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[IbizaPocholo]

Unity Announces Merger With App Monetisation Company ironSource

This merger comes just after Unity laid off hundreds of workers

www.dualshockers.com

Unity, the company behind the game engine of the same name, and ironSource, a software company that specialises in monetising applications, have announced a merger deal.

Under the deal, ironSource will be merging into a “wholly-owned subsidiary of Unity via an all-stock deal.” An all-stock deal is a process whereby shares in ironSource are exchanged for shares in Unity. In this case, each ordinary share of ironSource will become 0.1089 of Unity common stock. Once the merger is finalised, Unity stockholders will hold the majority of stock, 73.5%, and ironSource stockholders will hold the remaining 26.5% (via BusinessWire).

Unity CEO John Riccitiello gave some context on the merger: “We believe the world is a better place with more successful creators in it. The combination of Unity and ironSource better supports creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful apps in gaming and other consumer-facing verticals like e-commerce.”

According to the press release, Unity plans to work together with ironSource in changing game creation into a “deeply connected and interactive” growth process.

The press release contains a lot of jargon and vague promises but essentially a company whose biggest product is its game engine technology and a company that specialises in monetising applications are a natural combination.

 

[STARSBarry]

"IronSource is also well-known for another reason. It developed InstallCore, a wrapper for bundling software installations. If you've searched for a popular program and seen a link to a third-party site with a URL that ended in something like "downloadb.net" or "hdownload.net" it may well have been InstallCore. If you made the mistake of downloading it, you'd be offered the kind of extras with generic names like RegClean Pro and DriverSupport an unsophisticated user might click OK on, which is how you end up with a PC full of toolbars and junk that's as slow as your parents' is. InstallCore was obnoxious enough Windows Defender will stop it running(opens in new tab), and Malwarebytes(opens in new tab) too."

Unity is merging with a company who made a malware installer

Game developers working in Unity aren't pleased about it.

www.pcgamer.com

Oh man people who develop programs used in malware deployment, so much so even windows defender blocks it, my fav.

 

[Skifi28]

I sense great things in the future.

 

[Black_Stride]

I guess Godot, Cry and Unreal will take over indie scene by end of gen.
Unreal give us C# and win this war by a landslide.

And before people laugh off Godot, its been making strides like crazy lately.

 

[winjer]

This could be really bad news. I can already imagine Unity games coming bundled with all sort of bloatware, spyware and other crap like this.

 

[Fredrik]

This could be really bad news. I can already imagine Unity games coming bundled with all sort of bloatware, spyware and other crap like this.

Or it could just make it easier for creative people to earn some money from hobby projects non-creative people think should be free.

 

[Griffon]

Can't they just make a better engine instead of doing retarded shit like that?

 

[Hari Seldon]

Or it could just make it easier for creative people to earn some money from hobby projects non-creative people think should be free.

I mean if you are going to fill projects with bloatware i'm not playing this shit even if free.

 

[Shifty]

Hell yeah baby, Unity's going down the tubes

And before people laugh off Godot, its been making strides like crazy lately.

Being able to render a decent-looking PBR scene nowadays doesn't prevent Godot from being a complete technical dumpster fire under the hood.

If ever there was a poster boy for bugs, inconsistent design and terrible direction, it's Godot. And their PR can placate folks with 'wait for 4.0' until they're blue in the face, that won't do squat for the thousands of users trying to make the damn thing work today.

Source: 2+ years of my life and a surprisingly successful plugin release. The conclusion? Pick a better engine like Bevy and enjoy working in it.

Can't they just make a better engine instead of doing retarded shit like that?

Doing good work isn't very profitable. Better to look at open source if you want software that's genuinely interested in bettering itself (though granted, as per the above, that isn't always guaranteed to succeed).

 

[Fredrik]

I mean if you are going to fill projects with bloatware i'm not playing this shit even if free.

It’s about app monetisation. Could be anything from making it easier for a nobody without a publishing deal to sell an app or to do crowd funding or sell in-app content.

I doubt Unity board sat around and said:
” - You know what Unity really miss? Bloatware. We need to acquire someone who has experience in bloatware.”

 

[winjer]

Or it could just make it easier for creative people to earn some money from hobby projects non-creative people think should be free.

As if installing bloatware and/or malware on consumers, is a ethical notion of making money. Seriously?

 

[Kataploom]

As if installing bloatware and/or malware on consumers, is a ethical notion of making money. Seriously?

You can always avoid it but not using it. Currently, Unity has a Ads package that automatically serves ads within games if a dev decided to use it for monetizing it. I don't know how this deal will result but one can now speculate since they're already using something similar.

 

[DerivedDataCache]

Unreal give us C# and win this war by a landslide.

I see this being mentioned a lot by Unity devs. The concensus is: I dont like visual scripting and C++ too hard.
Epic should be more upfront with devs that an Unreal project is around 90% blueprint and 10% cpp.
Usually used for optimizing AI (if youre doing something bespoke like Days Gone 100+ zombies).

