kane_magus: (Default)
2024-01-09 01:02 pm

"Unity starts 2024 by laying off 1,800 employees as part of ongoing 'reset'"

I mean, if Unity were really serious about this supposed "reset," the first and only ones they'd get rid of and replace would be the entire board of executives (besides just John Riccitiello anyway), starting with whatever moron thought that getting rid of 25% of their employees is a good way to "reset." But then, that's just a pipe dream, because it's not like the bosses are going to lay themselves off, after all, even if they're the ones who are causing the problems that need to be "reset" in the first place.

Really, the still very unlikely full huge crash of the modern video game industry that I've been hoping for for at least a decade or so now has been seeming every so slightly less unlikely lately and, indeed, may already be in the process of happening. Or, at least, of the big huge "AAA" part of it, anyway. *fingers crossed*
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-12-06 06:39 pm

"The Fragile Creator Economy - SOME MORE NEWS"


"Hi. In today's episode, we look at how people make money on the internet, how vulnerable tech platforms affect people's livelihoods, and why 'being your own boss' often means your boss is just Jeff Bezos."
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-10-14 07:51 pm

"Lawsuits & Layoffs | Castle Super Beast Clips"


As of the above video there, that is the first time I have ever heard of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. (EDIT) Which has since been renamed to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a much blander title, for whatever reasons. (/EDIT) And, now that I've heard of it, I will do my level best to go back to not thinking about it at all ever. Yeah... we're definitely well into the "Ship of double Theseus" version of BioWare now.

Yeah, after doing software testing for nine years, I definitely know about EFIGS.

The era of cassette tapes used in computing was, fortunately, before my time.

"Man, Tim Sweeney is the dumbest motherfucker in the world. Oh my god." Eehhhhhhhhhh... I agree that Tim Sweeney is indeed one dumb motherfucker, but I don't know if he's even the dumbest motherfucker in the modern video game industry, and certainly not in the world as a whole. (I mean, Donald Trump is still alive, after all.)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-10-10 02:59 pm

"John Riccitiello is out at Unity, effective immediately"

I mean, he probably shouldn't have ever been "in" at Unity to start with, but better late than never?

Or is the phrase I'm looking for actually "too little too late"? Yeah, it's probably more that second one.

Unity is proper fucked, regardless of whether Riccitiello stays or goes. I'm still never going to use Unity for anything at all ever, doesn't matter what shitgibbon they may have in charge. Also, wake me up when the rest of the board at Unity follows Riccitiello out the door, because you know this wasn't all on just his head, despite his rancid history.

(EDIT) They've apparently brought in some "private equity firm" ghoul to replace him. Yeah, Unity's done and gone. (EDIT 2) Huh, as it turns out, at least according to Wikipedia, Riccitiello himself started out as a private equity ghoul. So I guess this is more a lateral move at worst. (/EDIT 2) (/EDIT)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-23 02:27 pm

While I'm in a mood to dunk on Unity some more...


Here's an analogy of the whole Unity situation, via "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories."

In this scenario, Charlie Murphy is the average dev using Unity, and Dave Chappelle-as-Rick James is the Unity company itself. Or, at least, that's what Unity was hoping it would be like. In reality, it's more like Charlie Murphy kicking Dave Chappelle-as-Rick James in the balls in response. (Including the insincere apology afterward.)

Hell, this is a pretty accurate representation of that matter, too.
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-23 02:01 pm

"UNITY: DESTROY ALL GOODWILL IN 1 DAY, WR ANY% | Castle Super Beast Clips"


So these two guys basically just completely clown all over Unity for a full half hour, and it's pretty fucking great.

(Also, say hello to the new "embracer group sucks" tag, because they go off on a brief tangent shitting on them, too. I fully expect to get more use out of that tag in the future.)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-23 12:26 am
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-21 09:37 pm

"Terraria developer sticks it to Unity with $200K donation to open-source competitors, doesn't even"

Full headline, because Dreamwidth subject line length continues to be subpar: "Terraria developer sticks it to Unity with $200K donation to open-source competitors, doesn't even use Unity itself"

In any case, I'm glad that Unity is continuing to eat shit over this whole dumbfuck thing.
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-20 01:21 pm

"Unity Doesn't Care That You're Upset"


The title is a bit of clickbait (though not untrue), but the video itself it pretty on point.

