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With Unreal becoming the Chrome of the game engine world, Unity dying a slow death triggered by their corporate overlords, I can't help but feel like it's a mat

With Unreal becoming the Chrome of the game engine world, Unity dying a slow death triggered by their corporate overlords, I can't help but feel like it's a matter of time until they become the bad guys. I don't want them to, just seems like the circle of life.

ljm 2y ago
They don't have to be bad guys to be at the forefront of a growing monoculture, precisely because Unity shit the bed and the remaining competition for indie devs tapers off. I love Godot for game dev, but it's not the full stack package, and last time I checked it wasn't great for 3D, but it's basically the best you have short of modding Doom. RPG Maker and Adventure Game Studio corner the market on a niche genre of pixel-art RPGs and point-and-clicks if you want to stay 2D. It's expensive to build a new engine from scratch, especially when Unreal says it can cross-build to PC, Xbox, PS4/PS5, Switch, Mobile, etc. The problem is that making a generic does-anything engine means it can't be optimal, and more and more these days studios are using the engine but don't understand how to optimise within it. So now you're downloading shader caches from Steam because you can pull a pre-compiled shader across the network faster than it will build at runtime, and you still expect the game to run smooth as butter. I build shit for the web, and this is the exact trade-off you make when you, say, choose Rails for your server over a more hands-on setup. I can spin up web apps in Rails with my eyes closed, it's that easy, but the performance has a high floor.
getcrunk 2y ago
It would be cool if companies in their position make two versions of their products. One continues on this trajectory that {adds bloat | becomes more modern} and another that prioritizes avoiding performance regression by a few metrics.
darknavi 2y ago
Luckily there are still loads of games using their own engine tech out there, but the pool is shrinking.
echelon 2y ago
I wouldn't worry. This cool tech looks mid when the games are in motion. It's great for static renders and tech demos, but a lot of folks are just turning it off. There are still a lot of engines. Plenty of people are starting to incorporate Godot, Unity hasn't disappeared, and companies build and leverage their own engines all the time. The main reason Epic Games is so big is Fortnite, not Unreal Engine. They're still incredibly focused on that metaverse play.
georgeecollins 2y ago
Unity is still a lot more popular then Unreal and alternatives exist and are created all the time-- others have mentioned Godot, or Cry Engine which are old. People are working on Rust engines. Lots of commercial developers use their own tech. Game engines don't have to gravitate toward a standard. They only do when the cost/benefit works in their favor.
- torginus 2y ago
  No it's not - I know a few people who work in the industry and Unity's dead on new projects - everyones moving to Unreal. Indies, etc. might still use it (or other engines), but professionals have been constantly moving away from the engine for years, for all sorts of reasons, the recent licencing shakeups being one of them.
  - torginus 2y ago
    It seems this is getting downvotes, so I need to clarify that this doesn't represent any sort of personal bias - it's just that Unreal has way more (and better paid) jobs than Unity does.
- ActionHank 2y ago
  Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. Unity took all the buckets outside, burned them, then demanded money from all their customers. I've not seen new projects using them, because stakeholders are concerned about surprise expenses down the line.
- ninininino 2y ago
  Unity is more popular amongst hobbyist / aspirational game developers, it's not at all popular in AAA.
  - Arch485 2y ago
    This is completely false. Unity is popular with AAA, as is Unreal Engine. Both are less popular than having an in-house engine. Source: I work in the games industry.
npinsker 2y ago
Unity is not dying.
kasool 2y ago
Unity is not dying lol. Unreal is only becoming the "Chrome of the game engine world" in the AAA space. It's not a nice tool to use for independent projects at all, speaking as someone who works with it professionally. Most aspects of what makes Unity great for Indies are missing from Unreal (good docs is the big one).
superxpro12 2y ago
Strongly feel that Epic is playing the long game to monopolize game dev. Their "free games" teaser on EGS is an attempt to gain market share. / Once they have captured both the engine and distribution market share, the anti-consumer policies will begin. In the long run, I remain highly pessimistic and suspicious regarding Epic's long term strategy.
ozten 2y ago
Any evidence to back up "With Unreal becoming the Chrome of the game engine world"?
moomin 2y ago
I mean, Unreal is still Epic and while they’re sometimes underdogs, they’re pretty much always the bad guys.
honestAbe22 2y ago
[dead]

