New Unity Mega Bundle, My Coverage of Unity going forward and thoughts on the future. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is actually an exceptionally good bundle for those staying in the Unity ecosystem. Obviously for those unsure about the future of their use of Unity, or those that have left, there is not much here for you.
That said, at the bottom of the linked article above, there are several guides on how you can use/export Unity assets to work with other game engines such as Unreal or Godot or use certain assets with Blender.
Now... why did I do a community post and not a video about this bundle? Simple really, the same reason why Unity didn't even tweet or email about the Bundle... Unity content flies about as well as a lead balloon right now. The comment section of that video would be an absolute mess! Plus, I honestly didn't even know this bundle had launched (due to complete silence from Unity) until a day after it had gone live and I like to be as timely as possible with my reporting.
I do however want you all to know it exists, as that has been my goal all along, thus this community message.
Finally a quick mention of Unity and Unity content going forward. This is a general game development channel, I cover all news for all engines, and that includes Unity. Right now obviously Unity has a (well earned) black eye and a very negative reputation especially here on YouTube. It is however still a very capable game engine with a massive community of people using it. I am not going to stop covering it because the people that run Unity did something completely greedy and unbelievably stupid. I still personally like Unity even if I don't like the people running it, even though that wouldn't matter for my coverage on the channel.
I am EXTREMELY happy to see that John Riccitiello (CEO and Chairman... so no, not just a sacrificial pawn) is gone, and I hope to see other members of the leadership team removed (especially the IronSource influences). It is very rare to see a board entirely purged and if you do, it's because the company is going under or was acquired. We will probably see more leadership changes over time, especially once a new board chairman (this big boss) and a new CEO (the day to day boss) are chosen, and ideally they aren't the same person this time. Hopefully this results in a different culture and direction at Unity going forward and they get back to focusing on game engine development and less so on market capitalization.
Do I think Unity will go away? No
Do I think Unity just lost a lot of users? Yes
Do I think this is going to hurt their bottom line? Yes
Will Unity continue to be the most popular game engine, at least for the next few years? Most likely yes
Is Unity itself a good game engine? Yes (with lots of warts to fix...)
Do I think Unity will be bought? Not yet, unless it drops deeply in value (sub $10 a share) or gets in more and more trouble. If it does plummet though, Unity will not go away, someone will buy it. My guess of suitors in order are Netflix/Disney (both are pushing hard into gaming), Apple (VR device), Microsoft (they are named all the time... honestly I don't really know what Microsoft would get out of it except to deny a competitor like Apple), Amazon (they tried the whole game engine and game development thing once and they have deeeeeeep pockets). Of course that is all just speculation and honestly unless Unity hires someone as awful as Bobby Kotick as the replacement CEO, I think in most cases we'd be better off Unity not being purchased, especially now that JR is gone.
Unity has put itself in a very interesting position... they lost a lot of developer trust by attempting such an overreaching and greedy monetization strategy, that damage is done and if it heals at all, it is going to be over time and hard earned.
Now that the runtime fee is opt in (if it had been all along, this would have been WAYYYYYYYYY less damaging for Unity) for version 2023 LTS and beyond Unity are going to have to work extremely hard to convince people to move beyond the current versions of Unity. This means actually shipping a superior product to the last version that people actually want to use. This is the one silver lining that could come of all this mess. Unity are going to have to work hard to release an appealing product that makes developers want to upgrade, more so than ever before. This kind of focus, instead of focusing on film markets, automotive, etc... is exactly what game developers need.
Anyways, TL;DR:
Yes, I will continue to cover new Unity releases and bundles, just like I always have. It's not up to me to dictate to you what engine you should or shouldn't use, I just present all of the options out there and try to keep you as informed on the world of GameDev as much as possible. I will continue to do this. Like it or not, Unity is still and will continue to be, a huge part of that world.
I'll close thing with a poll to gauge how you all feel about your use of Unity in the future.
