<story><title>Gamedevs not baking in monetization are “fucking idiots”, says Unity CEO</title><url>https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/79190/unity-ironsource-john-riccitiello-marc-whitten-merger/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>OskarS</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think the full context does him any favors. The way he talks of gamedevs that are not engaging in predatory behaviour (&amp;quot;beautiful and pure, brilliant people&amp;quot;) is incredibly condescending. Like, &amp;quot;yes children, once you grow up you&amp;#x27;ll realize how foolish your idealism has been and you&amp;#x27;ll stuff your game full of gems you can overpay for!&amp;quot;. These are his customers he&amp;#x27;s talking about. And later talking about &amp;quot;compulsion loops&amp;quot;... just, no.&lt;p&gt;Unity used to be famous for being the game engine of choice for creative indies. Games like Hollow Knight, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Ori and the Blind Forest. It seems to me very clear that Riccitello has no understanding of the value of tools for making games like that. He sees Unity as a way of pumping out endless shitty Candy Crush clones stuffed with predatory microtransactions.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: by the way, for the full context, this is the question he&amp;#x27;s answering:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Implementing monetisation earlier in the process and conversation is certainly an angle that has seen pushback from some developers.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The pushback the question is referring to is developers being disappointed in the ironSource merger. He&amp;#x27;s literally being asked about Unity focusing too much on microtransactions and ad technology, and in his answer to the question he refers to his critics (which, again, are his customers!) as &amp;quot;fucking idiots&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;This guy should not be in charge of Unity.</text></item><item><author>morley</author><text>The full quote for context:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives. It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with – they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They’re also some of the biggest fucking idiots.&lt;p&gt;Their CEO is certainly not calling everyone an idiot, just that there are some in that group of people. And personally, I greatly prefer this sort of frank talk to run-of-the-mill generic PR speak that usually comes from CEO interviews.&lt;p&gt;The next thing he says in the interview:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I’ve been in the gaming industry longer than most anybody – getting to the grey hair and all that. It used to be the case that developers would throw their game over the wall to the publicist and sales force with literally no interaction beforehand. That model is baked into the philosophy of a lot of artforms and medium, and it’s one I am deeply respectful of; I know their dedication and care.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crayboff</author><text>I haven&amp;#x27;t seen much of what he says in general so I don&amp;#x27;t know if he has a really antagonistic trend in his he talks.&lt;p&gt;I interpreted what he said to mean &amp;quot;I have respect for devs who approach this for just the art, but if you don&amp;#x27;t consider monetization into your design from the beginning, you are self sabotaging your chance at business success&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;He just said that with less politically correct talk, which is easily taken out of context.&lt;p&gt;Also there&amp;#x27;s this assumption in this thread and in HN in general that &amp;quot;monetization&amp;quot; always means bleeding people out of their money. Sure much of the industry does that, but I don&amp;#x27;t think that has to be the case</text></comment>
<story><title>Gamedevs not baking in monetization are “fucking idiots”, says Unity CEO</title><url>https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/79190/unity-ironsource-john-riccitiello-marc-whitten-merger/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>OskarS</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think the full context does him any favors. The way he talks of gamedevs that are not engaging in predatory behaviour (&amp;quot;beautiful and pure, brilliant people&amp;quot;) is incredibly condescending. Like, &amp;quot;yes children, once you grow up you&amp;#x27;ll realize how foolish your idealism has been and you&amp;#x27;ll stuff your game full of gems you can overpay for!&amp;quot;. These are his customers he&amp;#x27;s talking about. And later talking about &amp;quot;compulsion loops&amp;quot;... just, no.&lt;p&gt;Unity used to be famous for being the game engine of choice for creative indies. Games like Hollow Knight, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Ori and the Blind Forest. It seems to me very clear that Riccitello has no understanding of the value of tools for making games like that. He sees Unity as a way of pumping out endless shitty Candy Crush clones stuffed with predatory microtransactions.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: by the way, for the full context, this is the question he&amp;#x27;s answering:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Implementing monetisation earlier in the process and conversation is certainly an angle that has seen pushback from some developers.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The pushback the question is referring to is developers being disappointed in the ironSource merger. He&amp;#x27;s literally being asked about Unity focusing too much on microtransactions and ad technology, and in his answer to the question he refers to his critics (which, again, are his customers!) as &amp;quot;fucking idiots&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;This guy should not be in charge of Unity.</text></item><item><author>morley</author><text>The full quote for context:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives. It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with – they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They’re also some of the biggest fucking idiots.&lt;p&gt;Their CEO is certainly not calling everyone an idiot, just that there are some in that group of people. And personally, I greatly prefer this sort of frank talk to run-of-the-mill generic PR speak that usually comes from CEO interviews.&lt;p&gt;The next thing he says in the interview:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I’ve been in the gaming industry longer than most anybody – getting to the grey hair and all that. It used to be the case that developers would throw their game over the wall to the publicist and sales force with literally no interaction beforehand. That model is baked into the philosophy of a lot of artforms and medium, and it’s one I am deeply respectful of; I know their dedication and care.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zero_</author><text>Godot seems to gain popularity. Maybe it has a chance to become the choice for indies.</text></comment>