Unity exec tells Ars he’s on a mission to earn back developer trust

Interview: "It was not our intent to nickel-and-dime it, but it came across that way."

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[adespoton]

You want our trust? It's going to be hard it earn it back, but ousting CEO John Riccitiello would be a great step in that direction.

Not without ousting the board as well; they called the shots, and have an even more questionable background and track record than John.

 

[adespoton]

If they haven't actually kept any changes, then they haven't fooled you in 2023. You can argue that they tried and failed - or that they f*cked up. But as they are returning to that commitment and reverting their recent changes to align with their original promises, using the "fool me once" claim seems totally off.

Except they didn't walk everything back; they only walked back the biggest stuff -- retroactive license changes and the likely illegal clauses that could put someone in debt. The royalty+subscription format that they promised they'd never employ is still very much in evidence, as are other things they previously promised they'd never do.

And the transparency stuff and multi-license shuffle might be re-set now, but starting in 2019 it was being manipulated in a long play that continued right up until someone noticed and called them on it.

Which means you know that in the future they'll continue to do whatever they can do without getting caught, and then walk back the bits that people are MOST upset about while keeping the stuff that's both legal and not drawing a lot of attention.

 

[adespoton]

If the CEO doesn't get fired, it's not good enough for me as an end user of the games (not a dev, to be clear. Just a guy who won't buy games built on Unity anymore).

I don't mean spending more time with his family or whatever lie, I mean publicly made an example of.

I just realized something. You know that bit about no longer requiring the Unity splash screen? That's likely their attempt to evade people not buying games because they're built on Unity.

Something for developers to think about.

 

[adespoton]

As it stands, this is all just furious backpedaling and a lot of lying to our faces. Unity didn't talk to any "partners" or research this at all -- who on this earth would roll with what they originally proposed? Which partners? Name them or stop saying this entirely, because its not credible.

Oh, I can guarantee Unity talked to partners. What they've made abundantly clear is that developers are not their partners. Their partners are ad brokers and monetization integrators, specifically the ones managed by people currently sitting on the board of directors. Think ironSource. Think Sequoia Investments. Organizations that have used these same techniques in other software verticals, until they made themselves unwelcome there and migrated to gaming.