Unity has blocked SpatialOS - What's up and what it means for us
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Let's hope it doesn't kill us and will make us stronger!
If Unity doesn't change their stand then maybe SpatialOS will change the engine without changing anything else. That would just mean we'd have to wait a bit and that's it.a word from Unity:
Our response to Improbable’s blog post (and why you can keep working on your SpatialOS game)
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@specter said in Unity has blocked SpatialOS - What's up and what it means for us:
If Fractured were to switch to a different engine, it would set the development of Fractured back by 2 years because the devs would effectively have to start over again(...)
Most of the graphical and animation assets could be reused with some degree of assimilation to UE and a good deal of the logic that resembles around SpatialOS should be modular. And while the developers would have to learn the ropes of UE, I'm sure that a considerable amount of cash from the UE-SpatialOS fund would allow them to hire/outsource some in the meantime, right?
That said, have Prometheus and his team taken up the contact offer by Unity? And if so, what was the response?
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As in this Thread linked Arstechnica has a good summary of the case.
Hmm... 25 Mille fund for a move, could this be something for your guys @Prometheus ?
If i think about more deep, it could be in the end something good for developers in early states of their game.
I am sure you will inspect all the possibilities and chose the one you can best live with.Btw. someone else who smells another weird thing, that Unreal is jumping into the ring?
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@logain From what I understand, Fractured's code would pretty much have to be rewritten completely if they were to switch engines.
I don't know what Prometheus is planning to do. He's still very busy trying to figure it all out.
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Well that stinks.... Good luck
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@specter well unity is c# and unreal is c++ so yes there should be huge differences, I guess it's not full rewrite but almost.
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I really hope that the situation will revert back, but on today's market such decisions made by such big companies are hardly "casual".
Unity knows that profit come with that kind of serivce and want it for itself, developing its own version of SpatialOS (probably) and preventing any third part to make some money out of it without paying them.At this point I hope that whatever will come, will be ready fast in order to allow Fractured's team to shift without putting too much delay on the game's release.
If a new opt will not come soon the skyrocketed cost of several servers or the need to restart almost from scratch the development of Fractured will probably be its own demise.Best luck to you guys! I hope everything will be fine in the end and we can all enjoy playing this game.
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Improbable gave a new final statement right now:
https://improbable.io/company/news/2019/01/11/improbable-a-final-statement-on-spatialos-and-unity
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Finger crossed! Wish you luck
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Let's hope :3
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Oh No!
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@specter That's very concerning, I sure hope it doesn't come to that.
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Getting funds to switch UE4 sounds nice, but I am sure in the small print it will say the game must be Epic Store exclusive.
Not that I am against Epic store, although I am not a fan how aggressive they try to take their spot in the market. But I think it's always better to have a game being sold in as many places as possible is always better to get the most sales.
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What an announcment to wake up to. Thank you for keeping us informed and I wish you guys good luck this gets resolved fast. What a bummer
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I know this is a tough time, but I would highly recommend you keep the players informed at all times. Even a steady stream of minor info can keep a solid player base.
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@genobee said in Unity has blocked SpatialOS - What's up and what it means for us:
Out of curiosity are there any other engines you could consider using? I'm aware that would cause massive delays, but in a worst case scenario is that at least possible?
Moving to the Unreal Engine would be possible in a "worst-case scenario", as you defined it. It would require raising substantial new capital though (possibly through this newly established fund), and would anyway set us back more than 1 year... and mind that 1 year is just the development time, not considering what it takes to find the right people to hire.
@solaris said in Unity has blocked SpatialOS - What's up and what it means for us:
This should be good news for Fractured:
Unity’s response. https://blogs.unity3d.com/es/2019/01/10/our-response-to-improbables-blog-post-and-why-you-can-keep-working-on-your-spatialos-game/Unity's response doesn't mean much. Revoking Improbable's licenses prevents them from developing their Unity integration and supporting the developers who use that. Also, their new TOS are still dangerous for any company offering the use of Unity as a server - it's silly they claim the TOS don't mean what they obviously mean.
That being said, I'd like to thank all of you for your unwavering support once again. In such a difficult moment as developers, it feels great to know the community has your back!
We have no updates on the topic for now - whatever is going on between Unity and Improbable is confidential. We're pretty sure we'll hear big news next week, good or bad. In the meantime, we keep working as usual! Lots of new spells and the land claiming / building systems are shaping up right now
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Good to hear and keep up the good work! I really hope we get good news next week!
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Thank you Jacopo for your update about the case.
Head and Keep up! 
I am not sure how Unity is able to clear up things with a totally new TOS.
Either they rethink about the cloudpart or they need to tell truth in TOS, that they don't want other Clouds than their own.
I really don't like business behaviours in this kind.
Improbable is emotional and it is mentioned again and again by the press as if it would be something bad, i would been emotional too when i see my business vision cumbling.
I think, even when Improbable and Unity negotiated long before unsuccessful, it does not mean, that we know who is "guilty".
I just wonder, IF both sides knew long before about, why none of them informed ever their Customers, the Developer?
In this reason i tend to think about a small business war, that we now have to sit out, if we want or not.
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@prometheus let's hope it's just some idiot who though he'll got smart and use TOS to get more money from Improbable. And now the whole cat is out they'll trying to cover it up and fix it.
As some people says this looks very bad for Unity because starting any project now is risky if they change TOS later that much.
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Well, before next week we will not see how they want to clear up their TOS.
