[230913]Recent Announcement Upsets Many Hollow Knight: Silksong Fans

https://gamerant.com/hollow-knight-silksong-unity-engine-controversy/

A recent announcement has many fans of Hollow Knight: Silksong upset as it could mean it takes longer to get the game, among other issues.



Many Hollow Knight: Silksong fans are upset after Unity announced major changes to its service cost, as if truly implemented, it would only spell bad news for the industry. Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced in February 2019, and it's a case of a sequel being announced far too early. However, part of this is also because Team Cherry is an incredibly small indie studio working on an incredibly ambitious game, and fans have been understanding because of that. Minus a few memes and jokes, most Hollow Knight: Silksong fans are happy to wait.

Previously, Hollow Knight: Silksong was expected to release day one on Xbox Game Pass (and other platforms) in the first half of 2023, but several announcements by Microsoft for this period didn't make the cut. As of now, Hollow Knight: Silksong has no release date, but Unity may make that all the worse for wear.

While there have been some shifting language, clarifications that make things better and worse, and so forth, the bottom line is that Unity is going to start charging developers for every install of a game using its engine. Even for those on a Unity Pro plan, which reportedly costs $2000/year, developers would still only have a higher threshold before charges began with slightly lower fees. Many indie developers have spoken out against this, as for many it would spell financial ruin. Not only that, but in theory, disgruntled users could "install bomb" an indie studio to run them out of business. It was first reported that this would even charge developers for installs via Xbox Game Pass, then reported that Unity would be charging the distributor instead (Microsoft), which is not likely to sit well with the tech giant. In short, it's a mixture of bad news and bad communication, but the impact that this could have on game development, especially on the indie scene, cannot be understated.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is being developed with Unity, and the game is unlikely to be released before this plan goes into action on January 1, 2024. Even then though, this plan applies to every game installed after that date, meaning even for older games it can be an issue. Some fans suggested they'd wait while Hollow Knight: Silksong was ported to another engine, adding years upon years of dev time to the project. Others were just upset. As of this writing, Team Cherry has not publicly commented on Unity's announcement.

The dominant theory among many folks in the industry is that Unity will roll back these changes. This seems likely, but it remains to be seen. What's clear, however, is how many devs just lost faith in Unity for making such a change, how hotly-anticipated and even smaller-scale games are impacted, and how badly this could affect gamers too.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

机翻：

最近的公告让许多《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》粉丝感到不安

最近发布的消息让许多《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》的粉丝感到不安，因为这可能意味着需要更长的时间才能获得游戏，以及其他问题。

Unity宣布对服务费用进行重大调整后，许多《空洞骑士：丝歌》粉丝都感到不安，似乎如果真正实施的话，只会给业界带来坏消息。 《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》于 2019 年 2 月宣布，续作的宣布为时过早。 然而，部分原因也是因为 Team Cherry 是一家规模非常小的独立工作室，正在开发一款雄心勃勃的游戏，因此粉丝们也能理解。 除了一些表情包和笑话外，大多数《空洞骑士：丝歌》粉丝都乐意等待。

此前，《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》预计将于 2023 年上半年在 Xbox Game Pass（和其他平台）上第一天发布，但微软在此期间发布的几项公告均未能成功。 截至目前，《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》还没有发布日期，但 Unity 可能会让磨损变得更糟。

虽然存在一些变化的语言、使事情变得更好或更糟的澄清等等，但最重要的是，Unity 将开始向开发者收取每次使用其引擎安装游戏的费用。 即使对于那些使用 Unity Pro 计划（据报道每年费用为 2000 美元）的开发者来说，开发人员在开始收费之前仍然只有更高的门槛，而且费用略低。 许多独立开发商公开反对这一做法，因为对许多人来说这将意味着财务破产。 不仅如此，从理论上讲，心怀不满的用户还可以给独立工作室“安装炸弹”，让他们破产。 最初有报道称，这甚至会向开发者收取通过 Xbox Game Pass 安装的费用，然后有报道称 Unity 将向发行商（微软）收费，这不太可能让这家科技巨头满意。 简而言之，这是坏消息和糟糕沟通的混合体，但这可能对游戏开发，尤其是独立场景产生的影响不可低估。

《Hollow Knight: Silksong》正在使用 Unity 进行开发，在该计划于 2024 年 1 月 1 日生效之前，该游戏不太可能发布。即便如此，该计划也适用于该日期之后安装的所有游戏，这意味着即使是较旧的游戏 这可能是一个问题。 一些粉丝建议他们等待《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》移植到另一个引擎，这为该项目增加了年复一年的开发时间。 其他人只是感到不安。 截至撰写本文时，Team Cherry 尚未对 Unity 的公告发表公开评论。

业界许多人的主流理论是 Unity 将回滚这些更改。 这似乎有可能，但仍有待观察。 然而，显而易见的是，有多少开发者对 Unity 做出这样的改变失去了信心，备受期待的甚至规模较小的游戏受到了多大的影响，以及这对游戏玩家的影响有多大。

《空洞骑士：丝绸之歌》正在针对 PC、PS4、PS5、Switch、Xbox One 和 Xbox Series X/S 进行开发。