company policy is to ignore everybody and continue going their own way. They do not give a shit about anything. So if there were people politely voicing their concerns, the runtime fee would be implemented unchanged.
Correct, because the fee you’re paying at the $200K threshold is for the editor not the runtime. Once you’re making over $1mil (in a trailing 12 month period) and have over 1mil “engagements” (lifetime of the game) you have to start paying a percentage up to a maximum of 2.5%.
OP is asking in freelance context, where the editor licensing is determined by client’s revenue, not the freelancer’s income, and runtime fee is paid by the runtime distributor so unless OP is distributing the playable ads himself, he’s not paying any runtime fees even if the thresholds are met.
I doubt any noise on the internet did any meaningful impact on Unity decision in licencing ammendments at any point.
Like if Unity ever care.
People got gold fish memory, is temporary storm. Unity stocks shows, it doesn’t matter at all.
What did an impact however to revert partially stuff, is an internal shareholders and direct contact of big customers, which they forced in, to shout out what they are doing. As the result demanding upon changes. Internet probably knows about only iceberg tip, what really did happen. Rest is behind the curtain.
Actually, On September 18, around the time of runtime fee announcement, there was uptick in trade volume and the stock began to drop. At that point it was priced at 33.45. It kept dropping till Till November 1, where it reached 25.08. 25% value loss. Then it began to recover. By now it is 33.19 and still has not reached 33.45. I also see uptick in trade on November 10, not sure what it is about. I’ve got an apology letter signed by Jim at 17th of October and at the time stock continued to fall.
Note that the highest pricepoint last six months was in July, with 48.50. The highest pricepoint in last 5 years was at November 18, 2021, at 196.65. Previous price peak was at September 21, 2020, at 164.92. Whoever is tracking unity news can probably pin some events to those dates.
So rather than temporary storm it looks like a decline or long term value loss.
Internet noise is not meaningless. News like those can serve as an indicator tp shareholders that it is time to dump stock. Which will drive price down. So, even from purely selfish desire to drive stock price up, not doing insane decisions is a reasonable strategy.
The angry mob had little influence in this, mainly because their arguments were … just being angry. The most laughable evidence for this was the list of developers that quit Unity for good … it was 50 names of companies or individuals nobody had ever heard of to that day, except for one. The relevant parties … pretty much silence. Which means they did the sensible thing and a) wait and/or b) talk.
Guess what? That’s stock market for you. Any new news and the sharks come flying in (actually, their AI algorithms) to make a quick buck within seconds based on betting losses and what not, or betting on the bounce-back sometime later.
This single value is an oversimplification of the complexity of stock trading that happens every microsecond, and the value of a company as it is perceived by investors. Some companies are said to be overvalued, others undervalued.
I have no idea where to base Unity in this, but it’s not in a highly competitive market (Unreal is the only serious competitor) and it’s serving to a slow moving customer base (games take long to develop, employee skill is of utmost value, businesses don’t switch engines lightly). I tend to say it’s currently undervalued and will see an uptick over 2024.
If you wanna keep believing this, I can’t help you.
Insane pricing aside, there were a lot of scummy moves around this time, like attempt to retroactively change license while quietly removing its github repo. Or that magical install tracking software. Or the idea to charge for install. There are some things where it is necessary to draw the line.
Also, the “angry mob” talk looks like a defensive action. Nowadays it is too common for people to think “those people think differently compared to me, therefore they’re mob”. Sometimes it is even “mob, unlike me.”. Overly popular in modern day. Consider situation where all participants are at least as smart as you are, but arrived at conclusion that caused anger. After all, we’re all usually average. Even we’d prefer to be unique, smart and special.
