TLDR; Unity retroactively changed their terms of service, now requiring developers to pay them $0.20 per app install unless we use their ad network. This pricing structure is hostile to developers and we don’t make that much revenue per user of our free apps built on Unity.

Fncore will no longer use Unity to develop games going forward. We will not use software from organizations that do not respect us or our fellow indie developers.

There is an implicit social contract in the software development world: respect the dignity of users and developers. Unity has broken this contract in the pursuit of profit at the expense of community.

The strength of a platform is its vibrant community and users, not the controlling entity. We will choose to do business with entities which have communities based on respect and building cool shit.

We will rewrite Trombonest and new upcoming titles in Godot.

McHoops was written in Swift / ARKit which was a joy to develop. We are also happy to announce that we will be making prototypes in Godot and Unreal Engine for new Augmented Reality projects going forward.

There are many benefits to Godot and Unreal over Unity. It’s nice to be able to read engine source code and not have to worry about whether the engine will go rogue and trade the hiding of tainted splash screens for our dignity.

trade-offer

Despite Unity being a closed source engine, we can clearly see the source code of Unity’s owners who seek to maximize profit at the expense of relationships with the community.

Unity has not backtracked from attempting to strongarm developers and has since doubled down and engaged in more manipulation tactics to get developers to capitulate and accept them as their overlord.

We simply say no, we do not agree to these terms of service and we cease to do business with Unity.

Michael Norris, CEO of Fncore.

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