The creator of the popular Steam survival game Rust has criticized Unity amid the ongoing uproar over new accusations.
Unity shocked the video game industry That’s when it announced a new policy that means some developers will have to pay a small fee every time someone downloads a game built with Unity’s game engine.
The Unity Runtime Pricing, scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024, was widely criticized by developers on social media after it was announced. Later, amid growing anger from developers, Unity reversed some of its policies, saying the fee would only apply to the initial installation of the game and that developers were not required to install it through a subscription service such as Xbox Game Pass. I insisted. Instead, the fee goes to platform holders like Xbox.
But serious concerns remain, and the backlash is only going to get louder. Many prominent developers say Unity’s new policies will have a major impact on their plans, and some are questioning whether they will use Unity in the future. worship of the lamb and between us These are among the high-profile games that could be pulled from the digital marketplace if Unity continues with its plans. Unity has since claimed that 90% of its customers are unaffected by this change.
Developer Garry Newman is the founder of Facepunch Studios and creator of the incredibly popular Garry’s Mod. blog post I have a few choice words for the executives at beleaguered video game engine maker Unity.
“Maybe they’ve forgotten about PC gaming. I’ll say it again,” Newman said. “It hurts that we did not agree to this. We paid in advance and then used the engine to ship the product. We were not informed that this would happen. We were not warned. We were not consulted.
“We’ve spent 10 years building Rust on Unity’s engine. We paid them every year. And now they’ve changed the rules.
“Unity has shown its power. We can see what they can and want to do. You can’t ring that bell.
“Unity is the worst company in charge of the Unity engine.
“I’ve lost trust.”
Newman then revealed plans to make a sequel to Rust and lamented not building his own engine for the job.
“It took us 10 years to create our own engine, but it never happened. I’m sure many game companies feel the same way right now.
“Let’s not make the same mistake again. Rust 2 is definitely not a Unity game.”
Unity faces a number of questions regarding this new policy, including how installations will be tracked and who will be considered a “distributor” and therefore have to foot the bill for these new fees. IGN reports that multiple publishers and developers of unannounced Unity games are currently scrambling to prevent deals from falling apart following the news, with first parties concerned about absorbing increased costs. I understand that there are. Meanwhile, Unity, led by former EA president John Riccitiello, is increasing pressure to scrap the policy completely. Developers also criticize Unity for: Remove engine terms of service from GitHub.
Rami Ismail, co-founder of Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers, and Nuclear Throne developer Vlambeer, summed up the anti-Unity sentiment in a post on X: The amount of extra tracking, technically impossible, and the only business model that can bankrupt you. ”
Unfortunately, this is no different from the four points I mentioned yesterday. There is still huge uncertainty for developers, retroactive adjustment of terms, an absurd amount of additional tracking, technical impossibilities, and a unique business model that can lead to bankruptcy. https://t.co/0fG8mZuaLW
— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) September 14, 2023
Wesley is IGN’s UK News Editor. Find me on Twitter @wyp100. Wesley can be contacted at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.