Unity Technologies, the company behind ridiculously popular proprietary game engine Unity has announced a merger with another company called ironSource which is raising some eyebrows.
The first thing is that Unity has been acquiring a few other companies, but this time their wording is completely different with it being a "merger". Problem is, we don't know what that really means for Unity or game developers as their press release was one of the biggest jumbles of technobabble buzzwords I've ever read. With this coming not long after Unity just sent hundreds of their staff packing, it's likely not going to be received too well.
For those who don't know ironSource, they were behind a piece of software called installCore, an installer that bundled other apps with it. Basically, it was one of those horrible pieces of tech that looked like a proper official installer but it was pretty-much nasty adware / malware and ended up getting a poor reputation (as it was abused) and started getting blocked by Microsoft and others. It's no longer around but it does make the deal between Unity and ironSource look a bit odd. Don't take my word for it either, there's plenty of articles out there about how bad it was, a basic search for "installcore malware" and similar gives lots of details on it (#1, #2, #3).
I do wonder what this means for the future of Unity. If you're a game developer, maybe it's time to consider a free and open source kit like Godot Engine. Just a thought.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: GuestThat's why he said "time to consider"--as in, look at, consider the possibilities of, do some testing, think about trying future projects in. Not "Switch right away on your existing projects".QuoteIf you're a game developer, maybe it's time to consider a free and open source kit like Godot Engine. Just a thought.
Game developers can't just move to a new engine, especially if they're working for a studio.
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I was given this video, from Gamefromscratch, that explains the merge a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ9iQ9jaf2g
Last edited by Creak on 14 July 2022 at 4:44 pm UTC
Last edited by Creak on 14 July 2022 at 4:44 pm UTC
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Quoting: denyasis...
(force the dev to make money?).
...
Yes, I suspect that devs that are now using the free license are going to be forced to make money via ads in their games and that a large portion of that money is going to be going to unity.
It is only a matter of time before the new cost of the "free" license is going to be having to sell one's audience to the highest bidder.
Last edited by emphy on 15 July 2022 at 6:16 am UTC
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Well, to make light of this one piece... InstallCore sounds like a subgenre of Nerdcore. 🤓
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Quoting: Guest. . . None of which makes the comment you were rubbishing any less reasonable.Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: GuestThat's why he said "time to consider"--as in, look at, consider the possibilities of, do some testing, think about trying future projects in. Not "Switch right away on your existing projects".QuoteIf you're a game developer, maybe it's time to consider a free and open source kit like Godot Engine. Just a thought.
Game developers can't just move to a new engine, especially if they're working for a studio.
Projects being released now were greenlit years ago, so maybe Godot will see more adoption in say, 10 years?
Highly doubt studios using Unity will move away from it though.
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I am going to say something completely uninformed here: what if they're trying to position themselves to be the best integration tool for Meta to use in "metaverse"? Think the WebGL stuff they kinda push in Unity's learning programs. Turning the web into a 3D space.
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Also...
So... ironity? Or "Unity Iron" with a logo of a clothes iron melting two things together.
QuoteUnity to 'merge' with ironSource
So... ironity? Or "Unity Iron" with a logo of a clothes iron melting two things together.
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Quoting: 14Also...Either is better than "Iron Unity" which sounds kind of Soviet.
QuoteUnity to 'merge' with ironSource
So... ironity? Or "Unity Iron" with a logo of a clothes iron melting two things together.
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Quoting: Perkeleen_VittupääQuoting: ImantsI was thinking about ditching unity and I tried Godot Engine and after 40h of tinkering I returned to Unity. Mostly I did not like they're scripting language and they're C# integration is not as good as in Unity. Maybe I will check Godot 4 when it comes out but for now Godot 3 it is hard pass for me
Oh no, i was under the impression that Godot is very smooth and pleasant experience, and the only problem is that devs are not aware it exists! Looks like there's a reason for it not getting more then. Not user friendly enough
You should download it and mess around with it. Taking the word from one person on the internet based on their bias and experience seems extremely limited.
My personal experience with it has been nothing but joy. But I also only make small games for my son and I to have fun with. I have spent a lot of hours on it too. In contrast, I tried to create a game in Unity and found it to be so bloated and crashy that it wasn't worth my time. To each their own.
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Quoting: ljrkWell, ironSource built an opensource (!) SDK for installers... this isn't malicious at all. Many viruses used installShield or WinZIP to extract, this doesn't make either technology especially evil.
Further, they don't support this product anymore.
However they *do* focus more on ads which I find problematic indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIjv0f_2UuY
Seems unity employees don't agree with you. Also, the most recent CEO of unity came from EA. Video does a great job laying out what is going on with Unity.
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Quoting: twinsonianInteresting video. The guy is clearly not making an effort to be neutral or dispassionate, mind you, so while the side he's on is a side I instinctively inhabit, I still want to apply a grain or so of salt.Quoting: ljrkWell, ironSource built an opensource (!) SDK for installers... this isn't malicious at all. Many viruses used installShield or WinZIP to extract, this doesn't make either technology especially evil.
Further, they don't support this product anymore.
However they *do* focus more on ads which I find problematic indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIjv0f_2UuY
Seems unity employees don't agree with you. Also, the most recent CEO of unity came from EA. Video does a great job laying out what is going on with Unity.
That said, there are some interesting bits of info and background. Not directly relevant to the merger is the fact that apparently CEO Riccitiello promised everyone that there would be no layoffs, just two weeks before the very recent layoffs of hundreds of employees, and then when queried about it the company released a statement that was not just uberbland HRspeak, but almost went out of its way to avoid acknowledging the idea that the employees involved were people rather than "resources". OK, separate decision, but I think it shows decisively that Riccitiello is a massive lying piece of shit who should not be given the benefit of the doubt about anything he does.
Another little side note about the layoffs--the year before, CEO Riccitiello got a raise of 160% to 22 million bucks a year. I make his raise around 13.5 million. What do you figure the average salary of the people laid off? How many of them would his raise have paid for?
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 17 July 2022 at 5:02 pm UTC
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Craggles086 Jul 18, 2022
Quoting: twinsonianQuoting: ljrkWell, ironSource built an opensource (!) SDK for installers... this isn't malicious at all. Many viruses used installShield or WinZIP to extract, this doesn't make either technology especially evil.
Further, they don't support this product anymore.
However they *do* focus more on ads which I find problematic indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIjv0f_2UuY
Seems unity employees don't agree with you. Also, the most recent CEO of unity came from EA. Video does a great job laying out what is going on with Unity.
Uh... I don't see Unity devs disagreeing with my assertion there. I didn't say that Unity is currently a great place to be, on the contrary. But calling ironSource a malware company is bullshit, but also a claim that I have yet to see from a Unity developer.
What I do see is a video of someone narrating me text articles written by pcgamer or Kotaku, both websites not particularly well-known for being technologically well-versed. Which is indeed proven by things like "ironSource was behind a malware Snapchat installer". Which is simply not true in that form.
I could also say "Visual C++ is behind most Windows exploits because they're written in that language". Or "Microsoft developed the Windows GUI Toolkit used for many Virus software" -- yeah, well.
They developed an open source installer that could embed anything. The End.
Yes, people who can code and want to do malicious things can use this installer to rebundle existing software to distribute malware. That's... really not the kind of thing I'd blame the company providing the code for an installer for.
So much FUD. Which is especially frustrating because there's enough for reasonable concern about Unity. But *that* is not it.
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