Unity Changes Royalties Plan; $0.20 per Player Install*

[fiendcode]

I don't know if this will be enough to fully restore trust in Unity, but it is a positive move at least.

I think the damage is done. Everyone has already pushed to finding new solutions long term, it just doesn't make sense to stay in a contract where this is a looming possibility.

Now for Epic to shit the bed.

 

[Koni]

Some extracts from the official press release

Unity Announces Leadership Transition

Unity (NYSE: U) (the “Company”), the world’s leading platform for creating and growing real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced that John Riccitie

www.businesswire.com

Interesting. So that Reddit post above may not be accurate after all. Though we'll have to see who replaces Unity as the permanent CEO. If it's one of the names listed than I'll pay attention.

 

[awng782]

John Riccitiello fucked around and found out.

With that being said, he will inevitably fail his way up into another CEO position. Let's hope he isn't Jim Ryan's replacement lol

 

[Lite_Agent]

The bloodbath continues. We ridin' this layoff-a-thon train all the way to New Year

Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

Videogame software provider Unity Software will eliminate 265 jobs or 3.8% of its global workforce and end an agreement with a digital video effects company founded by the "Lord of the Rings" director as part of a "reset," the company said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

Unity To Lay Off 265 Employees At Weta Digital As Part Of "Company Reset"

Only two years after acquiring part of Weta's VFX business, Unity is stepping back to focus on its core business.

www.gamespot.com

Unity Software with a ‘company reset’ walks away from film VFX and the Wētā deal

Our best wishes to all the team members of the Unity Wētā Tools' division following its closure. UPDATE: Statement from WētāFX

www.fxguide.com

(If someone wants to make a thread, feel free).

 

[Undead Warrior]

Unity had seven fucking thousand employees??? That's twice Epic's 2022 reported number! And they don't even make games!! Holy crap, no wonder they're in this mess.

 

[ILikeFeet]

The bloodbath continues. We ridin' this layoff-a-thon train all the way to New Year

Unity Software to cut 3.8% of staff in 'company reset'

Videogame software provider Unity Software will eliminate 265 jobs or 3.8% of its global workforce and end an agreement with a digital video effects company founded by the "Lord of the Rings" director as part of a "reset," the company said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

Unity To Lay Off 265 Employees At Weta Digital As Part Of "Company Reset"

Only two years after acquiring part of Weta's VFX business, Unity is stepping back to focus on its core business.

www.gamespot.com

Unity Software with a ‘company reset’ walks away from film VFX and the Wētā deal

Our best wishes to all the team members of the Unity Wētā Tools' division following its closure. UPDATE: Statement from WētāFX

www.fxguide.com

(If someone wants to make a thread, feel free).

$1.6B for wasting everyone's fucking time

 

[Mekanos]

Good signs of a healthy industry

 

[EnergyDrink]

Unity had seven fucking thousand employees??? That's twice Epic's 2022 reported number! And they don't even make games!! Holy crap, no wonder they're in this mess.

They are not working on Unity engine, but the Unity heads thought it was a good idea to spend all the money to buy other companies like Weta that have nothing to do with Unity's core business.

 

[ILikeFeet]

They are not working on Unity engine, but the Unity heads thought it was a good idea to spend all the money to buy other companies like Weta that have nothing to do with Unity's core business.

In theory, Weta would have augmented Unity for high end rendering functionality. Like how Unreal is used for film production, Unity would want to get into that space as well

 

[Lite_Agent]

In case you thought 2024 wouldn't just be 2023-II Re-Un:birth Inteprologuegrade...

Unity is laying off 25 percent of its staff

It’s a major layoff to start the year.

www.theverge.com

Unity is undergoing yet another layoff, and this time it’s going to affect about 25 percent of its entire workforce, or around 1,800 employees. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company, which makes the popular game engine Unity, said it’s making the cuts “as it restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth.”
Unity has been through several rounds of layoffs within the past year, with the most recent one affecting 265 workers last November. However, it’s still not clear whether Unity is cutting 1,800 additional workers on top of the layoffs it announced last year. We’ve reached out to Unity for clarification.

 

[Lite_Agent]

Unity got a new CEO:

Unity has named former Zynga COO and EA SVP of strategy and operations, Matthew Bromberg, as its new CEO.