ljm 2y ago

They don't have to be bad guys to be at the forefront of a growing monoculture, precisely because Unity shit the bed and the remaining competition for indie devs tapers off. I love Godot for game dev, but it's not the full stack package, and last time I checked it wasn't great for 3D, but it's basically the best you have short of modding Doom. RPG Maker and Adventure Game Studio corner the market on a niche genre of pixel-art RPGs and point-and-clicks if you want to stay 2D. It's expensive to build a new engine from scratch, especially when Unreal says it can cross-build to PC, Xbox, PS4/PS5, Switch, Mobile, etc. The problem is that making a generic does-anything engine means it can't be optimal, and more and more these days studios are using the engine but don't understand how to optimise within it. So now you're downloading shader caches from Steam because you can pull a pre-compiled shader across the network faster than it will build at runtime, and you still expect the game to run smooth as butter. I build shit for the web, and this is the exact trade-off you make when you, say, choose Rails for your server over a more hands-on setup. I can spin up web apps in Rails with my eyes closed, it's that easy, but the performance has a high floor.

getcrunk 2y ago

It would be cool if companies in their position make two versions of their products. One continues on this trajectory that {adds bloat | becomes more modern} and another that prioritizes avoiding performance regression by a few metrics.

darknavi 2y ago

Luckily there are still loads of games using their own engine tech out there, but the pool is shrinking.

echelon 2y ago

I wouldn't worry. This cool tech looks mid when the games are in motion. It's great for static renders and tech demos, but a lot of folks are just turning it off. There are still a lot of engines. Plenty of people are starting to incorporate Godot, Unity hasn't disappeared, and companies build and leverage their own engines all the time. The main reason Epic Games is so big is Fortnite, not Unreal Engine. They're still incredibly focused on that metaverse play.

georgeecollins 2y ago

Unity is still a lot more popular then Unreal and alternatives exist and are created all the time-- others have mentioned Godot, or Cry Engine which are old. People are working on Rust engines. Lots of commercial developers use their own tech. Game engines don't have to gravitate toward a standard. They only do when the cost/benefit works in their favor.

torginus 2y ago
No it's not - I know a few people who work in the industry and Unity's dead on new projects - everyones moving to Unreal. Indies, etc. might still use it (or other engines), but professionals have been constantly moving away from the engine for years, for all sorts of reasons, the recent licencing shakeups being one of them.
- torginus 2y ago
  It seems this is getting downvotes, so I need to clarify that this doesn't represent any sort of personal bias - it's just that Unreal has way more (and better paid) jobs than Unity does.
ActionHank 2y ago
Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. Unity took all the buckets outside, burned them, then demanded money from all their customers. I've not seen new projects using them, because stakeholders are concerned about surprise expenses down the line.
ninininino 2y ago
Unity is more popular amongst hobbyist / aspirational game developers, it's not at all popular in AAA.
- Arch485 2y ago
  This is completely false. Unity is popular with AAA, as is Unreal Engine. Both are less popular than having an in-house engine. Source: I work in the games industry.

npinsker 2y ago

Unity is not dying.

kasool 2y ago

Unity is not dying lol. Unreal is only becoming the "Chrome of the game engine world" in the AAA space. It's not a nice tool to use for independent projects at all, speaking as someone who works with it professionally. Most aspects of what makes Unity great for Indies are missing from Unreal (good docs is the big one).

superxpro12 2y ago

Strongly feel that Epic is playing the long game to monopolize game dev. Their "free games" teaser on EGS is an attempt to gain market share. / Once they have captured both the engine and distribution market share, the anti-consumer policies will begin. In the long run, I remain highly pessimistic and suspicious regarding Epic's long term strategy.

ozten 2y ago

Any evidence to back up "With Unreal becoming the Chrome of the game engine world"?

moomin 2y ago

I mean, Unreal is still Epic and while they’re sometimes underdogs, they’re pretty much always the bad guys.

honestAbe22 2y ago

[dead]