I saw a video comparing Unity and Unreal visual scripting running the same logic and Unity was 3 times slower.

Plus there are so many plugins on the marketplace, written in C++ exposing to BP.
Majority of them are bought by Epic and made free for all. They want you to use them.

 

[The_hunter]

Any notable upcoming games made in unity, apart from Silksong?

This merger is a bit worrisome.

 

[Tripolygon]

"IronSource is also well-known for another reason. It developed InstallCore, a wrapper for bundling software installations. If you've searched for a popular program and seen a link to a third-party site with a URL that ended in something like "downloadb.net" or "hdownload.net" it may well have been InstallCore. If you made the mistake of downloading it, you'd be offered the kind of extras with generic names like RegClean Pro and DriverSupport an unsophisticated user might click OK on, which is how you end up with a PC full of toolbars and junk that's as slow as your parents' is. InstallCore was obnoxious enough Windows Defender will stop it running(opens in new tab), and Malwarebytes(opens in new tab) too."

Unity is merging with a company who made a malware installer

Game developers working in Unity aren't pleased about it.

www.pcgamer.com

Oh man people who develop programs used in malware deployment, so much so even windows defender blocks it, my fav.

Who doesn't like toolbars?

 

[winjer]

You can always avoid it but not using it. Currently, Unity has a Ads package that automatically serves ads within games if a dev decided to use it for monetizing it. I don't know how this deal will result but one can now speculate since they're already using something similar.

You really don't understand what ironcore does?

 

[Kataploom]

You really don't understand what ironcore does?

I don't, because of that I don't fear anything now, but I'll see while I get updates. Unity put everything non essential to optional downloadable packages btw, the "bloat" is moved for those that REALLY need it, so unless there's something else to fear, I'll just wait for now

 

[winjer]

I don't, because of that I don't fear anything now, but I'll see while I get updates. Unity put everything non essential to optional downloadable packages btw, the "bloat" is moved for those that REALLY need it, so unless there's something else to fear, I'll just wait for now

You can't be that naïve.

 

[Fredrik]

As if installing bloatware and/or malware on consumers, is a ethical notion of making money. Seriously?

This is what the news say:

“We believe the world is a better place with more successful creators in it. The combination of Unity and ironSource better supports creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful apps in gaming and other consumer-facing verticals like e-commerce.”

Maybe wait and see what it’s about instead of going with the worst possible scenario.

 

[bender]

 

[winjer]

This is what the news say:

“We believe the world is a better place with more successful creators in it. The combination of Unity and ironSource better supports creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful apps in gaming and other consumer-facing verticals like e-commerce.”

Maybe wait and see what it’s about instead of going with the worst possible scenario.

You can't distinguish PR from reality?

Do you really think that a multi billion merger with a company that bundles bloatware and malware, will result in good things for gamers?

 

[Fredrik]

Do you really think that a multi billion merger with a company that bundles bloatware and malware, will result in good things for gamers?

Do you really think that Unity does a multi billion merger to add bloatware and malware into their engine?

 

[winjer]

Do you really think that Unity does a multi billion merger to add bloatware and malware into their engine?

Yes. Just look at how the gaming industry works, and you'll realize it's not that far fetched.

Why would they spend 6 billion dollars in this merger? To have it sitting around?
Of course not. They plan to shove all kinds of bloatware and malware into games.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Isn’t subnautica made with unity? This sounds extra bad to me then

 

[Shifty]

You can't distinguish PR from reality?

Do you really think that a multi billion merger with a company that bundles bloatware and malware, will result in good things for gamers?

Do you really think that Unity does a multi billion merger to add bloatware and malware into their engine?

Profitability and quality outcomes for the underlying software are not mutually inclusive concepts. In fact, they're orthogonal more often than not.

They merged because it made business sense to do so, not because of some conspiracy to inject more bloatware into games, and sure as shit not because of the fluffy platitudes found in the accompanying PR statement.

If you want a half sane prediction, this will push Unity further in the direction of mobile games because codified monetization tools thrive in that space. Bad for the players because the probability of distasteful monetization goes up, but arguably good for the indie dev scene in the long term because it decreases Unity's relevance to 'core' games and makes space for better designed software to fill that gap.

Now can the squabbling you two or I'm turning this questionably-sourced asset flip of a car back around.

 

[\m/etalStorm]

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

He is right. Videogames are a business first and foremost

 

[StateofMajora]

Gaming gets better and better

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Shifty]

Yeah it's a mess.
For photorealistic 3D games there's Unreal, and for mobile 3D games there's Unity.
For high resolution 2D there's Unity, and for pixel art most people just use GameMaker.

Godot has no chance competing against those engines.
It's mostly used by hobbyists and game jam enthusiasts.

