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Unity Technologiesthe company that develops technology for video games like hearthstone, Genshin Impact and thousands of independent titles, was forced to close two offices due to death threats. The company suspended a general meeting with its employees and asked them not to come to work today. The decision comes after the implementation of a new pricing policy which has caused annoyance among thousands of developers.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Unity closed its Austin and San Francisco offices after receiving a credible death threat. The company has been in the eye of the storm since September 12, when it announced that will charge a fee for each installation of the games that are developed with its graphics engine.
“We are introducing a Unity Runtime fee that is based on each time an end user downloads a qualifying game. We chose this because every time a game is downloaded, Unity Runtime is also installed,” mentioned in his blog.
Ad caused anger among thousands of developersincluding the creators of Among Us, Innersloth. Unity was accused of putting the financial stability of independent studios at risk by introduce an abusive policy without prior notice.
“The retroactive pricing structure is not only harmful in many ways for developers (especially independent ones), but it is also a violation of trust,” stated MegaCrit, studio responsible for Slay the Spire. “We believe Unity is fully aware of this, as they have gone so far as to remove their TOS from GitHub.”
Terms of use will apply to all games published in 2024including those that began their development two or three years ago and had not contemplated this change.
What Unity did to anger developers
The shift toward a more aggressive usage policy joins Unity’s list of stumbles. The company, once the most popular among the independent developer community, has lost its way since the arrival of John Riccietello. The former EA CEO took the reins at Unity Technologies in 2014, eyeing a massive expansion to compete with Unreal Engine.
Since then, the CEO has been in the spotlight not only for his previous management, but for his corporate decisions. In 2022, Unity merged with IronSourcea mobile platform accused of installing adware, generating criticism among all users. Later, John Riccietello said in an interview that the developers that did not introduce a monetization strategy They were “damn idiots”.
The day John Riccietello wanted to charge 1 dollar for each recharge on Battlefield
In a meeting with shareholders in 2011, the then CEO of Electronic Arts, wanted to implement a microtransaction policy in one of the company’s most popular games. “When you’ve been playing for six hours Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your magazine and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you’re really not that price sensitive at that point,” Riccietello said. The manager was trying to apply a model similar to that of mobile games, where you play first and pay after.
The new plans Unity announced this week have a bit of Riccietello in their DNA. The terms of use imply that if the game generated more than $200,000 or has more than 200,000 downloads, the developer will have to pay $0.20 for each additional installation. The figure decreases for enterprise plan customers or for those who decide to use Unity’s monetization tools.
“Developers who will be affected are generally those who have successful games and generate revenue well above the thresholds,” a company spokesperson said. “This means that developers who are still building their business and growing the audience for their games will not pay a fee.”
Although Unity has tried to clarify the situationthe company has not backed down its policies that will come into effect from January 1, 2024. John Riccietello was scheduled to meet with employees, however, it was canceled due to death threats.
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