Game News 2.0

super_furry · 08-09-2023 3:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085705#Comment_121085705

That LED light should be red.

Jordan 199 · 08-09-2023 4:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085705#Comment_121085705

Pre-orders sold out. I like how it looks.

Potential-Monke · 08-09-2023 5:03pm

If I had the money, my house would be made of Lego. But man, Lego is the Apple of building blocks. Crazy prices for them.

Mr Crispy · 08-09-2023 11:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121086207#Comment_121086207

If I had the money, my house would be made of Lego.

Except for the floors, surely!!?

Potential-Monke · 09-09-2023 1:18am

I'd use those flat toppers!

Retr0gamer · 09-09-2023 6:52am

I retesting to see Jean Claude Van Damme in mortal Kombat considering the first game was meant to be a blood sport tie in and have him as the star until he turned it down.

sniper_samurai · 11-09-2023 1:45pm

Looks like Embracer are considered offloading Gearbox.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/09/reuters-embracer-group-weighing-potential-sale-of-gearbox-entertainment

CatInABox · 11-09-2023 5:34pm

Wonder will they get the 1.3 billion they paid for them only a few years ago.

sniper_samurai · 11-09-2023 6:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098067#Comment_121098067

Pretty sure they only bought them last year.

Potential-Monke · 11-09-2023 7:56pm

I'd rather they sell at a loss vs just closing them like Volition. Imagine being an ex-Volition employee right now wondering why Gearbox is possibly being sold while they were just shut down.

Varik · 12-09-2023 1:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098067#Comment_121098067

That number included the earn out.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121098564#Comment_121098564

Any potential buyer of Gearbox would get at the very least a competent studio with a number of in development project to recoup money sooner than later rather than starting projects from scratch or some barley started that'll take years to get anything out of them. You'd be getting a return sooner.

If someone was looking at Saints row, they'd be better off buying the IP and building a new studio or assigning it to another studio with a team built slowly rather than having a large workforce they don't need yet or if they started with layoff having to replace eventually.

sniper_samurai · 12-09-2023 4:13pm

The dumb decisions at Unity continue, from January 2024 they are now charging a fee per installation on top of the fee they already get on revenue generated. This includes games that have already been released on installs past the above date.

Considering that Unity is mainly used in F2P and indie games this will probably kill the engine for game development.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/unity-to-start-charging-fee-pegged-to-game-installs

pixelburp · 12-09-2023 4:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101704#Comment_121101704

Yeah, easy to imagine a lot of small studios or individuals abandoning Unity 'cos of that cost. A backlash might force them to change their minds though, so you never know. Either way there'll be a lot of very hasty, very panicked meetings across the globe, developers now wondering "Shít, should we rebuild this thing from scratch?"

Retr0gamer · 12-09-2023 4:37pm

Ever since unity went corporate they've just been digging their grave. Capitalism ho!

johnny_ultimate · 12-09-2023 6:21pm

Nothing in late capitalism quite like seeing corporate idiots ruin successful, well-regarded products or creations in the search for impossible profits. See also: Embracer, G/O Media.

Grumpypants · 12-09-2023 6:47pm

20 cent per install too. 200,000 installs and you get a bill for 40k.

It's not clear if that's a one off or monthly fee.

Retr0gamer · 12-09-2023 7:06pm

https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/1701622034537603188?t=ZZqCpxgsA0UkkTEJFDaspA&s=19

Puts it into perspective.

And it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't floated on the stock market.

Sad thing is it was a great tool for indie developers. It's pretty much made itself unviable next to unreal and unrela wasn't the best deal for indies. At least, i think, the likes of GameMaker still offer a once off publishing payment.

johnny_ultimate · 12-09-2023 10:12pm

Stephen Totilo from Axios got clarity from Unity:

”- If a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that's 2 installs, 2 charges

- Same if they install on 2 devices”

Jesus christ. Do they even understand how people install and play games in 2023? Maybe the single dumbest business decision I’ve seen a video game company make, and there’s no shortage of competition!

marcbrophy · 13-09-2023 12:33am

*Michael Jackson eating popcorn gif*

Yeah, it's pretty dumb, especially the part about re-installs and multiple devices.

