News & Gossip VII: For Blood and Headlines

[Victor]

Hot damn.

[Rudie]

For you PSN Plus freaks you get Nier Replicant, 13 Sentiels (which I do not talk up enough as VERY GOOD) and enough Star Ocean to ruin the rest of your life.

PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for September: NieR Replicant...

[swarm]

Ya know, this kinda looks like what the Core Design version of Tomb Raider Anniversary was gonna look like before they got shut down and Crystal Dynamics was given the IP forever.

Core Design's Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition - Peru ALPHA Gameplay

[toups]

idk if anyone else follows moon channel on youtube but he has a few interesting videos about games-oriented legal issues, and made a text post about the unity thing which I thought was worth sharing. not necessarily endorsing everything said here but

post is in here

I’ve been asked a few different times now about the whole Unity debacle, and so I thought I’d share my perspective here instead of making a video about it.

For those not in the know, Unity, the tech company behind the popular game engine of the same name, announced a new fee structure on Tuesday, Sept. 12th. This new fee structure is (1) targeted to video games (doesn’t apply to Unity’s film, gambling, or education plans), (2) full of unnecessarily complicated provisions, and (3) thereby likely to be largely unenforceable.

Now, I often try to present a more level-headed approach to controversial topics like the Minecraft EULA, or Nintendo’s IP enforcement, but there are also times when one must simply call a spade a spade: this is a poorly designed, poorly worded, poorly thought-out decision.

If you’ll allow me to talk directly to Unity for a moment… look fellas, I get it. My associates at Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and even Palantir have made it abundantly clear to me that the squeeze is here, and that the unsustainable, forgive my use of the P-word, Ponzi-Like nature of fundraising in the tech space is coming to a close. Belts are being tightened, and anyone who hasn’t figured out how to be self-sustaining now has to work double-time to get that settled, or risk a painful potential demise.

You’re in a tough spot, given the nature and history of your business operations. I get it, I really do. Here’s the thing though: the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, sure. But even if the second best time is now, you need to pick the right tree to plant. You could have picked a mango tree, which bears fruit in a year: it wouldn’t necessarily meet all of your business funding needs, you would still receive some backlash, and you’d have to tighten your belt a lot, but after a year the damage will have been done, the scars will have settled, and you can push forward.

But you picked an avocado tree, instead: this kind of fee arrangement is the fruit one would expect after ten years of tending the tree, so to speak. You’ve just put yours in the dirt, and you’re shaking the sapling. Don’t be surprised if, instead of getting avocados, the leaves start coming off, and the tree just dies.

You’ve likely already had this discussion amongst your board though. Or, I hope you did. And hindsight is 20-20.

What’s the sustainable choice here then? Does the decision matter more, or the company: the ego or the vision? You could dig up the avocado tree, and plant the mango tree: you’ve done some damage, but nothing irreversible. You’ve seen the public reaction to your fee arrangement though. Are you sure you want to keep shaking that avocado sapling? All something to consider.

You know I usually charge five figures for this kind of pep-talk, right? This one’s on the house though. That’s a joke by the way – no legal advice intended.

For my viewers, and readers, there are plenty of media outlets covering the actual provisions of this change. I’m of the opinion that the fee arrangement itself isn’t that egregious: it won’t cost too much for most of the involved parties. Any Unity fees involving Game Pass distribution, for example, will be paid by the distributor (MSFT), whom I would presume Unity has already talked to (you did talk to Microsoft, right?). But, the tech world (arguably the whole world) is tightening its belt, and if you decide to put the squeeze on the already squozen, even if it is merely in principal and not in effect, you will be met with defection and revolution.

To conclude this blog-post, a lot of viewers have asked me whether or not the fee arrangement is legal. I alluded earlier to how it doesn’t appear to be very practically enforceable, but is it legally enforceable?

I can’t say too much here. But, I can say this: unless the changes are backtracked on/simplified further, we might soon find out.

Moon Channel

[idiot]

Full 3D remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord now available...

[isfet]

i rewatched the trailer a few times and then got stoned and watched it some more and i guess i have softened a little on my stance insofar as i can say “well, it looks better than Contra: Rogue Corps.”

it also does not seem to be a straight-up “remaster” and looks closer to a remake in the sense of Super Castlevania 4/Akumajou Dracula X68k, where, yes, they’re Castlevania 1, but also not really.

i’ll check it out for science when it comes out

[Dracko]

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord | Early Access Launch Trailer

[Sakurina]

A Once in a Decade Glitch Has Hit Destiny (& Bungie Said "Have Fun")

This is the most amazing live service game glitch I’ve ever seen

[Infernarl]

Retro Games with New Official English Translations

[L]

What a sale

🥹Kairosoft Games Are Made In Unity...🥹 on Steam

[Dracko]

[loki]

new coke

[spacetown]

[captainlove]

Resign you fucks!

[notbov]

funny how they seemingly stonewalled all week until a group of mobile devs did a coordinated boycott of their ad tools

[Sakurina]

oh lol

Unity reportedly told dev Planned Parenthood and children's hospital are "not...

[VastleCania]

absolutely flabbergasted by the idea that they are planning on doing this retroactively. Like, afaict they’re not charging for installs prior to January 1st 2024, but they are counting those installs towards the threshold. So developers could get charged for every install starting on Jan 1st if they reached the threshold previously before these terms were in place.

That’s gotta be close to illegal, right?

[VastleCania]

so many games are gonna get delisted if this goes through

[dedede69]

in practice, that doesn’t really stop installs on most storefronts, right?

[VastleCania]

if i thought i was going to get charged i would replace the game files with a dummy exe that just displayed “sorry” and then closed 5 seconds later

and in any case, it will at least prevent future purchases.