And good news! Unity has learned their lesson from last year's fiasco and all the layoffs, which is why this new CEO is going to work hard to regain the trust of developers, repair the company's damage reputationd, strive towards a sustainable future the company that respects both its workers and its clients and lol who am I kidding they're just giving him an absolute crapton loads of money

What does Bromberg stand to gain from helping Unity achieve its dream of delivering "attractive" levels of revenue growth? According to an SEC filing, the new CEO will net an annual base salary of $850,000 and a target bonus of 100 percent of his base salary, subject to the company's 2024 bonus plan.

He will also receive a sign-on bonus worth $2 million alongside an award of 1,036,055 time-vesting restricted stock units; a time-vesting option to purchase 1,000,000 shares of common stock; and a performance-vesting option to purchase up to 1,000,000 shares of common stock.

What's more, Unity notes that, if Bromberg remains continuously employed with the company until senior executive annual equity awards are approved in 2025, he will be granted equity awards with a target value of $10,000,000, (at least half of which would be comprised of restricted stock units).

Classy.

Former Zynga COO Matthew Bromberg is the new CEO of Unity

The new chief exec will net an annual base salary of $850,000, a litany of stock awards, and sign-on bonus worth $2 million.

www.gamedeveloper.com

 

[ILikeFeet]

Unity 6 is also out in preview. this should be where the changes start taking place

Unity 6 Preview is now available

Unity 6 Preview (formerly known as 2023.3 Tech Stream) is the last release of our development cycle for Unity 6 and is available for download now.

blog.unity.com

 

[duvjones]

Unity 6 is also out in preview. this should be where the changes start taking place

Unity 6 Preview is now available

Unity 6 Preview (formerly known as 2023.3 Tech Stream) is the last release of our development cycle for Unity 6 and is available for download now.

blog.unity.com

Interesting, well have to see what happens come the full release.

 

[ILikeFeet]

After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers, effective immediately. Non-gaming Industry customers are not impacted by this modification.

So we’re reverting to our existing seat-based subscription model for all gaming customers, including those who adopt Unity 6, the most performant and stable version of Unity yet, later this year.

Here’s what you can expect:

• Unity Personal: As announced last year, Unity Personal will remain free, and we’ll be doubling the current revenue and funding ceiling from $100,000 to $200,000 USD. This means more of you can use Unity at no cost. The Made with Unity splash screen will become optional for Unity Personal games made with Unity 6 when it launches later this year.
• Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: We’ll be modifying subscription pricing and the qualifying annual revenue thresholds, effective January 1, 2025. These changes will apply to all new and existing Unity Pro and Enterprise customers when you purchase, upgrade, or renew a subscription on or after this date.
  • Unity Pro: An 8% subscription price increase to $2,200 USD annually per seat will apply to Unity Pro. Unity Pro will be required for customers with more than $200,000 USD of total annual revenue and funding.
  • Unity Enterprise: A 25% subscription price increase will apply to Unity Enterprise. Unity Enterprise will be required for customers with more than $25 million USD of total annual revenue and funding. A minimum subscription requirement may also apply. Because this set of our largest customers have unique needs and use many of our products and services, we’ll be contacting everyone in the days ahead to discuss customized packages.

in full

Unity is Canceling the Runtime Fee

After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee, effective immediately.

unity.com

funny how this comes after Godot completed its console ports

 

[randomengine]

I firmly believe the reason Silksong hasn't appeared is that Team Cherry is porting the game to a different engine due largely to Unity mismanagement.

 

[duvjones]

in full

Unity is Canceling the Runtime Fee

After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee, effective immediately.

unity.com

funny how this comes after Godot completed its console ports

Hmmm, I find this a little late...
A move that had to happen but still late considering everything that happened.

 

[EnergyDrink]

I firmly believe the reason Silksong hasn't appeared is that Team Cherry is porting the game to a different engine due largely to Unity mismanagement.

Probably most devs that used Unity are porting their games to other engines. It's a bit of work, but as a result the financial future of the projects is safe and it saves much money. Unity is dying anyway.

 

[Undead Warrior]

As mentioned in the other thread, Marvel Rivals already announced they're migrating to Godot and investing heavily into W4, the company that also put out the fork for Godot console ports.

