I think it’s time to stop giving Jim Sterling an audience. As I mentioned in the thread about Asset Flipping irt this very video:
[Unity] had a minor problem [with its image], mostly because of the splash screen popping up on some real beginner games. Jim definitely amplified the hell out of it, just as he did the asset flipping “”“crisis”“”
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I don’t know, I don’t feel inclined to spend X amount of time watching it.
Since you made the thread, perhaps you could give a synopsis?
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I think it has some entertainment value at least showing some clips of games. Production values seem good overall for YT. Overall tone seems unoriginal (moaning & groaning as usual). Content focus is something that has been discussed a fair amount by many people here and basically resulted in the same conclusions about which games were branded Unity and which were not.
It’s not Unity’s fault or anyone elses. It is the developers dream to strike it rich combined with a free market. I’m thinking if he focused on mobile he may well have a heart attack so probably is good he sticks to Steam.
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Well, is a old topic, in resume he talk about that many bad games are made with Unity and this show a bad image of the engine.
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My short version of the video: Jim Sterling talks about how Unity has an image problem because their splash screen is associated with so many terrible games. There are also the things like multiple flips of UnitZ. Developers making high quality games in Unity rarely have the splash screen, so the people buying games do not know these are great games. Jim Sterling cited Hearthstone as one example; a game that is extremely popular and which most people have no idea it was made in Unity. Jim Sterling also talked about how the Unity CEO admitted there is an image problem, but does not have an answer.
In my opinion, Unity does have an image problem, and for exactly the reasons that Jim Sterling cited. I know there are some great games made in Unity. I own some great games in Unity. Yet I cannot think of one game that I would cite as being both famous and well known as being part of Unity. “7 Days to Die” comes closest, and if you’re not a regular forum reader, I doubt you’d know it’s Unity.
This topic is also one of those “religious wars” that come up. People argue today about using Unity vs other engines the same way I remember people arguing about games coded in a flavor of C vs. a flavor of Java, claiming that you cannot possibly code a good game in one vs. the other.
I’ll also point out that Jim Sterling is not the only one talking about the Unity image problem or the garbage games produced with Unity; he’s just a popular figurehead to use because he likes to be over the top.
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Thanks.
I’m inclined to agree with him to an extent. This isn’t to say that gamers who go “Made in Unity? Pass.” are anything but silly, but - it is in Unity’s best interests that there be no consumer stigma against their engine (which may, at some level, impact sales of Unity-made games), which means that if they can (cost vs. benefit) they should strive to cultivate a perception of quality.
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There are some decent points made in the episode. Sadly, Unity’s policies regarding the presentation of their logo in the “personal” version of their engine has had some unforeseen consequences. I say “unforeseen,” because I imagine they wouldn’t have put those policies in place if they had properly anticipated the current situation.
At the end of the day, there is no one “fix” for what he’s describing. The slightly negative reputation that Unity has accrued on Steam and Steam Early Access is a consequence of the freedom and accessibility that an engine like Unity provides to its users. The boom in small to mid-scale indie development is partially thanks to Unity’s free “personal” edition, and the Asset Store’s accessible tools and inexpensive graphical assets. There are a lot of decent projects that couldn’t exist without the infrastructure that Unity has put into place.
But at the same time, that infrastructure now allows for numerous opportunists to abuse both Unity and Steam for short-term commercial gain. And no one can really deny that we’re seeing that exact scenario playing out. We don’t like it, but there’s no real way to stop it without tearing down a system that is both useful and beneficial.
As far as Unity’s reputation is concerned, the best way of addressing that problem is a step that Unity is not likely to take. The best way to improve Unity’s reputation is not to try to stamp out low-quality games, but to associate their brand with high-quality games. However, most high-quality games that adopt Unity’s Pro licensing are not likely to want to advertise the middleware their using. And one of the advantages of paying for that Pro licensing is getting to NOT display the Unity logo. Reversing that policy in the licensing would upset people who are actively paying Unity money.
So yeah, it’s a bit of a mess, with no “good” fix without making some pretty sweeping changes.
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This is obviously his reaction to a thread that’s been going around on NeoGAF: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1408326
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what is with that logo paywall thing anyway??
its actually really backwards as hell
shouldnt they force it on Quality titles, and not force it on Cheap titles??
a business or any entity doesnt want to be associated with Hitler, but EVERYONE wants to be associated with… uhmm… i dunno lets say Elon Musk … “OH!! I KNEW ELON MUSK IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! I SEENS HIM!! I DID I DID!!!”
hmm what if i make a splash screen that plays after the made in unity splash screen that says
“PSYCH!! just kidding!! this is actually made in unreal engine guys!”
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There’s a real problem with Unity forcing people to pay money to remove Unity branding. This is an ass backward approach to generating revenue.
Maybe you like Sterling or maybe you hate him, but he’s absolutely right on this subject. Unity has been monetizing at the cost of it’s reputation for years and years.
If UT cared, they’d address the issue. They haven’t addressed it: so they don’t care.
