Category: ENGAGE

A Report from the IMMERSIVE X Conference, Nov. 12th and 13th, 2025

WARNING: This blogpost is a first draft, and in some places is lacking in details, for which I apologize in advance. I expect that I will later be able to add some of those details after dong a little more research, but I have pretty much spent my entire day in one metaverse platform after another today, I am tired, I am achey, and I wanted to get some information out to all my readers as soon as possible while everything was still (relatively) fresh in my mind. Forgive any errors and omissions I have made!

In particular, despite a few organizational and technical issues, I received a highly favourable impression of Foretell Reality’s work, and I do hope to follow up with more of a deep-dive on that company sometime soon, as I have done with other metaverse platforms in the past.

And yes—in case you hadn’t noticed—this metaverse blogger is BACK! My self-imposed hiatus is OVER and I will again be writing regularly about social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse (with a side of generative AI, which I have been actively learning about since summertime).

Because of my workload, I was only able to attend one session of the IMMERSIVE X metaverse conference on Wednesday, November 12th:

  • Conversational AI in Healthcare (held in Foretell Reality, which was a new-to-me platform).

However, I more than made up for it on Thursday, November 13th, attending the following five conference sessions:

  • Private, Present & Fully Heard: How Virtual Reality is Reclaiming the Power of Anonymous Peer Support (held in Foretell Reality)
  • Healing Beyond Walls: VR Social Support For Patients At SickKids (held in Foretell Reality)
  • Immersive Learning Beyond the Classroom (held in ENGAGE)
  • AI, WebXR and the Future of the Immersive Web (held in Hubs)
  • Will AR Be The Big Immersive Breakthrough? (held in VRChat)

So I will briefly report on each of these six sessions, one by one.

I accessed the three sessions held in Foretell Reality using the Meta Quest 3 wireless headset at my workplace, and I entered the sessions in ENGAGE and VRChat using my PCVR setup at work, a Vive Pro 2 VR headset tethered to a Windows desktop PC with a fairly decent NVidia gaphics card.

The final session, held in Hubs (formerly Mozilla Hubs), I could have entered via virtual reality, but instead I opted to pay a visit via the flatscreen monitor on my trusty MacBook Pro! By the end of the day, my neck and shoulders were aching, but I did make it through.

Conversational AI in Healthcare

This was not the first time that I had seen artificial intelligence combined with social VR (the first time was a memorable conversation I had with an AI-enhanced toaster in the now-shuttered platform called Tivoli Cloud VR, back in January of 2021), this one had a more practical purpose: to use generative AI to power a diabetes counselor (played by an NPC avatar) who could hold a conversation with a real-life person who has questions after being newly-diagnosed with type II diabetes.

An initial discussion held in an open-air auditorium was followed by a group teleport to a lecture theatre where the embodied AI chatbot (a woman dressed in light blue, centre) held a conversation with a demonstrator (the woman named Ines MTX):

When I asked what generative AI system was being used to drive this demo, I was informed that Foretell Reality actually can use any of Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Anthropic’s Claude AI to generate responses. As somebody who was actually diagnosed with Type II diabetes during the recent pandemic, and who never had an opportunity to meet with a real-life diabetic coach, I would really have appreciated having something like this available!

Unfortunately, the conference session description was frustratingly short on concrete details: who the speakers were, what company (or companies) they represented (other than Foretell Reality), and who the actual client was. It was also not clear to me if this just a tech demo or an actual system used by real people. And, because I was in my Meta Quest 3 headset, I could not take any written notes as people were speaking. There was a company called MTX involved, as far as I can remember. This is an example of where an inadequate session description hampers my ability to report on the event itself, as impressive as the technology demo was.

Private, Present & Fully Heard: How Virtual Reality is Reclaiming the Power of Anonymous Peer Support

We started off in this open-air amphitheatre at dusk (I think they said it was based on Red Rocks in Colorado)

Unlike the previous day’s session, both sessions I attended in Foretell Reality were sterling examples of how social VR could be used as an effective solution to address real-world problems and issues, and provide tangible benefits.

