This week, Unity announced a new tax that will be applied for each download of a video game designed with its engine, and the bill will obviously be paid by the developers. The latter are generally passionate and not very wealthy independents, who hope to create the title phenomenon of the moment with an engine that is fairly easy to use.
Suffice to say that the announcement caused a lot of noise and, something quite rare, the entire community united with one voice to make people understand Unity that this new tax would be pure madness. Pending its application on January 1, 2024, Unity makes damage control and has precise such as game reinstallations, fraudulent installations, demos and trial versions, titles in cloud gaming and games sold for charity would not count towards this tax, but that is not enough, and trust is broken between Unity and developers.
On social networks, there is a festival of messages denouncing this tax, with humor, annoyance or even irritation. It must be said that some developers have spent years designing a title, and they are now considering starting over with a new engine, or abandoning everything. But it goes further. As reported Bloomberg, Unity closed its offices in San Francisco and Austin for today and tomorrow following death threats ». A spokesperson explains that they have been “informed of a potential threat to some of (their) offices”, and have therefore decided not to welcome any employees for this weekend, as a security measure. Of course, Unity will also work with local law enforcement to investigate this threat.
At any rate, Unity will have achieved the feat of being the most hated video game company of the moment, and yet there is competition. Among the important developer releases, there is that of Mega Critwho plans to completely change the engine for his next game, having made a good reputation with Slay the Spirewhich you can find at €15.51 on Amazon.
| Clint008 Editor – Tester |