Varik · 13-09-2023 1:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102332#Comment_121102332

His numbers are for getting 50% of $200k in sales selling in a charity bundle that sells 1m copies, and purposely staying on the personal license of unity which is free. Getting charged 20c each for 800k of those. 100k - 160k

60k in debt or getting pro for under 2k/yr

This it to get people off the free version of unity. There's no per install upto 1m on pro and then it's 15c for first 100k after that it drops a lot to 2/3c.

pixelburp · 13-09-2023 6:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102997#Comment_121102997

Jesus, those are insane numbers; that will have caused engine switches overnight. Wonder what rival engines there are that might entice a suddenly worried dev studio.

johnny_ultimate · 13-09-2023 9:31am

The slow, humiliating, deeply confused backtrack begins:

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/unity-runtime-fee-policy-marc-whitten

"- Unity "regrouped" and now says ONLY the initial installation of a game triggers a fee

"- Demos mostly won't trigger fees

"- Devs not on the hook for Game Pass"

Bizarrely, they think Microsoft will be liable to pay for GamePass installs? a) Good luck with that and b) you've just destroyed the possibility of Unity-based games appearing on GamePass.

Meanwhile, Unity's official Q&A currently states:

"Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs?

"A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data."

Have rarely seen such fury from game developers, especially as Unity is trying to force this policy to retroactively cover already released games too. One common question is how exactly Unity is tracking installs - something that should be of genuine concern to players as well as devs (personally, I'd be horrified at the idea that a developer would be charged for me trying a game on Steam Deck and desktop).

Similarly, if this policy is introduced, I could see some devs forced to withdraw existing games from sales, which would be a disaster from an accessibility and preservation standpoint.

A swift backtrack seems inevitable, but I think Unity has shat the bed in a way they won't be recovering from.

Kiith · 13-09-2023 10:02am

Read about the Unity change this morning. Absolutely massive **** up on their part, and pretty much guarantees everyone moving to another platform. Or at least no one would pick them as their first platform. Talk about absolute self destruction.

Epic must be laughing their asses off.

Grumpypants · 13-09-2023 10:03am

The high-level concept of having to pay for something that is expensive is fine. I guess it is expensive to support that runtime download.

We often see it when people say digital games should be cheaper as you don't have to print a disk and put it in a box. But don't realize the digital store needs a team of 24/7 engineers and data centres to serve those games and the company is charged for the data it sends.

If they came out and said. It is very expensive to support. But we want to ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to make games. So you can use Unity for free until your games earn $200,000 and after this, you can stay with the free licence and pay a set fee or move to the Professional licence and not pay the set fee.

But the poor handling of it is bizarre. I've read the blog post and a few articles and I'm still not sure what is going on, who or when a dev has to pay.

Retr0gamer · 13-09-2023 10:47am

I can imagine the staff meeting when this was announced. All the engineers screaming at the execs that what they are doing is commercial suicide and the cooked up execs telling them to shut up and trust the process.

Retr0gamer · 13-09-2023 2:16pm

So eh, gambling apps will not be affected by the new unity rules.

Penn · 13-09-2023 2:42pm

https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/1701726501669068921?s=19

...

Retr0gamer · 13-09-2023 3:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121104147#Comment_121104147

https://twitter.com/georgebsocial/status/1701678249086992478?t=dP2F_QFrpcLLmXThF3kqeA&s=19

I've been working for the man way too long.

RedXIV · 13-09-2023 3:39pm

Def done themselves no favours. Unity was the de facto indie developer engine for years. It was more comprehensive and flexible than many of those that came before it like Torque and gamemaker and more user friendly than some of the bigger name ones like Unreal and Lumberyard. It really is not surprising it got so big but goddamn this is an own goal. Unreal engine in particular has made a huge effort to become more user friendly and it's been gobbling up market share the last while.

Unity was already starting to fall behind in market share but this is just goddamn stupid

AlmightyCushion · 13-09-2023 3:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121105546#Comment_121105546

Even if they completely roll back on it now, the damage might already be done. If you were developing a new game and already had a lot of experience with Unity, you would worry they would try and pull this shít again in the future and probably consider changing to a different engine.

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