First up, here’s the conference blurb about the NorthStar project:

In traditional Alcohol & Substance Use Disorder treatment spaces, anonymity is often promised but rarely provided. NorthStar’s groundbreaking VR platform redefines what true
anonymity can look like—and how it unlocks unparalleled honesty, vulnerability, and connection. This session explores how immersive, avatar-based peer support transforms treatment outcomes by allowing patients to show up fully without being seen, while feeling surrounded by a community. We’ll discuss how VR group therapy makes treatment more accessible, more private, and more powerful—meeting people where they are – literally – while protecting who they are.

Unfortunately, the representative from NorthStar was unable to be present at this session, but DJ from Foretell Reality still had plenty to show us, taking us on a sort of field trip through the various settings built by the company to facilitate NorthSatr’s virtual group meetings (based on Alcoholics Anonymous principles), such as an urban park where you could toss a stick and have one of several virtual dogs fetch it back to you:

Foretell Reality’s dog park, where virtual AA meetings are sometimes held

Other locations included a chilly space station, where you could see your breath in front of you in the frosty air, and gravity could be turned off and on at will:

Foretell Reality’s space station

And finally, a newer addition, a competitive shooting game where you were part of team trying to shoot down rubber ducks of various colours! (I’m not sure if this last one was actually used by NorthStar clients, though).

Duck hunting in Foretell Reality

Overall, and especially when combined with the following conference session I describe below, I came away with a very favourable impression of Foretell Reality. You can check out their website here.

Healing Beyond Walls: VR Social Support For Patients At SickKids

Shaindy the avatar presents a video of the real-life Shaindy, explaining the SickKids project

Another Foretell Reality client is Toronto, Ontario’s famous SickKids Hospital,where the conference blurb states:

Join us for a special fireside chat with Shaindy, Clinical Manager [of the] Child Life Program at SickKids Hospital in Canada and DJ Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Foretell Reality. Together, they will share how virtual reality is transforming the way children facing serious illnesses connect, play, and support one another. Shaindy will discuss her groundbreaking program that allows kids to log in once a week to a virtual world for group sessions. DJ will highlight how Foretell Reality’s platform has powered successful clinical pilots and is now scaling to reach even more children. This conversation will explore the impact on patients and families, the power of hospital collaboration, and the future of immersive technology in pediatric care.  

By “kids,” Shaindy explained that these were actually teenagers (aged 13 to 19) who were in hospital or a hospice, fighting various health-threatening conditions such as cancer. Because of their illnesses, these teenagers often found it difficult to socialize, which is where social VR afforded them an opportunity to interact and have fun virtually. Shaindy explained that they would get groups of six or so patients together, and they would keep it open and freeform so the “kids” could join or leave as they felt able to do so.

Among the many stories told were the delight by one patient who discovered a rubber ducky hiding in one of the virtual environment, which led to a quest to hide ducks (and pigs!) in as many environments as possible, for others to find. DJ helpfully rezzed one such duck for show-and-tell (also a pig, but I didn’t take a picture of that!). I apologize for the lopsided aspect of some of these screenshots; determining the right balance of your head in a VR headset when taking screenshots is a bit of a black art, at which I usually fail miserably!!

Behold, a rubber duck! (Apologies for the awkward angle of this shot.)

The presentation ended with a group teleport to a meditation centre, where Saindy led us through a box breathing exercise, helped along by the in-world painting tools installed by Foretell Reality!

We ended with a box breathing exercise in a meditation temple, assisted by a little art therapy. (Again, apologies for the sideways tilt!)

This was one of the most heartwarming conference sessions I have ever attended, and I wish this project every success as they hope to expand this service to more hospitals in future!

Immersive Learning Beyond the Classroom

This session had a capacity crowd of avatars present, and was held in ENGAGE (in fact, there were so many avatars that my experience began to degrade to the point where I eventually had to bail out of my Vive Pro 2 VR headset or risk nausea!). Because of that, I missed about the final third of the talk. Here’s the blurb:

How can immersive environments transform teaching, learning, and cross-cultural connection? This panel brings together diverse perspectives from the fields of education and innovation.
Chris Madsen empowers organizations worldwide through the ENGAGE XR platform. Wolf Arne Storm and his team at the Goethe-Institut created GoetheVRsum, which explores new formats in culture, language, and creativity. Marlene May researches and teaches in 3D virtual spaces at Karlshochschule International University and Birgit Giering is pioneering the large-scale adoption of XR in schools of North Rhine-Westphalia. Moderated by Prof. Dr. Dr. Björn Bohnenkamp, this session will explore the future of learning beyond traditional classrooms.

