Unity nuked their Terms of Service on GitHub as 'views were so low'

The current saga of Unity is not quite over yet, as they're still trying to clean up developer concerns after the botched announcement of the Runtime Fee. One bit currently in the spotlight is their Terms of Service and how they previously pulled the rug from developers.

In a previous article I touched on their TOS but to refresh - in 2019 they told developers very clearly:

When you obtain a version of Unity, and don’t upgrade your project, we think you should be able to stick to that version of the TOS.

In practice, that is only possible if you have access to bug fixes. For this reason, we now allow users to continue to use the TOS for the same major (year-based) version number, including Long Term Stable (LTS) builds that you are using in your project.

Moving forward, we will host TOS changes on Github to give developers full transparency about what changes are happening, and when. The link is https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/TermsOfService.

They later removed that GitHub, stopping their transparency and entirely replaced their TOS with a newer version that completely removed that protection for developers to stick with the terms they accepted for their current version of Unity.

Now they are telling developers as of their latest announcement, that again:

We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version.

And they have now restored that GitHub page but the history on it is gone, as they've started fresh with the current terms, although we can still see previous history on it thanks to the archive on the Wayback Machine.

So why did they really remove it? Their newer terms came in on October 13, 2022 so it was quite some time before the newer Runtime Fee announcement. So likely not directly related. The problem is with their promises, the "trust me bro, we really won't do it again, promise" argument they're giving. What assurances do developers actually have that they won't change the TOS on them again to remove protections? There's not really anything.

Making matters worse, on X/Twitter when replying to a developer asking for a clear answer on how they will guarantee this their questionable and rather laughable reply was:

I totally hear your frustration!❤️
Just to echo what Marc said, we are so sorry for our earlier actions.

Genuinely disappointed at how our removal of the ToS has been framed across the internet. We removed it way before the pricing change was announced because the views were so low, not because we didn't want people to see it.

And we have heard the concerns from the community about ToS loud and clear. This new Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. And Marc's response is true, you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity you are using as long as you keep using that version.

We do have a fireside chat ongoing with Marc where he will answer some Q's live, if you aren't happy with my answer, we welcome your attendance and questions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyLcI5O9iUY

I honestly can't believe this is a real post from Unity, but it is. They removed a clear, public and transparent legal document they weren't even hosting directly because the views were low. This isn't a YouTube video, this is legal documentation. It absolutely wasn't because they didn't want developers to clearly see the terms being changed to remove the protection of sticking with the terms of each Unity version was it? No, it can't be that of course, it's because views were low.

Don't worry, just trust Unity, they're totally not going to pull any of this again.