One of the comments: "Imagine if you had to pay the person who sold you pencils for every drawing you sold because they believed they were entitled a piece of your profit, because they sold you the pencils you used to make the drawing."

And then, a reply to that which is probably even more accurate: "Imagine if you had to pay the person who sold you pencils for every person who saw any drawing you ever did"

Also, Reggie coming up with the idea of a "per boot" fee. Don't fucking give them ideas man! ಠ_ಠ

Seriously, I'm still (futilely) hoping for another 1983-like crash, just to clear the board (and maybe the boardrooms).

(EDIT)

And there are bunch of comments along the lines of "How did it come to this?" or "How could Unity possibly think they could get away with this?"

And I'm sitting here like "How do you think it came to this? Video game players have been gleefully attaching their lips to the sewer pipe and sucking down each and every disgusting diarrhetic deluge that the video game industry has been squirting into their toilets for the past thirty-plus years. Even worse, too many of the same video game players have been militantly defending their right to guzzle down those liquid turds and have been defending the right of the game industry to eat the greasiest, spiciest, nastiest, most past-the-sell-by-date Taco Bell meat that they can find before hitting the bathroom. That is how it came to this. That is why Unity believed that they could get away with this."

(/EDIT)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-19 12:31 am

Penny Arcade on the whole Unity bullshit


Link to comic.

Blog.


Link to comic.

Blog.

If they do more on this topic, I'll probably edit this post to add them in.

(EDIT)

Oh, and when I was first making this post, I copy/pasted the HTML from my previous post about PA, and as I was changing the URLs, the first pass looked like this:



Which I found rather morbidly amusing. And not too inaccurate, either. Really those last two panels are evergreen, at least if the first panel is trying to make sense of whatever fresh hell the modern video game industry is unleashing on its customers.

(/EDIT)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-18 11:24 am

"Unity vows to change controversial new pricing policy"

"No details yet, but update coming in 'a couple of days'"

Nope, sorry, the damage is already done. Same as with WotC, I have absolutely no use for Unity from this point forward, because even if they fully backpedal on this particular thing (which remains to be seen if that's what they actually do), they've already shown their true colors and desire to utterly fuck over their customers.
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-14 02:04 pm

"Why every game developer is mad right now, explained"

Why am I not surprised that John Riccitiello (i.e. the guy who was CEO of Electronic Arts back during EA's start of darkness and who is now the CEO of Unity [and has been since 2014, apparently]) is behind the bullshit. I had no idea he had anything to do with Unity until now, but now that I know, it all starts to make sense.

Oh, and also this.

(Follow-up to this post.)
kane_magus: (Default)
2023-09-13 12:24 pm

New Unity pricing model

Note to self: never use Unity for anything at all ever.

Glad now that I never got into it in the past, though I'd been toying with the idea of trying for years.

(EDIT) Of course, this assumes that I would've ever made a game that made any money at all, Unity or otherwise, so... probably actually irrelevant to me. However, on the vanishingly small off-chance that if I ever do make a game and actually try to sell it at some point, it sure as shit won't be on Unity now. (/EDIT)

(EDIT 2) Also, if I'm understanding this right (which is not a sure thing, given how piss poor the communication from Unity is) and devs are going to be charged per any install now, no matter what, then what's to stop dedicated trolls from simply setting up a script on a throw-away shitbox to just forever constantly uninstall and reinstall a game that they've deemed unworthy (like, say, Subnautica: Below Zero, which was made with Unity) just to drive up the costs for the developers of said game? Like, if I uninstalled and reinstalled Below Zero five times, that would cost Unknown Worlds Entertainment an extra dollar (or however much) that they otherwise wouldn't have to pay. Imagine trolls setting up something that will take some game they don't like and just uninstall and reinstall it hundreds of times a day, every day, forever, from now onthe point this asinine pricing model goes into effect. And you know they will. (/EDIT 2)

(EDIT 3) Oh, it looks like Unity may have already backpedaled on the whole "charging for repeated installs no matter what" bullshit? Well, if that's true, it's a slight improvement as it would negate everything in "EDIT 2" up there, but their new pricing is still bullshit, regardless. And the fact that they even thought that was a good idea in the first place makes me no longer trust that they won't try to do something equally bullshit or worse in the future, thus I'm sticking with my "never use Unity for anything at all ever" stance. (/EDIT 3)