John Riccitiello (Unity Technologies CEO) and Marc Whitten (Senior Vice president and General manager of Unity Create), were interviewed regarding the upcoming Unity-ironSource merger. This merger follows the recent aquisition of Weta Digital in November 2021. It was during the interview that Mr. Riccitiello made a very bold statement after they were asked about implementing monetization earlier in the process of game development to which he provided some compliments along with a very blunt criticism as well.
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.
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.
But this industry divides people between those who still hold to that philosophy and those who massively embrace how to figure out what makes a successful product. And I don’t know a successful artist anywhere that doesn’t care about what their player thinks. This is where this cycle of feedback comes back, and they can choose to ignore it. But to choose to not know it at all is not a great call.
I’ve seen great games fail because they tuned their compulsion loop to two minutes when it should have been an hour. Sometimes, you wouldn’t even notice the product difference between a massive success and tremendous fail, but for this tuning and what it does to the attrition rate. There isn’t a developer on the planet that wouldn’t want that knowledge.
Since the controversial statement regarding monetization was made in the interview various outlets have reported on it and, as usual, memes about it have also begun to appear on social media triggering a response from Mr. Riccitiello.
Clickbait. Out of full context. Deeply sorry if what I said offended any game dev. Absolutely love the people that make games. Creative, hard work. #Unity
— John Riccitiello (@johnriccitiello) July 15, 2022
Monetization in games continues to be a hot topic among gamers and depending on how they are implemented, government leaders as well.
Source: PocketGamer.biz (via VGC)
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →That's... a ... mistake.
On one hand, yeah, you don't call your customer base idiots.
On the other hand, he has a point...
Sadly. For evidence, look no further than the battle royal games that came out with strong monetization early on that are wildly successful. Or look at the MMO's like Star Wars The Old Republic and Star Trek Online that literally switched from the WoW monthly subscriber model to supporting themselves via a cash shop. The one for Star Trek Online is spectacularly predatory. It's not pay to win exactly, but it skirts the lines more than any other cash shop I've ever seen. It's also ludicrously expensive.
This guy sounds like he ran EA or something.
or UBI
Just because it is a successful model for some doesn't mean everybody should do the same thing.
I think these cash shops are sustained by a handful of whales, the rest doesn't interact with it or just minimally. They are leaving half of the market untapped if all they do is this crap.
I mean how many examples do they need of decent anticipated single player games with no predatory monetization selling millions of copies?
This CEO is the type of guy like that artesian builds idiot.
Idk that this unity dude is saying everyone needs predatory cash shops — he’s just saying devs need to put more thought into monetization (and since his company is buying an ad-based monetization platform it’s also a plug for that)
Which approach makes more money overall? It seems obvious its the microtransactions. I don't know if it's "half the market" they are leaving untapped.
Which approach makes more money, raising cattle, or planting grain fields? Doesn't mean every farmer should be doing the one thing that has the potential to be more profitable. (because not every predatory game becomes a cash dispenser)
I hate the fact that every publication is touting around diablo immortal as a bloody sword that killed traditional games, when it made much less money since it's release than a proper diablo game would've made in days.
Besides there are only so many of these games the market can support before they start cutting into each other's revenue. Unlike quality single player games, for which there is always demand for.
I think that's exactly what he is saying. As far as I'm concerned anything beyond the initial buy in price is predatory monetization in a game. Member when Mass Effect 3 came out and everyone was upset about day-0 DLCs? And now here we are with some trying to justify in game cash shops, oh how far we have fallen.
Reading the article he is saying extending the satisfaction loop. More grind more money... which makes zero sense to me unless we're talking about an mmo.
Unity is going to sell in-game advertising, keep most of the cash, and give the developers a slice. Scumbag wants to be the Google of gaming.
It doesn't make sense even for an MMO, how long the gameplay loop is does not determine whether a game is enjoyable or not. But of course he is not talking about enjoyment is he? He purely views games as products and the measure of success is not how much it is praised and how many people like it, but how much money can it squeeze out of the hapless idiots who spend real money to get ahead in a game.
Well, when your business is making video games, yeah. That is how he should be looking at it.
Is it a shame? Maybe. If you don’t like the product don’t buy it and they will change their ways.
Do you think a novelist views their latest book as just a product? No it is an art form, if you are making a product you should not be in entertainment but making screws in a factory, that's a product.
I have never bought any of it, didn't help thus far. So, yeah I'm speaking out against it everywhere I can. Because if you just ignore it and do nothing they have already won. Every time we were able to push back was because we spoke out, vote with your wallets doesn't do shit.