How W4 Plans To Monetize the Godot Game Engine Using Red Hat's Open Source Playbook (techcrunch.com) 8
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A new company from the creators of the Godot game engine is setting out to grab a piece of the $200 billion global video game market -- and to do so, it's taking a cue from commercial open source software giant Red Hat. Godot, for the uninitiated, is a cross-platform game engine first released under an open source license back in 2014, though its initial development pre-dates that by several years. Today, Godot claims some 1,500 contributors, and is considered one of the world's top open source projects by various metrics. Godot has been used in high-profile games such as the Sonic Colors: Ultimate remaster, published by Sega last year as the first major mainstream game powered by Godot. But Tesla, too, has apparently used Godot to power some of the more graphically intensive animations in its mobile app.
Among Godot's founding creators is Juan Linietsky, who has served as head of development for the Godot project for the past 13 years, and who will now serve as CEO of W4 Games, a new venture that's setting out to take Godot to the next level. W4 quietly exited stealth last week, but today the Ireland-headquartered company has divulged more details about its goals to grow Godot and make it accessible for a wider array of commercial use cases. On top of that, the company told TechCrunch that it has raised $8.5 million in seed funding to make its mission a reality, with backers including OSS Capital, Lux Capital, Sisu Game Ventures and -- somewhat notably -- Bob Young, the co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat, an enterprise-focused open source company that IBM went on to acquire for $34 billion in 2019.
[...] "Companies like Red Hat have proven that with the right commercial offerings on top, the appeal of using open source in enterprise environments is enormous," Linietsky said. "W4 intends to do this very same thing for the game industry." In truth, Godot is nowhere near having the kind of impact in gaming that Linux has had in the enterprise, but it's still early days -- and this is exactly where W4 could make a difference. [...] W4's core target market will be broad -- it's gunning for independent developers and small studios, as well as medium and large gaming companies. The problem that it's looking to solve, ultimately, is that while Godot is popular with hobbyists and indie developers, companies are hesitant to use the engine on commercial projects due to its inherent limitations -- currently, there is no easy way to garner technical support, discuss the product's development roadmap, or access any other kind of value-added service. [...]
"W4 will offer console ports to developers under very accessible terms," Linietsky said. "Independent developers won't need to pay upfront to publish, while for larger companies there will be commercial packages that include support." Elsewhere, W4 is developing a range of products and services which it's currently keeping under wraps, with Linietsky noting that they will most likely be announced at Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco next March. "The aim of W4 is to help developers overcome any problem developers may stumble upon while trying to use Godot commercially," Linietsky added. It's worth noting that there are a handful of commercial companies out there already, such as Lone Wolf Technology and Pineapple Works, that help developers get the most out of Godot -- including console porting. But Linietsky was keen to highlight one core difference between W4 and these incumbents: its expertise. "The main distinctive feature of W4 is that it has been created by the Godot project leadership, which are the individuals with the most understanding and insight about Godot and its community," he said.
Among Godot's founding creators is Juan Linietsky, who has served as head of development for the Godot project for the past 13 years, and who will now serve as CEO of W4 Games, a new venture that's setting out to take Godot to the next level. W4 quietly exited stealth last week, but today the Ireland-headquartered company has divulged more details about its goals to grow Godot and make it accessible for a wider array of commercial use cases. On top of that, the company told TechCrunch that it has raised $8.5 million in seed funding to make its mission a reality, with backers including OSS Capital, Lux Capital, Sisu Game Ventures and -- somewhat notably -- Bob Young, the co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat, an enterprise-focused open source company that IBM went on to acquire for $34 billion in 2019.
[...] "Companies like Red Hat have proven that with the right commercial offerings on top, the appeal of using open source in enterprise environments is enormous," Linietsky said. "W4 intends to do this very same thing for the game industry." In truth, Godot is nowhere near having the kind of impact in gaming that Linux has had in the enterprise, but it's still early days -- and this is exactly where W4 could make a difference. [...] W4's core target market will be broad -- it's gunning for independent developers and small studios, as well as medium and large gaming companies. The problem that it's looking to solve, ultimately, is that while Godot is popular with hobbyists and indie developers, companies are hesitant to use the engine on commercial projects due to its inherent limitations -- currently, there is no easy way to garner technical support, discuss the product's development roadmap, or access any other kind of value-added service. [...]
