It’s almost a week after Unity announced its controversial pricing scheme changes which will see the company take a 20 cents fee for every fresh install above a certain threshold on every game created using its engine – and the company’s co-founder and ex-CEO David Helgason has dispensed some choice words regarding the move in a Facebook post.
“We fucked up on many levels. No other way to put it: a new business model for Unity was announced in a way that was hard to understand, but it also missed a bunch of important “corner” cases, and in central ways ended up as the opposite of what it was supposed to be,” wrote Helgason. “Now to try again, and try harder. I am provisionally optimistic about the progress. So sorry about this mess.”
Disunity among the ranks
It’s important to note that this statement comes not through an official channel, but from Helgason’s personal Facebook page, and as such it’s likely that his own feelings don’t necessarily reflect Unity’s as a whole. In fact it’s highly likely that after a week of watching the company he founded and where he remains a board member fumble the ball, he simply couldn’t hold his silence for any longer.
And while it’s unclear how officially endorsed any of Helgason’s comments are it’s clear that his words are – so far at least – going down a lot better in the comments than any other official wording has so far (including this morning’s official “We have heard you” climbdown).
In contrast it appears that having such a trusted and loved member of the Unity community come forward and make a promise has had many devs sitting up, listening and agreeing with Helgason’s thoughts.
“You are already a visionary person and your contributions to the ecosystem are tremendous,” said Voontent founder Nazif Berat. “What upset us was that at this point, such a person’s company presented us with an unclear decision as if it were being imposed on us. I’m so glad you’re reconsidering the decision.”
While Lennart Roosendaal founder and creative director at Infinity Interactive writes “Hope you will be able to bring some light and clarity in this mess. Community needs your voice, a new plan, and a definitive degree of distancing / retractions from what happened, for Unity to get through all this.”
We’ll have more news, comment an official word on what exactly Unity plan to do as soon as it happens.