Way too little, way too late. Riccitello adds another notch to his belt.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Mihoyo is also moving to Unreal Engine for their next games. wouldn't be shocked if other big gacha studios are doing the same

 

[duvjones]

As mentioned in the other thread, Marvel Rivals already announced they're migrating to Godot and investing heavily into W4, the company that also put out the fork for Godot console ports.

That is a little surprising.... but it is good that more is going into Godot, I wonder how the community around it gets on.

Way too little, way too late. Riccitello adds another notch to his belt.

Alas, he does. It's going to take ALOT of work to build unity back to what it had before Riccitello.
Seriously, why he has yet to be blacklisted in the industry baffles me.

Still, I am more than will to see if they do it but it's going to take more than 5 years to get that done.

 

[Terrell]

in full

Unity is Canceling the Runtime Fee

After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee, effective immediately.

unity.com

funny how this comes after Godot completed its console ports

Yeah, this is a “too little too late” situation.
Congrats to Godot/W4 for their massive future success. Let’s hope they don’t screw it up.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

That is a little surprising.... but it is good that more is going into Godot, I wonder how the community around it gets on.

Alas, he does. It's going to take ALOT of work to build unity back to what it had before Riccitello.
Seriously, why he has yet to be blacklisted in the industry baffles me.

Still, I am more than will to see if they do it but it's going to take more than 5 years to get that done.

Probably the same reasons why others of his ilk get to run around being hired by companies. Not gonna be shocked if he pops up somewhere else ruining yet another company.

 

[AruanaRiva]

Far too late. Many smaller devs has announced they are moving to Godot and not coming back. Unity simply has commited financial suicide for literally 0 gain. Impressive.

 

[Garlic]

The fact that it took them a year to officially walk this back despite it being DOA is astounding in itself

 

[ILikeFeet]

Unite 2024 is going in Barcelona right now and some major news dropped



the split renderer will be going away in the future for 1 universal renderer. this is notable because

• the built-in renderer is useless, everyone uses the URP, which gets the most support
• HDRP is for those "AAA" graphics games that don't exist
• URP has been getting the features that HDRP had, making HDRP redundant

 

[ILikeFeet]

One interesting point of note is that Unity has replaced nearly its entire leadership team following the announcement and cancellation of the controversial runtime fee policy.

Leadership team from June 2023 on the left.
Leadership team from today on the right.

nice to see some accountability. this announcement really hurt them and probably soured a lot of relationships with big companies

 

[Undead Warrior]

While that's not bad, necessarily, it doesn't matter that much because the people actually allowing and even advocating for all that BS was the board of directors. Riccitiello will continue to fail upwards, no doubt as well...

 

[duvjones]

nice to see some accountability. this announcement really hurt them and probably soured a lot of relationships with big companies

It's really a question of what Unity does now to sell the system to other and build back the trust that they had prior to that announcement.

 

[Luke88]

I would like to point out that I don't have a lot of faith in the new CEO coming out of Zynga of all places. From what I remember Ricitiello was the main advocate for the new monetization scheme while there was a strong pushback internally, a fully new board could easily mean that the new CEO sacked anyone who was against the previous scheme that was part of the board to replace them with yes-men, I'd wait and see how things go from now on.

 

[fuzzymuzzywuzzy]

Unity actually makes most of their revenue from their ads solutions (70% as per 24'Q2 result). The engine is important since there's obvious benefits in a two-in-one solution for mobile game devs monetizing via in-app ads, but it's also possible to succeed purely on a strong ad stack (AppLovin comes to mind). Unity just has poor capital allocation which is hurting their bottomline.

 

[ILikeFeet]

sooooo.....that new leadership....

I haven't followed Unity closely, but I understood many employees were excited to show the new direction of Unity 7 at Unite 2024 and it was generally well received?

But this has since been jeopardized because the new CEO doesn't want breaking changes?

effectively, the new CEO wants constant compatibility instead of making big, breaking changes. updates presented at Unite was very well received and would have helped pushing Unity to be a suite that can do every kind of game, including "big" games. if that's tossed out, then Unity might not be able to stand toe to toe with Unreal Engine in the AAA space