Gamefromscratch
New Unity Mega Bundle, My Coverage of Unity going forward and thoughts on the future.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a new (and incredibly quietly launched) Unity 30 for $30 MegaBundle on now:
gamefromscratch.com/unity-30-for-30-mega-bundle-2/
It is actually an exceptionally good bundle for those staying in the Unity ecosystem. Obviously for those unsure about the future of their use of Unity, or those that have left, there is not much here for you.
That said, at the bottom of the linked article above, there are several guides on how you can use/export Unity assets to work with other game engines such as Unreal or Godot or use certain assets with Blender.
Now... why did I do a community post and not a video about this bundle? Simple really, the same reason why Unity didn't even tweet or email about the Bundle... Unity content flies about as well as a lead balloon right now. The comment section of that video would be an absolute mess! Plus, I honestly didn't even know this bundle had launched (due to complete silence from Unity) until a day after it had gone live and I like to be as timely as possible with my reporting.
I do however want you all to know it exists, as that has been my goal all along, thus this community message.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally a quick mention of Unity and Unity content going forward. This is a general game development channel, I cover all news for all engines, and that includes Unity. Right now obviously Unity has a (well earned) black eye and a very negative reputation especially here on YouTube. It is however still a very capable game engine with a massive community of people using it. I am not going to stop covering it because the people that run Unity did something completely greedy and unbelievably stupid. I still personally like Unity even if I don't like the people running it, even though that wouldn't matter for my coverage on the channel.
I am EXTREMELY happy to see that John Riccitiello (CEO and Chairman... so no, not just a sacrificial pawn) is gone, and I hope to see other members of the leadership team removed (especially the IronSource influences). It is very rare to see a board entirely purged and if you do, it's because the company is going under or was acquired. We will probably see more leadership changes over time, especially once a new board chairman (this big boss) and a new CEO (the day to day boss) are chosen, and ideally they aren't the same person this time. Hopefully this results in a different culture and direction at Unity going forward and they get back to focusing on game engine development and less so on market capitalization.
Do I think Unity will go away?
No
Do I think Unity just lost a lot of users?
Yes
Do I think this is going to hurt their bottom line?
Yes
Will Unity continue to be the most popular game engine, at least for the next few years?
Most likely yes
Is Unity itself a good game engine?
Yes (with lots of warts to fix...)
Do I think Unity will be bought?
Not yet, unless it drops deeply in value (sub $10 a share) or gets in more and more trouble. If it does plummet though, Unity will not go away, someone will buy it. My guess of suitors in order are Netflix/Disney (both are pushing hard into gaming), Apple (VR device), Microsoft (they are named all the time... honestly I don't really know what Microsoft would get out of it except to deny a competitor like Apple), Amazon (they tried the whole game engine and game development thing once and they have deeeeeeep pockets). Of course that is all just speculation and honestly unless Unity hires someone as awful as Bobby Kotick as the replacement CEO, I think in most cases we'd be better off Unity not being purchased, especially now that JR is gone.
Unity has put itself in a very interesting position... they lost a lot of developer trust by attempting such an overreaching and greedy monetization strategy, that damage is done and if it heals at all, it is going to be over time and hard earned.
Now that the runtime fee is opt in (if it had been all along, this would have been WAYYYYYYYYY less damaging for Unity) for version 2023 LTS and beyond Unity are going to have to work extremely hard to convince people to move beyond the current versions of Unity. This means actually shipping a superior product to the last version that people actually want to use. This is the one silver lining that could come of all this mess. Unity are going to have to work hard to release an appealing product that makes developers want to upgrade, more so than ever before. This kind of focus, instead of focusing on film markets, automotive, etc... is exactly what game developers need.
Anyways, TL;DR:
Yes, I will continue to cover new Unity releases and bundles, just like I always have. It's not up to me to dictate to you what engine you should or shouldn't use, I just present all of the options out there and try to keep you as informed on the world of GameDev as much as possible. I will continue to do this. Like it or not, Unity is still and will continue to be, a huge part of that world.
I'll close thing with a poll to gauge how you all feel about your use of Unity in the future.
Do you plan to keep using Unity in the future?
2 years ago | [YT] | 483