Switch game cancelled over controversial Unity changes

A Switch port of highly praised Wipeout-like BallisticNG has been scrapped

A planned Switch port of BallisticNG, a Wipeout-inspired racing game with “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steam, has been cancelled due to Unity’s recent policy changes.

Earlier this month, the software development company announced plans to charge developers every time a game that uses its Unity engine is installed.

Despite a subsequent apology followed by an attempt to partially walk back these plans over the weekend, much of the development community is still frustrated at the proposed changes to the terms of using Unity, with some saying it will affect their future projects.

Now, in one of the first solid examples of this, the developer of BallisticNG says it has cancelled its Switch port as a direct result of the Unity situation.

As spotted by ComicBook, developer Neognosis posted an update on the game’s Steam page, stating that the Switch port is no more, partly because it would have to upgrade to a new version of Unity and therefore be subject to the new terms of service.

“Nintendo has a rolling Unity version requirement for game releases and we’re already behind the threshold by two years,” the studio says.

“Two weeks ago this wouldn’t have been an issue – no doubt there’d have be some pains in updating BallisticNG to a new version of Unity again, but it would have benefited us in the long run.

“By the time we’ll have a Switch version of BallisticNG ready, the threshold for Unity versions will exceed the new versions that Unity are pushing their TOS changes with, and we currently have no confidence that they won’t try pulling another move or pushing back to their original plans under / beyond this new TOS.”

Because of this uncertainty, Neognosis says it has abandoned its plans for the Switch version of the game.

“Despite Unity’s efforts to recover after their PR disaster, there just isn’t any trust and security for us to continue moving forward with newer versions of their tools in the foreseeable future,” it said.

“It comes with much frustration and disappointment that we’re announcing the cancellation of the Switch version.

“Several years of development has gone into preparing BallisticNG technically for the port while maintaining the usual output of updates for the PC version, so this comes as a big kick in the balls to both us and everybody else who was excited for this version of the game.

“We’re sorry that it has turned out this way, and we’ll be looking at working with the console (or the rumoured Switch 2) in a future project not bound by Unity.”