cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/5555641
Developers of indie puzzle game Orgynizer have claimed that Unity said organisations like Planned Parenthood are “not valid charities” and are instead “political groups.”
In a blog post, the EU-based developer LizardFactory said the plans to charge developers up to $0.20 per install if they reach certain thresholds would cost them “around 30% of the funds we have gathered and already sent to charity.”
As Unity clarified the runtime fee will not apply to charity games, LizardFactory reached out to the company to clarify their game would be exempt from the plan.
However, Unity reportedly said their partners were not “valid charities” and were viewed as “political groups.”
Profits made from the game go directly to non-profit organisation Planned Parenthood and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Michigan.
“We did this to raise money for a good cause, not to line the coffers of greedy scumbags,” the developers wrote in a blog post. “We have been solid Unity fanboys for over ten years, but the trust is scattered all over the floor.”
The developers are considering a move to open-source game engine Godot, “but we will have to recode our entire game because we refuse to give you a dime,” they wrote. “This is a mafia-style shakedown, nothing more, nothing less.”
Today, Unity responded to the ongoing backlash and apologised, acknowledging the “confusion and angst” surrounding the runtime fee policy.
The company has promised that changes to the policy will be shared in “a couple of days.”
“Charity” should be a question answered by “do they have a registered charity number?”
What’s considered a charity will differ country by country.
That would require them to care enough to figure out how to verify if something is a registered charity and what they are called in each country. Some countries don’t even have the concept of registered charity in any form.
Planned Parenthood is a US institution, and a registered 501c3 non-profit charity, as defined by the IRS.
Though I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to dip their toes into the absolute shitstorm that is modern partisan politics in the US.
Sure, and you do that by looking up the tax status. As long as it’s considered a non-profit by the government, that’s it. That’s as non-political as you can get.
That’s as non-political as you can get.
Well you simply couldn’t be more wrong about that. The NFL was a charity not too long ago. I’m sure there are Christian conversion therapy “charities”, too. “Charity” is nothing more than a tax status. You can make a charity for anything, so long as you keep your finances appropriately.
So we’re currently at the ‘apology that actually makes things worse’ phase, which means just a few more days until ‘unconditional surrender but even so nobody will ever trust you again’
Right wing groups in the US made Planned Parenthood a political issue. It doesn’t make it a political organization.
I feel sorry for Unity because I want them to be profitable and all that. However, they have a greedy prick for a CEO and one of the dumbest change rollouts I’ve seen (Twitter has been crazy bad lately too) at this scale. It wipes away any empathy for them and makes you yearn for their collapse.
I feel sorry for the employees, but ultimately the company chose the CEO it’s not like he turned up and forced himself on them or anything. They were really pleased when they announced him as well, as if he was going to be some kind of asset.
It’s the investors fault for having no business savvy. Sod em.
It’s absolutely not a charity.
That’s an associated PAC, not Planned Parenthood proper that’s a 501©(3).
Idk why anyone trusts peddlers of proprietary bullshit
For real dude it’s really hard to feel bad for 2d game devs when an open source solution has been around for years.
It’s like the whole xitter situation. Why would you want to stay on a platform that so obviously doesn’t want you there? bUt MaStOdOn Is HaRd 🙄 grow up, move on, stop investing in capitalists ideas that only benefit you when it benefits them.
This is victim blaming. These devs already made those games and released them before Unity made these decisions.
planned parenthood is political yadda yadda yadda, but a children’s hospital?
It’s a registered 501c3. Whatever anybody’s opinions, it’s a legal charity.
Yes, it is. That’s a different planned parenthood.
Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. is a registered 501©(3) nonprofit under EIN 13-1644147. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable under the law.
Seriously. I could see some right-wing shithead complaining about “evil” abortions, but who doesn’t wanna save the lives of post-pregnancy children? Oh, that’s right. Right-wing shitheads. As always.
And planned parenthood does WAY more than abortions. They save lives on the daily.
Planned parenthood shouldn’t be political. In a few years drinking water well be seen as a policial statement against brawndo
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Aight, hope they’re ready to lay in their grave now. It’s over.
Devs may as well bite the bullet & switch engines mid development now, because I’m not buying any new games made in Unity.
Calling PP a political org is too obtuse a message to view this response as a simple mistake or miscommunication. Unity is apparently run by conservative hacks and I hope they collapse.
The anti-Planned Parenthood rhetoric is the political part, not that they’d ever admit it. The children’s hospitals though? That’s new to me, and downright malevolent. Like Texas/Florida levels of evil right there.
I mean one of them isn’t.
Yeah screw Michigan and it’s awful children.
It’s like he heard that there was no such thing as bad publicity and took that is literally as he possibly could
He worked for EA. He has no idea how the industry works.
Didn’t EA during a partnership with Nintendo, suggest to them crippling Mario’s Jump Height in order to sell “High Jump Boots” as DLC?
I can understand Planned Parenthood maybe, heavily disagree, but whatever.
But a children’s hospital? How could that ever be classed as a “political group”?
What a joke.
Depends what Childrens Hospital it is. Shriners? Sure, that’s a charity. Mayo Clinic - Children’s Wing? Definitely not a charity.
Starting to think unity doesn’t have a pr team
I think this is their PR team.
it’s a Profit Relations division
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Somehow, Twitter and Reddit are still going…
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I mean Planned Parenthood is explicitly NOT a charity. It’s an ineffective Political Action Committee that spent decades bilking donations and wasn’t even able to codify roe v wade. They don’t deserve shit. Hospitals in the US are also explicitly not Charities. They may be non-profits, maybe, but they don’t run on donations, they expect payments from patients for services rendered. There is no world where those examples of the failures of a Capitalist society should be considered a charity.
Except they’re literally a charity.
There’s a PAC of the name but Planned Parenthood proper is a 501©(3).
