Interview: "It was not our intent to nickel-and-dime it, but it came across that way."
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Unity exec tells Ars he’s on a mission to earn back developer trust
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This is bog standard crisis PR, man. Every time companies make a major fuck up they trot out someone who isn't the CEO to kowtow to their customers in some way or another.
Unity's problem is that they're in B2B and now no business can trust them, so every business that can (which is almost every business) will be moving away from their product.
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In my experience, the overwhelming majority of decision makers in tech companies do not know what their product does, have no understanding of how their companies function, and don't know anything about the industry as a whole.
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Mmmm.
"Believe". Gee, turns out John Riccitiello is human and not everything he believes, even fervently, turns out to be true. Even if he puts it in a "letter" that (strangely enough) doesn't bind anyone. Such a surprise.
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Unity insiders have said that they warned management that the plan wouldn't fly. For example:
So the claim that Unity were surprised by the community's reaction is... hmm... let's say the guy is being economical with the truth.
So the claim that Unity were surprised by the community's reaction is... hmm... let's say the guy is being economical with the truth.
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punksmurph
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
So was this a bait and switch planned all along or did someone decide they want an unearned piece of other people's pie? Because when a company uses Microsoft Office to successfully conduct business Microsoft does not all of a sudden say "Our Success Comrade".
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I think when they say partners, they mean partners in the other service companies that they have acquired... not developers, not customers.
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And when you pay the very steep pricing for Microsoft developer tools, they don't hold their hands out afterward, either.
Unreal demands a royalty, but you can use the tools for free.
Unity is trying to grab for cash on both ends at once.
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Great if you have Unity products out there then this buys you time so they won't suddenly start costing you as developers, but you need to (still) be using this time to make the next products not Unity, yes? Surely no one can trust them now no matter what they do (including sacking the CEO which doesn't seem likely).
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That X-cretion or whatever they call 'em now is from ten days ago. I wonder how many of those resignations actually happened?
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Because the people developing Unity aren't the people in charge of its marketing and finances. One group needs to go. The other group had no say in the matter. Thus your hostility is misplaced, and very shortsighted. Unity isn't the metaphorical scorpion. Unity's leadership is. But if you kill off Unity, you just further cement Unreal's market dominance. And how long do think it'll be before Unreal's management starts pulling the same shit with that kind of power? Because they absolutely will. The capitalist economic system demands it in pursuit of infinite growth. Or have you forgotten that Tencent already owns nearly half of Unreal Technologies?
Let me be perfectly clear: Unreal's favorable terms right now are part of building an ecosystem to lock the industry in. They are doing the exact same thing Adobe did with Photoshop and others. Once they become the defacto industry standard, they have no reason to play nice with their customers anymore. They can (and will) start aggressively fleecing them, because they can't just pick up and leave anymore. The entire industry, from the training pipeline and up, will have invested too heavily to extricate itself from Unreal without massive loss of profits. Just like with Adobe's products.
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Microsoft has long been well-versed in collecting per user fees for use of their products. No surprises involved. I've been retired for five years and am still rocking the $9 license for the Office suite offered to us for home use, though I find I don't use it very often.
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Wow! That was tough to read. Apparently, this was, 'all a big communication problem and no one really thought about who was going to be affected. But now that we know, things will be better because you can trust we've heard you. And we won't do it again.'. Does anyone actually buy any of this? No one was fired, and these new terms are revocable whenever they like.
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Unless Unity takes down the tracker before introducing some changes in preparation for the big unpopular changes.
Just like they did this time.
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Probably the second. Sounds like they've come down with a bad case of MBAitis, like what happened to Bowing after the Douglas merger. They stopped listening to the engineers and started making their share price the top priority. At least in Unity's case the only thing that's been killed is goodwill towards the business.
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But if you use it to write a bestseller, Microsoft isn't going to demand a cut from every copy going into people's hands.
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That would be fine, if they were doing that, but they aren't.
They're pretending to fix their mistakes, and you're being suckered.
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Wizards of the coast. January. Perfect copy of the fiasco. Situation went to pieces so fast people were hit by the shrapnel.
They cannot be trusted, they have already shown that. If you want to trust them, then feel free. I for one do not like hitching my wagon to horses that run toward cliffs.
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This? This right here? This is gaslighting. Yeah, people are upset. But with a couple of exceptions, the Ars commentators are well within the bounds of normal reaction when someone comes along and pulls the rug out from under you. You're making up the pitchforks and torches scenario to cover that you don't see it that way. That's fine, but don't tell people they don't have a right to be upset. And that they should blindly accept what Unity is saying, especially since what Unity is saying has only a passing connection to the facts of the matter.
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When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. There's no mistaking the actions of Unity's management, no matter how much they may or may not back peddle on it after the fact. They WENT there, eyes wide open. Nobody forced them. Nobody twisted their arm. They CHOSE this stupidity. This is exactly what the folks in charge of Unity are like, PR smokescreens removed. They're arrogant. They're ignorant. They're shortsighted. They're greedy. They're shitty people who deserve no respect and no quarter. Grovel and snivel at their boots if you want, but that only makes you pathetic.
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This isn't the first time Unity's 'leadership' has pulled these kinds of asinine stunts. And the level of stupidity on display with this stunt is inexcusable. Nobody with any sense couldn't see this disaster coming from miles away. But Unity's leadership still chose to go there. Because they're arrogant. They're ignorant. They're shortsighted. They're greedy. They're shitty people who deserve no respect and no quarter.
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Get wiser? Are you kidding me? This is even MORE asinine than their previous stunts.
Once again, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
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How does anything they have done this time show that they learned from the first time ?
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DeschutesCore
Ars Scholae Palatinae
You are defending behavior we haven't witnessed, they have done nothing outside of making a statement at this time.
You also chose to ignore every single one of us that pointed out THEY'VE DONE THIS SHIT BEFORE. They were already on their "second chance" and you want to applaud them for "recognizing" they fucked up?
You make 0 sense.
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Great, you don't see it the way others do. That's fine. What you don't get to do is gatekeep how others feel and tell everyone with a different reaction that they're wrong and party of an angry mob. That's why you're getting downvoted, not because of your differing opinion.
Again, can the gatekeeping. No, I disagree that people should feel vindicated. This isn't the first time Unity has made a colossal mistake and there's no obvious change that suggests they've learned anything. So being very wary is a perfectly rational response. And if you don't like that people are having a perfectly rational response, fine, just don't tell them they're wrong.
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You keep so constantly removing the term "retroactively" from these arguments that it really is giving the impression that you're doing it wilfully. Yes, companies very much reserve the right to alter their terms from the point of announcement forwards, but no, many companies do not reserve the right to alter their terms retroactively for already released software exactly because it is a massive pitfall for their customers who want stability, not pitfalls.
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You know it's not going great for them when their defense boils down to "We're idiots".
Obviously, nobody is going to trust them again. If you're gullible and believe the excuses, then you don't want to be in business with idiots; if you're not gullible, then you don't want to be in business with villains.
The only way they can really walk this back is by firing most of the people at the top.
Obviously, nobody is going to trust them again. If you're gullible and believe the excuses, then you don't want to be in business with idiots; if you're not gullible, then you don't want to be in business with villains.
The only way they can really walk this back is by firing most of the people at the top.
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