However, this time I was able to take some chicken scratch handwritten notes! So here goes…Wolf-Arne spoke about the Goethe Institut, Marlene spoke about the Karlshochschule International University (in fact, the space where we met in ENGAGE was one of their creations), and Birgit spoke her work in the schools of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Goethe Institut is Germany’s premier cultural institute, with locations around the world teaching German language and culture. The organization chose ENGAGE as their metaverse platform, creating a virtual space called the Goethevrsum. The Goethevrsum uses the works of various Bauhaus artists as inspiration for its design.

It was a shame that technical glitches kinda marred the overall experience for me, but I am glad that I was able to be able to make it in, and make it through most of it!

AI, WebXR and the Future of the Immersive Web

This session was held in (formerly Mozilla) Hubs, and much like all Hubs experiences I have ever had, it tended towards the spontaneous, the off-the-cuff and the chaotic! Like the ENGAGE session, it was unfortunately plagued by technical issues and problems. The presenter, Adam Filandr, talked about how he used open-source WebXR code and generative AI tools to create something called NeoFables, which delivered personalized worlds, characters, and storytelling (currently limited to 2D images, although he hopes to be able to expand it over time to create 3D content).

Screenshot

He discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using WebXR to create VR content, and gave a couple of examples of bigger-name projects which were based on WebXR (Wol, made by Google to provide information about the U.S. national parks system, and Raw Emotion Unites Us, about Paralympian athletes). It was interesting to hear a developer’s perspective of using WebXR to create content, mixed in with generative AI tools, however.

Will AR Be The Big Immersive Breakthrough (Heather Dunaway Smith and Lien Tran)

My final session on Thursday, Nov. 13th was not what I expected. It was a panel discussion with two musicians and artists, Lien and Heather, who have worked extensively with augmented reality and mixed reality. They shared samples of their work, and the panel (moderated by Christopher Morrison) held a wide-ranging discussion on how AR/MR/XR (or, as Chris said it, “XR-poly”) is impacting and transforming creative expression. I’m not sure if there will be a livestream of this talk (I did not see Carlos and his video camera while I was there), so I will leave it at that, since (again), I did not take written notes.

UPDATED! A Report from the IMMERSIVE X Conference, Nov. 11th, 2025

If anything, I urge everyone in our industry to build our digital spaces the way we design cities: with flow, gathering spots, heart and soul. Places that invite people to linger, not just scroll. It’s not just about what people see—it’s about where they feel seen.

—Andy Fidel, State of the Metaverse in 2026 keynote presentation, IMMERSIVE X Conference, November 11th, 2025 (in ENGAGE).

Julian Reyes delivering his talk titled Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum Living Archive, which took place yesterday evening my time in a virtual world in Spatial (I’m the blonde in the green T-shirt, sitting in the front row, near the centre bottom of this screen capture).

Yesterday, November 11th, 2025, I had the opportunity to attend three sessions of the IMMERSIVE X conference, held on three different platforms:

  • IMMERSIVE X 2025 Warm-Up: Curator’s Remarks (held in VRChat)
  • Andy Fidel’s keynote, The State of the Metaverse in 2026 (held in ENGAGE)
  • Julian Reyes’ presentation, Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum™ Living Archive (held in Spatial)

Warm-Up: Curator’s Remarks (Thomas Zorbach)

Set in a custom-built theatre surrounded by lush rainforest. Thomas Zorbach set the tone and agenda for the conference sessions to follow over the hree days of the conference. My friend Carlos Austin was the videographer for the event (as he no doubt will be for many of the conference sessions!), and he produced the following video of Thomas’ speech, which was posted to the IMMERSIVE X YouTube streams channel (I also took some photos using VRChat’s built-in camera, but I first have to figure out how to transfer them from VRChat to my blog!).

UPDATE Nov. 13th, 2025: I was finally able to add some photos I shot while in VRChat to this section of my blog post (please see the pictures above).

The State of the Metaverse in 2026 (Andy Fidel)

Andy’s keynote was prefaced by a half-hour red carpet awards session where various people were introduced, and several awards were given out (I arrived late for this part, but here’s the 35-minute video from IMMERSIVE X’s YouTube channel). Here’s the blurb from the conference program:

What an entrance! Dress your avatar to impress and flash your most dazzling smile for the photo. Once again, the path to the Opening Keynote leads across the legendary red carpet of the Polys Theater, home of the annual Polys Awards. Thanks to Ben Erwin and his incredible Polys team, this festive event marks the official start of IMMERSIVE X 2025. Don’t miss this prestigious social event in the Metaverse — you might just be in for a surprise or two.

