by leafo on 2/11/19, 10:40 PM with 44 comments
by cableshaft on 2/11/19, 11:42 PM
I don't know, just seen this go bad with lots of other companies, that leaves me skeptical about how this will go and nervous about making games using their platform in the future.
by vtange on 2/11/19, 11:49 PM
It doesn't help that there have already been some recent stories of developers being given the cold corporate treatment,[0] and the recent issue with Improbable.[1]
[0] https://sipreadrepeat.com/2018/12/16/unity-email-controversy... [1] https://gamedaily.biz/article/507/improbable-disputes-unitys...
by reificator on 2/11/19, 11:49 PM
Now I'm worried that this will start driving them toward short-term gains more than anything.
I'm predicting that if they go public, they'll ape Epic's storefront model within 3-5 years.
by stuart78 on 2/12/19, 6:48 AM
It does not seem to me obviously better (for developers or their customers) for Unity to stay private or be acquired. Acquisition could threaten the cross-platform appeal and perpetual private state would not deliver a return to investors.
And I don't think there is an inherent threat to either the freemium model or a perversion of the roadmap. There seems to be real competition between game engines and the value the free offering provides is one of the easiest entry points to game development. This delivers a huge number of potential developers, which is the foundation that sustains the paying developers above it.
Somebody there told me once that their mission was to 'have half the world's creative content created in Unity', meaning not only video games, but films and presumably traditional CAD markets such as architecture and product design. If this is true, I think the real threat to developers irrespective of IPO is one of focus. Can Unity evolve the product for their core market, or will they become too horizontally committed and lose focus?
This is a place where the market could 'correct' a land grab strategy by driving the company to focus on the core business.
by gmueckl on 2/12/19, 2:01 AM
I wish they were in a position to actually open up the core runtime source code so that it can be ported and maintained independently in the future. The tools - the commercially important part of the engine - can stay closed for all I care. I wonder if we would see such a move with shareholders crying for quarterly results.
by learc83 on 2/12/19, 2:38 AM
I've just started work on a new game using their new ECS system. It's not ready for anyone who's not either a very seasoned programmer or very patient, but so far I like it much better than the standard MonoBehaviour workflow.
by fizixer on 2/12/19, 2:23 AM
Would be interesting if both go IPO around the same time and confuse the heck out of everyone:
- "Did you hear Unity went IPO?"
- "Unity? the Technologies or the Biotechnology?"