They’ve been making money hand over fist, and nobody wants to rock that boat.
Personally, I used to get mad, now I don’t care. Regardless, it’s really a bizarre way to monetize the engine.
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Once upon a time forced splash screens and watermarks were more common.
I wonder how much of it is genuinely because people want to remove the logo and not because they’ve hit the $100,000.
Given the amount of outcry on the subject of splash screens over the years, I think quite a lot of people are far more concerned with the splash…and the fancy dark skin.
I legitimately can’t remember the last time we discussed the dark skin in a way that wasn’t completely joking. We may have had a large amount of it in the past but we’ve had almost none for a good while now.
Back when Unity was primarily for indie developers, having the logo come up in every game except ones who paid extra was good advertising - if another indie developer saw a lot of games start with the Unity logo, they might look up what this “Unity” thing is. Back then, the difference between paid copies and free copies wasn’t really about big AAA companies vs. indies, but just indies without much money and indies with lots of money 
Maybe Unity doesn’t need that free advertising anymore, now that they are a major player in the game engine business.
Having said that, these days the Unity Logo doesn’t matter. When a game like Bomberman R for Switch is released with bad performance, real gaming enthusiasts find out it’s a Unity game and blame Unity anyways, though the game doesn’t have the Unity logo. Unity already has that reputation, though Unity 5 fixed quite a lot of the problems the enthusiasts complain about. It’s too late to fix it by removing the need for the logo.
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Well, this is most likely a product of the altered perception regarding the personal edition. The negative reputation it’s managed to accrue is part of the reason why developers would want to remove the logo. Many of them feel that taking the default Unity splash screen down gives them a level of credibility that they would lack otherwise. In a way, they’ve incentivized removing their own branding, in favor of pushing their involvement in bigger, more well-funded projects into the shadows.
Whether or not this is the proper approach is up for debate. It is somewhat damaging to smaller developers who can’t afford a pro license. But then, the fact that they aren’t paying for a pro license also has value.
The last time I remember it being treated as anything other than a joke was back in the 4.x days and prior when Unity still had the Actual Feature Disparity thing going on.
The thing is - first impressions count - and starting out a game with the Unity logo is starting with a strike against you. Unless the game is exceptionally well polished it can be a real problem.
99 out of 100 users might not care, but those enthusiasts are the most likely to post reviews and every bad review counts.
Well, the really frustrating thing for Unity developers is that most of these assumptions are simply unfair. A lot of the comments on the Jimquisition video reflect this. Unity is a tool. All game engines are tools. And generally speaking, blaming a tool is the wrong approach. Most of the bugs and errors that users complain about aren’t due to the engine, but how it is being used. And this is true for all developers, both large and small.
Any engine can be used improperly, and frequently are. Unity is hardly the only middleware solution to eventually result in buggy games. Much of its notoriety in recent years is simply a result of its prevalence in low-quality Steam titles. But low-quality, buggy games are constantly being developed in Unreal Engine, Cry-Engine, and pretty much every engine under the sun. And the vast majority of the time, the blame shouldn’t be placed on the engine.
Game engine middleware is a fairly competitive scene at this point. And the companies in question don’t stay in this particular competition by sitting on their thumbs. All of them must constantly innovate, polish, and improve their offerings in order to continue appealing to prospective developers. By now, all of their core technology is reasonably sound. Attempting to lay blame at their doorstep is kind of pointless. They have people CONSTANTLY evaluating, criticizing, and nit-picking their engines. Those people are called their end-users. The developers who actually use Unity are constantly pushing for improvements and bug-fixes, and always will be. And they actually know enough about the engine to make reasonable, technical criticisms.
No one really needs to hear game players whining about the quality of a game engine. Most of them are going to be woefully uninformed. The frustration with this mis-directed blame is understandable.
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I honestly really enjoy watching Jim Sterling’s videos. He is consistently laugh out loud funny, intelligent, and well informed on game industry topics. I am a huge Jim Sterling fan, and I have tremendous respect for him.
Having said that, I don’t feel like the topic of “Asset Flipping” is meaningful for most gamers anymore. There was a time a few years ago when it was relevant and important. I am talking about the dark days before Steam added refunds and before Steam required game developers to include actual videos and screenshots of the game. Prior to those two changes on Steam, “Asset Flipping” was a threat to gamers, because it was a way to steal money from unsuspecting gamers.
Now days, “Asset Flipping” simply is no longer a threat to gamers. If somebody does flip an asset to make a quick buck, gamers can quickly use the Steam refund system to immediately take that buck back. And developers cannot intentionally mislead in their game’s store page on Steam anymore. I remember the outrage about the game “Air Control”, and the world benefited from YouTubers like Jim Sterling standing up for consumers in cases like that. If “Air Control” was released today, Steam’s refund system and Steam’s store page policies would mitigate that without the mass outage.
As for an image problem for Unity, I know that some users are trying to avoid playing games made with Unity. But a lot of those same users are already enjoying Unity games and don’t even realize it.
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