After the red carpet, we all moved over to the main stage where Andy Fidel, the founder and creative lead at Spatial Networks, shared her insights on where the metaverse stands today and where it might be heading.

Andy Fidel on the virtual stage, giving her keynote address in ENGAGE (it was giving TED Talk!)
I took a selfie of my avatar in ENGAGE at the red carpet event prior to Andy’s keynote!

Because I attended the event in my Vive Pro 2 VR headset, I did not take written notes of her talk, but it was excellent! Also, Andy has asked that her talk not be streamed to YouTube, a decision which I can totally understand and respect. However, Andy was happy to share her speech notes with me, so I did not have to rely on my notoriously faulty 61-year-old memory to share a few quotes which especially resonated with me!

Andy started her presentation off with a sigh, stating:

I’m tired of the [metaverse] hype cycle. I don’t know what we’re all waiting for. Because I’ve seen us create real, human digital experiences—moments of presence—every day for the past ten years. This isn’t a sci-fi episode. The metaverse is already here. It’s in your browser tab. It’s not just a concept, a game, or a place. It’s how we’re choosing to show up online.

And my favourite [metaverse] misconception? We’re not escaping reality—we’re extending it.

There were more of Andy’s quotes which I really appreciated. In talking about the shift away from massive metaverse platforms to micro-communities, she said:

We’ve got to find new ways of measuring success when we talk about connection. Every social metric measures visibility, impressions, clicks, followers…that’s activity, not authenticity. And I don’t know about you—but I’m done chasing mass engagement and empty distribution. Because connection isn’t content. It’s presence.

And she talked about how, perhaps, we are a little too narrowly focused on what the “metaverse” is:

Let’s be honest—the metaverse didn’t start with VR. We’ve been building shared digital worlds for decades: Second Life, World of Warcraft, Minecraft…The only difference now? The new emerging tech finally lets us feel presence. VR, AR, digital—these are just new layers on something deeply human. “Metaverse” is just a new name for something we’ve always done: to gather. And to gather, we need space to do so. What’s different now? We have the technology to do it remotely, and feel like we’re right there. With embodiment, body language, haptics, even phantom touch—we’re tapping into all the little things that make our digital space feel more immersive and real.

And:

Virtual presence has become its own form of togetherness. We show up not just in person, but in-world. Because let’s be honest—why show up at all? Because you can feel it.

The metaverse isn’t here to replace the real world. It’s here to layer it with new forms of meaning. It’s not just a playground, [and] not just a marketplace. It’s a new layer of human communication.

And look—if you say, “the metaverse isn’t for me,” that a bit like saying “the internet isn’t for me” in the 1990s. You don’t have to love every corner of it. You just have to find the part that resonates. Because this isn’t about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about connecting—more intimately, across space, time and medium.

UPDATE Nov. 13th, 2025: I was finally able to add some photos I shot while in ENGAGE to this section of my blog post (please see above).

I want to thank Thomas Zorbach for shoehorning me into this avatar-packed session, after I personally begged him to let me in, even though the event was fully booked and no longer accepting signups. I did not want to miss Andy’s speech, and I was not disappointed!

Preserving the Legacy of Digital Culture: The Virtual Worlds Museum™ Living Archive (Julian Reyes)

I was not sure if I was going to be able to attend this session (I was having all kinds of trouble getting Spatial to work for me, and I eventually threw my hands up, gave up on attending in virtual reality, and instead visited via my flatscreen monitor on my Windows home computer instead). However, I am so, so glad that I did! A video stream of the 45-minute presentation has already been posted to the IMMERSIVE X YouTube channel, but I will also add some of my own remarks (since I was on desktop, I took written notes).

This blogpost will be updated as I add pictures and more of my impressions, so check back later today for those updates! I enjoyed all three sessions, and I am very much looking forward to the sessions I will be attending today and tomorrow!

With the deepest thanks to Andy Fidel for sharing her speaking notes with me. Thanks, Andy!