"W4 will offer console ports to developers under very accessible terms," Linietsky said. "Independent developers won't need to pay upfront to publish, while for larger companies there will be commercial packages that include support." Elsewhere, W4 is developing a range of products and services which it's currently keeping under wraps, with Linietsky noting that they will most likely be announced at Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco next March. "The aim of W4 is to help developers overcome any problem developers may stumble upon while trying to use Godot commercially," Linietsky added. It's worth noting that there are a handful of commercial companies out there already, such as Lone Wolf Technology and Pineapple Works, that help developers get the most out of Godot -- including console porting. But Linietsky was keen to highlight one core difference between W4 and these incumbents: its expertise. "The main distinctive feature of W4 is that it has been created by the Godot project leadership, which are the individuals with the most understanding and insight about Godot and its community," he said.
Red Hat and the Enterprise (Score:4, Interesting)
So: Red Hat provides a liability shield, to both the manager deciding to go with open source software, and to the company as a whole for IP infringements. Red Hat's service consists of stopping the buck. I'm not sure how this works in the games industry, though.
Fun while it lasted. (Score:5, Insightful)
But Linietsky was keen to highlight one core difference between W4 and these incumbents: its expertise. "The main distinctive feature of W4 is that it has been created by the Godot project leadership, which are the individuals with the most understanding and insight about Godot and its community," he said.
Let's be honest here, the "incumbents" have a name and it's Unity. Yes, that Unity that just absorbed a malware author into itself [gamesindustry.biz]. As Unity's own acquisitions show, leadership is subject to change. Which is why W4 should come up with a better selling point. If people are fine with Unity absorbing a malware author into it's ranks, they aren't about to change engines. For those that are not fine with it, they want some more reassurances than "Leadership at the time of IPO." Which W4 doesn't seem to be providing here. Yes, OSS. But that will not include any of the commercial bits / services by definition, and that's what developers would be paying for. It's also what any future W4 would try to leverage against it's customer base.
I've seen plenty of independent devs suggest Godot as an alternative to Unity. I wonder if / how that will change moving forward. Personally, I'm still not a fan of the moves Qt did. (Mandating online accounts just to install the SDK and forbidding OSS from current releases for a year.) I don't support some projects I'd like to. Simply because of their Qt dependency. I say this because the methods for making a business from OSS are few. You can either create a commercial offering with special perks like Unity / Qt. Or you can sell support services. The latter tends to be less profitable. Unless you have some really unstable codebase that requires constant FORD work from the devs behind it. Beyond that, the best option is to create commercial addons / plugins that require the commercial licensing to use and or ship. It's also creates the most lock-in for your shareholders who will want the ROI that such things provide.
TL;DR I'd like to see this succeed, but I have my doubts it will. Guess I need to keep an eye out for alternatives again...
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Let's be honest here, the "incumbents" have a name and it's Unity.
The part of the quote you left out names other "incumbents":
It's worth noting that there are a handful of commercial companies out there already, such as Lone Wolf Technology and Pineapple Works, that help developers get the most out of Godot -- including console porting.
Godot can make games for Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, and for the web browser. To make games for a console, and use the console SDK and drivers, they need to sign an NDA with the console makers. This prevents them to provide the console exports in an Open Source project, since open sourcing would break the terms of the NDA. Lone Wolf Technology, Pineapple Works and now W4 provide closed extensions to Godot which allow the deployment of games on co
NOT Ansible Playbook! (Score:2)
I was really thrown by the title because there is a prominent tool called Ansible Playbook [redhat.com], a tool for automation which is often referred to a "Playbook". I eventually did a text search and the title is the only place where "playbook" occurs.
Do you guys not admin?
Re: (Score:2)
I was really thrown by the title because there is a prominent tool called Ansible Playbook [redhat.com], a tool for automation which is often referred to a "Playbook". I eventually did a text search and the title is the only place where "playbook" occurs.
Do you guys not admin?
So you think the Ansible project is the origin of the word "playbook"?
Re: (Score:1)
sO YoU ThInK ThE AnSiBlE PrOjEcT Is tHe oRiGiN Of tHe wOrD "pLaYbOoK"?