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Unity reportedly told dev Planned Parenthood and children's hospital are "not valid charities" (www.gamesindustry.biz)

submitted 1 year ago by ram@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.ml

115 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/5555641

archive.org

Developers of indie puzzle game Orgynizer have claimed that Unity said organisations like Planned Parenthood are "not valid charities" and are instead "political groups."

In a blog post, the EU-based developer LizardFactory said the plans to charge developers up to $0.20 per install if they reach certain thresholds would cost them "around 30% of the funds we have gathered and already sent to charity."

As Unity clarified the runtime fee will not apply to charity games, LizardFactory reached out to the company to clarify their game would be exempt from the plan.

However, Unity reportedly said their partners were not "valid charities" and were viewed as "political groups."

Profits made from the game go directly to non-profit organisation Planned Parenthood and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Michigan.

"We did this to raise money for a good cause, not to line the coffers of greedy scumbags," the developers wrote in a blog post. "We have been solid Unity fanboys for over ten years, but the trust is scattered all over the floor."

The developers are considering a move to open-source game engine Godot, "but we will have to recode our entire game because we refuse to give you a dime," they wrote. "This is a mafia-style shakedown, nothing more, nothing less."

Today, Unity responded to the ongoing backlash and apologised, acknowledging the "confusion and angst" surrounding the runtime fee policy.

The company has promised that changes to the policy will be shared in "a couple of days."

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Right--the AAA studios will just consider if they should use Unreal or an in-house engine. They'll put it all in a big spreadsheet and come to a conclusion.

Indie devs that are on Unity are going to get hurt by this scheme. They'll also get hurt if you don't buy their games because they're in Unity. The choices here aren't great.

The one thing is Unreal seems to have been preferred for a while now, anyway. Unity was already losing market share, and is now only going to accelerate that.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

If you’re doing 2D, some devs have been actively documenting the migration from Unity to Godot to make things easier for others to follow suit.