The IMMERSIVE X Metaverse Conference, November 11-13, 2025

I’m laid up with severe neck and shoulder pain, off sick from work today again, lying on the sofa and blogging via iPad, my neck propped up on a good pillow. In addition to visits to my family doctor and my physiotherapist (who also does acupuncture), I’ve started seeing a massage therapist. I had a one-hour massage session Friday morning, and felt wonderful afterward—only to have rebound neck and shoulder aches and pains which scuppered my Friday night plans and put me in a foul, cranky mood all weekend.

This is all coming at a time when I need to be well enough to attend a metaverse conference coming up this week! It’s the IMMERSIVE X Conference, organized and run from Berlin, Germany, but with events taking place in various social VR platforms and flatscreen virtual worlds. Instead of getting on a plane to go to a physical conference in meatspace, I just put on a VR headset and attend in cyberspace!

However, my physical pain today does not bode well for my metaverse excursions on Tuesday (Remembrance Day here in Canada, if not in Germany), Wednesday, and Thursday. Wish me well! I’m probably going to have to take breaks between sessions to pop painkillers, apply cold and heat packs, and do my prescribed physiotherapy exercises to get through this. But come hell or high water, I am going!!

I started preparing for the conference last week, revisiting some social VR platforms that I had not visited in many months, and making sure that I could still remember how to log in and move around in my Vive Pro 2 PCVR setup in my office (sadly neglected since I began my well-documented love affair with my Apple Vision Pro).

I must admit that I was surprised when I signed into my VRChat account on their website, to discover that I first joined VRChat 8 years ago! (You can find all my blogposts about VRChat here.)

And likewise, I had first joined ENGAGE in July of 2018, which means I have been using the metaverse platform for over seven years at this point! (You can find all my blogposts about ENGAGE here.) I am especially excited that the organizers were able to squeeze me into Andy Fidel’s keynote State of the Metaverse presentation in ENGAGE (a big thank you Thomas Zorbach and his team!).

In addition to VRChat and ENGAGE, I signed up for sessions being held on three other metaverse platforms: Spatial, Foretell Reality, and Hubs. I’ve been in Spatial and (formerly Mozilla) Hubs before, but Foretell Reality is new to me.

So I hope to be able to post my session notes to the blog, starting tomorrow. And, in the meantime, I will rest, take painkillers, do my physiotherapy exercises, and pray my body holds up. Stay tuned!

Unity Drops a Bombshell: What Will Be the Impact on Social VR Platforms?

A collage of Twitter (sorry, X) statements from smaller game developers announcing they are dropping Unity after the company’s announcement earlier this week (source)

On Tuesday, Unity dropped a bombshell on software developers: a new fee structure that will charge devs using its popular game engine on a per-install basis, with less than four months advance notice. Ars Technica reported:

For years, the Unity Engine has earned goodwill from developers large and small for its royalty-free licensing structure, which meant developers incurred no extra costs based on how well a game sold. That goodwill has now been largely thrown out the window due to Unity’s Tuesday announcement of a new fee structure that will start charging developers on a “per-install” basis after certain minimum thresholds are met…

This is a major change from Unity’s previous structure, which allowed developers making less than $100,000 per month to avoid fees altogether on the Personal tier. Larger developers making $200,000 or more per month, meanwhile, paid only per-seat subscription fees for access to the latest, full-featured version of the Unity Editor under the Pro or Enterprise tiers.

“There’s no royalties, no fucking around,” Unity CEO John Riccitiello memorably told GamesIndustry.biz when rolling out the free Personal tier in 2015. “We’re not nickel-and-diming people, and we’re not charging them a royalty. When we say it’s free, it’s free.”

Now that Unity has announced plans to nickel-and-dime successful Unity developers (with a fee that is not technically a royalty), the reaction from those developers has been swift and universally angry, to put it mildly. “I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity,” Necrosoft Games’ Brandon Sheffield—a longtime Unity Engine supporter—said in a post entitled “The Death of Unity.” “Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.”

Sheffield goes on to say:

…I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity. If you started a project 4 months ago, it’s worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.

What has happened? Across the last few years, as John Riccitiello has taken over the company, the engine has made a steady decline into bizarre business models surrounding an engine with unmaintained features and erratic stability.

