Whether it was Fall Guys, Cities: Skylines, or the uber-difficult Cuphead, odds are you’ve probably played or at least dipped your toes into a game that uses the Unity engine at some point.
Given just how many titles use the company’s software, it’s not that surprising that when it recently announced plans to begin charging developers and studios for each time someone downloads a game built using the Unity engine, the reaction within the industry wasn’t positive.
After some developers went as far as suggesting they might delete their games from storefronts if the changes come into force as planned on January 1, 2024, Unity has since attempted to clarify what they would entail. However, this hasn’t stopped someone from cheekily taking a shot at the company’s CEO via Wikipedia.
What have you thought of this week’s Unity Runtime Fees controversy?
The Wikipedia page for the concept of greed begins:
Greed (or avarice) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as undesirable throughout known human history because it creates behaviour-conflict between personal and social goals.
If you read that definition yesterday, there’s a good chance that you saw a picture of Unity CEO John Riccitiello sitting alongside it, accompanied by the caption: “John Riccitiello, one of the greediest people alive.”
While the page now looks to have been restored to its original state, with a painting of a scene from the New Testament having taken the place of the ex-EA boss, the cheeky edit can still be appreciated via the Wayback Machine.
As reported by Eurogamer, Riccitiello sold 2,000 shares in Unity on September 6, with the timing of this and similar moves by other key figures at the company having aroused some suspicions among developers.
In a recent Tweet, Unity acknowledged “the confusion and frustration” that its policy change has caused among developers and asserted that: “more than 90% of our customers will not be affected by this change.”
Make sure to follow us for more updates on Unity’s planned fee changes and coverage of some of the games the plans could potentially affect.