Unity up for sale?!

[superm18]

Found this article http://www.cnet.com/news/unity-one-gaming-development-platform-to-unite-them-all-up-for-sale/

If it gets sold, what will it mean for KSP? and games in general, since so many are Unity based?

On a side note, if you had the money and know-how, would you buy it?

[Athlonic]

EA will buy Unity.

Then KSP will switch to Unreal Engine 4.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

EA will buy Unity.

Then KSP will switch to Unreal Engine 4.

Probably literally the only thing that would cause Squad to change engines is if Unity shut down completely, and even then they would probably just stick with the current engine. Changing engines would essentially mean having to re-do the entire game from what it sounds like.

[eataTREE]

The only reason a sale would mean obvious bad things for Unity is if the buyer were someone like Epic who has a competing product like the Unreal Engine. Otherwise, whoever buys Unity will continue to maintain and develop it, which could be a good thing if the buyer has lots of money and resources to throw at it (Google). This might lead to future annoyances in terms of long-term development (Unity 6, now with mandatory Google App Store integration!), but it's a little early to worry about that.

The whole reason Unity is for sale is that it's very valuable. One doesn't buy a goose that lays golden eggs to cook it for dinner.

[superm18]

EA will buy Unity.

Then KSP will switch to Unreal Engine 4.

That's not even funny!

[Cydonian Monk]

If I had $2+BB, the last thing I'd spend it on is something like Unity. Low ROI potential, unless you want to make licensing it too expensive for it to be relevant.

That aside, a sale might be good, might be bad. Short term shouldn't affect KSP. Long term... if whoever buys it shuts it down (like Google tends to do) or reassigns the programmers that know the source to some other project, then bug fixes and support for new/changing OS environments would be a concern.

[Franklin]

Found this article http://www.cnet.com/news/unity-one-gaming-development-platform-to-unite-them-all-up-for-sale/

"We're a game-designing platform, but people think game design's for nerds. How do I come off hip and trendy to potential clients in our promotional video?"

"I unno, dress like the frat guys who picked on you in college?"

[Alewx]

To me it does not sound good.

[GusTurbo]

"We're a game-designing platform, but people think game design's for nerds. How do I come off hip and trendy to potential clients in our promotional video?"

"I unno, dress like the frat guys who picked on you in college?"

http://cnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/08/24/9d29aa26-8e5c-4a45-a3b7-ff41935bf03f/resize/370xauto/660a732df6fa98cb53da80dd59e4b2bf/screen-shot-2014-08-24-at-12-33-12-pm.png

Whoa, that's not a good look.

[OrbitusII]

To me it does not sound good.

Yeah, especially if Google acquires it. I'm sick of them eating up everything in sight like they have been over the past couple years. For example, has anyone seen any new updates from Boston Dynamics recently? I know that I haven't.

[Caelib]

If EA buys Unity I am going to jump off a bridge.

[problemecium]

Nah.

Make the EA staff walk the plank. Much more productive, and also you get to live ;P

[jduchock]

Unity's main platform is phone and tablet, so it would be a good buy for EA...

...however, if they actually do make the purchase, i expect that bug fixes will be sold as add-on packages..

[Sky_walker]

Yeah, especially if Google acquires it. I'm sick of them eating up everything in sight like they have been over the past couple years. For example, has anyone seen any new updates from Boston Dynamics recently? I know that I haven't.

Well then. Facebook is next in the queue.

Just imagine the announcement: Unity 5+ with mandatory social media integration in every game!

[sedativechunk]

I'm a Unity developer and this news kind of scares me. I did not hear about this and one thing is, I like Unity the way it is now. It is a very tight woven community and the entire platform, well, it's very "fair" in terms of licensing and so forth. You don't have to just be a developer to enjoy it. People can make "assets" for games including models, graphics, sounds, music, animations, and etc. and sell them on their asset store which is really cool and saves time when developing games.

I fear if someone else buys them out, they are going to change their policies, make the software more expensive/harder to acquire, and the quality of the Unity software package for developing games will go down as a whole. If another business/company does buy them out, they better keep it the same and not try to change something that is not broken.

I want to add on to the Google argument; for the love of god, I pray that Google does NOT buy out Unity. I do like Google and use their products, but they are also a dirty business at heart (especially with their adword campaigns where all their revenue comes from, adwords IMHO is an enormous ripoff and waste of money and I don't know how or why people keep sending on it). They have bought one too many tech/IT start ups already. If they buy out Unity, then they will most likely water it down (for the casuals) and force their branding and "Google account" system into every ounce of it. Them and Microsoft can go suck it.

[TimberWolffe]

What would be good is if instead of a Google takeover, it was a Google Development Investment, a thing they do which is basically the whole theory of "THROW MONEY AT IT UNTIL IT WORKS". Then again, Google is an evil organisation hellbent on world domination and creating interplanetary super weapons. Meh, they have money

[Shisouka]

Maybe its the result of Microsoft releasing "Project Spark" .. ? This little tool is following the "free to play" concept. Guess Unity cant compete with that without driving off its community.

[Sky_walker]

Maybe its the result of Microsoft releasing "Project Spark" .. ? This little tool is following the "free to play" concept. Guess Unity cant compete with that without driving off its community.

No... not even in a slightest. These two are completely unrelated.

If anything - it's Crytek releasing CryEngine for free* - but even then I doubt it was actually what made them to choose selling the business. Either it's not really as profitable as they wanted it to be, or they want to repeat success of many other companies making their owners multi-millionaires through such sales.

*T&Cs apply

[O-Doc]

Do we have a link for this presentation? I trust CNET as far as, well, you know.

[jwenting]

Unity's main platform is phone and tablet, so it would be a good buy for EA...

...however, if they actually do make the purchase, i expect that bug fixes will be sold as add-on packages..

if EA buys Unity, more likely they'll discontinue it as a commercial offering and use it internally only...

[MGCJerry]

Uh oh... Sad news. Whenever something like this goes up for sale, its almost always destroyed by whoever buys it. But whatever it takes in the name of patents, & assets. How many times has something gone up for sale, only for the flagship product to "disappear" or be discontinued leaving its users behind, only then to find it used in some capacity in a much more expensive product. *Cough* Adobe, EA, Google Inc, Microsoft. But if EA gets it, don't be surprised if "you killed Jeb, you can get him back for $2", "new DLC, $15"...

The day the KSP requires something like an online account (google+, microsoft whatever, EA whatever, etc) just to play it, is the day I walk away from it and stick to the old versions provided they aren't time-bombed.

I remain hopeful of a decent sale (with the users in mind too), but I'm not optimistic.

[Albert VDS]

Since when should we believe something which includes "Sources say" and not providing any actual proof?