2023

Creators of Slay the Spire will migrate their next game to a new engine if Unity doesn't completely revert their changes (nitter.net)

submitted 1 year ago by simple@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago

Problem is that if your current unity game is successful this year, and then they reimplement the retroactive charge next year, you’re still screwed. If you can afford it then it’s best to change now in order to avoid that mess that might mean you have to delist your game

[-] frickineh@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure it's legal to implement it retroactively. I'd be very curious to get an attorney's perspective - seems a lot like trying to unilaterally change a contract after both parties have signed. But I have a hard time imagining anyone being willing to develop using Unity going forward.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

There's no way this is legal unless it's already in a contract -- and even then, it might still be illegal. The notion of charging people more money because you've raised your prices after they've already bought something just breaks economics completely. You'd be able to sell a bunch of a product for cheap, and then later say sike and charge everyone a lot more.

I'm sure companies would love to do that, but no company exists in isolation. Every single company is buying something from another company to sell their product. If they could do this to their buyers, then their suppliers could do it to them. It would probably end up cancelling any gains you'd get.

I'm guessing this was a move their executives made without any consultation with legal, because it's the kind of idiotic move only they could think of.

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I feel like any company with a legal department would surely check with them before announcing something like this. But maybe unity is so poorly ran they don’t have a legal team or didn’t check idk

[-] zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

I think you overestimate how much they care about doing illegal things. They will try it, and if someone can prove it's illegal, they'll pay a minor fine and stop, maybe. Otherwise they'll get away with it. That's how corps look at laws.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I mean you'd think so, but look at how often companies get into lawsuits for clearly illegal shit. Plenty of places will still try to enforce arbitration/NDA clauses that have no actual legal basis or consequence.