…

Ultimately, it screws over indies and smaller devs the most. If you can afford to pay for higher tiers, you don’t pay as much of this nickle and dime fee, but indies can’t afford to on the front end, or often it doesn’t make sense in terms of the volume of games you’ll sell, but then you wind up paying more in the long term. It’ll squash innovation and art-oriented games that aren’t designed around profit, especially. It’s a rotten deal that only makes sense if you’re looking at numbers, and assume everyone will keep using your product. Well, I don’t think people will keep using their product unless they’re stuck. I know one such developer who is stuck, who’s estimating this new scheme will cost them $100,000/month on a free to play game, where their revenue isn’t guaranteed.

Unity is desperately digging its own grave in a search for gold. This is all incredibly short-sighted and adds onto a string of rash decisions and poorly thought through schemes from Unity across the last few years.

And it’s not just games that are affected by this news; many metaverse platforms are using Unity too, and it remains to be seen how this news will impact them. Among the social VR platforms I have blogged about, which rely on the Unity game engine, are:

  • Anyland
  • Bigscreen
  • ChilloutVR
  • Engage
  • Lavender
  • NeosVR
  • Rec Room
  • Sinespace/Breakroom
  • Somnium Space
  • VRChat

(Ironically, the social VR platform Sansar deliberately made the decision not to use a third-party game engine, to avoid being blindsided by exactly what happened to Unity developers this week. Not that it helped with uptake of the platform.)

So, I posted the following question to the most knowledgable (and opinionated!) group of metaverse experts I know, the over 700 members of the RyanSchultz.com Discord server. Here’s a sample of some of their comments:

The devs at VRChat say, on Reddit, that nothing will change. We shall see…this guy is staff:

Other comments and responses to the news, from my Discord, are:

Lots of big-name devs are swearing off of Unity, dropping it even for projects already in progress.

For Neos itself I’m actually worried the least. For years they have planned to eventually move away from Unity, so the way the FrooxEngine actually interfaces with Unity is quite minimal. But like, most other VR Social games don’t have the “luxury” of running on two Engines frankensteined together. VRC will probably have to pay for it, the likes of Chillout are likely still far too small for that… But it still sucks that they have that lingering over their head now as the platform continues to grow.

Yeah, I mean, this is exactly why you shouldn’t rely too heavily on a third-party like this, because they can pull the rug out from underneath you…I am quite sure that VRChat is going to be okay. It’s the smaller, more niche metaverse platforms I’m a little worried about.

Sansar’s in-house engine looks pretty good right now, eh?

Okay, so it’s clear to me that this IS gonna have a large impact on any company that uses Unity. Question: how hard is it to move from Unity to, say, Unreal, or Godot? Is it an impossible task?

For an existing game? You’re usually basically re-writing it from scratch at that point.

For an existing project, it’s like remaking it from the ground up. An open engine similar to Unity would be a much better choice probably, for example Stride 3D.

The skinny seems to be that Unity will undo this, but trust will have been broken.

The last commenter makes an excellent point: even if Unity responds to the backlash by retreating from this decision, the damage has already been done, and the trust between Unity and developers has been broken.

The comments over on Reddit have also been uniformly negative. Again, here’s just a couple of examples:

Whatever Unity does, they already lost the trust of devs. Even if they retract, it will be “for now”. Fuck them.

and:

Cost per license sold? Sure. That’s fine, you can just bake it into the cost of the game.

Cost per install? Charged to the developer/distributor???? Fuck no. You have no idea how much money each customer will cost you.

Initially, Unity stated the fee would apply every time the game was installed, or reinstalled. Then they backtracked that, but installs on multiple devices will have the fee charged multiple times. Install it on your PC? That’s a fee. Now also on your Steam Deck? That’s another fee. Your laptop? Fee again. Replaced your PC? Have another fee! And god forbid someone remembers that PC cafes are a thing. There’s zero information about how a “device” will be kept track of, so potentially just changing the hardware in a device will cause the fee to reset.

Piracy is a huge unknown. Unity says developers will simply have to trust that Unity’s anti-piracy solution works.

You just don’t do business like that, ESPECIALLY when you make this change retroactively. Companies are going to have to retool their entire profit estimation for something they cannot even account for.

Anyway, it will be interesting to watch as developments unfold over the next few weeks. Unity is a part of so much software development work (it’s even said to be a part of the upcoming Apple Vision Pro VR/AR headset!), so there will definitely be ripple effects. And, of course, the only people guaranteed to make money off this are the lawyers, so expect to see the lawsuits fly! Stock up on popcorn…