Even MonoGame/FNA (that is just a framework) is used more often by professional developers than Godot (e.g. Stardew Vallew, Fez, Celeste, Streets of Rage 4, Axiom Verge, etc)

Case in point, I sunk about two hours today trying to figure out why nested viewports (ex. the 3D window in an editor UI) don't get any input by default, despite the doco claiming they're set up to do all the nice local-space mouse position transforms for you.
Surprise surprise, it's because the 'ViewportContainer' node designed specifically to do that has its 'make this element eat mouse events' setting quietly enabled by default.
Something that would be a one-line override behind the scenes if the designers had thought about it for just a second.



I think you're on the money about the userbase - it presents as an approachable and accessible engine so attracts a more casual crowd.
Which is fine, but makes the mess all the worse since that kind of user isn't necessarily going to be able to recognize something that's an engine problem rather than an issue with their code.

And yet few seem to care - despite all of that and more (which i won't get into for fear of writing an unreadable page-filler), I still see new users picking up 3.x, drinking the kool aid, and getting hype for 4.x fixing all of their problems when it finally comes.
Makes me think there must be a crazy latent hunger for a truly excellent out-of-the-box engine in the scene - one that isn't beset with technical jank, Unity's rep issues, Unreal's perceived complexity, or Godot's... Godot-ness.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Shifty]

The only other engine I know that is around the same level is probably Defold (by King -- acquired by Activison, then Microsoft)
But I have never used it, so I don't know how good it is. It seems to be focused on mobile games development.

Defold Product Overview

Defold is a turn-key solution, providing everything you need to build a game. Learn about the major features of the engine on this product page. Make sure to also check the Learn pages for additional and more detailed information.

defold.com

Other than that, I suppose just using a framework like MonoGame or Raylib as the foundation is the only way to have some perfect "engine" for whatever project the developer wants to complete.

Aye I've heard of Defold, though never really looked into it. The feature set looks solid, though I've seen so many gussied up Buy Our Software websites that they just wash over me at this point

Frameworks are the way to go I'd say - I use Godot for work, but ended up reaching breaking point with it and saying "fuck it, i'll make my own" for my personal stuff a while back. I don't think I have the capacity to let another editor-first engine into my life after that.

Ended up going through six wildly different (but all working!) implementations before realising that Bevy was essentially doing the same thing only with way more people and a lead maintainer whose head is screwed on straight:

Bevy Engine

Bevy is a refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open-source forever!

bevyengine.org

So far it's great, and surprisingly full-featured for something at version 0.7. I now get why everyone is gradually pushing toward the ECS model; being able to grab whatever data you want without needing to navigate any arbitrary program structure is a massive game changer.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[lyan]

Bevy Engine

Bevy is a refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open-source forever!

bevyengine.org

....in Rust

 

[ReBurn]

Who doesn't like toolbars?

I miss the good old days

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[lyan]

Is Rust that bad?

More that making games is not what it is designed for. And even if you managed to bend it (/borrow checker, or your mind) to work your way, you are going to have a hard time finding others to collaborate with.

 

[Shifty]

Is Rust that bad?

It's the best general-purpose systems language that exists right now, full stop. There isn't another one out there that goes out of its way to help the user write watertight code.

Haskell is the only language I'd consider comparable in terms of using Very Clever machinery to make sure that if your program compiles it will work, but that one's pure functional instead of mixed-discipline, and requires a degree in category theory to really be productive with.

To give a basic example, where C++ would yell something incomprehensible at you about illegal memory access at XYZ address before core dumping, Rust catches that at compile time (as you're writing the code, if you've got a swish IDE) and gives you precise feedback about exactly which part would do something bad, often with a suggestion on how to fix it. It's on a whole other level.

The learning wall is pretty tasty if you're already trained on the C-like concepts that most languages derive from, but it's so worth it. I'm not exaggerating when I say it reinvigorated my love for programming after years of dissatisfaction with various other options - I'd recommend it to anyone.

More that making games is not what it is designed for. And even if you managed to bend it (/borrow checker, or your mind) to work your way, you are going to have a hard time finding others to collaborate with.

No programming language outside of domain-specific things like Unreal's Blueprint or Godot's GDScript is designed for making games. And both of those are arguably worse at it than one that's designed first and foremost around being a great language instead of providing easy access to ecosystem-specific niceties.

And it's not about bending the borrow checker. It's about writing programs that don't have fundamental soundness issues.
Every time Rust puts up the stop sign where another language would give you a pass is because you've written code that will break if used wrong. Breakages that, at some point later down the line, are going to cost you hours of painful debugging that would have been better spent modeling the problem correctly.

In short: It's telling you to improve your software design, not encouraging you to cheat past a strict board of judges.

Collab-wise, 'less' is relative. Approachable ecosystems like Godot are absolutely swamped with folks looking to knock out a game jam, but finding someone genuinely skilled to work with is like finding a needle in a haystack. Rust may have less people overall, but the ones that do exist are more likely to be good at it.

And that besides, finding other programmers to collab with isn't the be-all-end-all for everyone. I personally don't care - there are enough ideas and abstractions knocking around in my own head to keep me going solo for as long as I please, so having a genuinely helpful language with which to realize them is a huge boon.