Blue Robot and Red Hat: Which playbook is Godot Engine trying to take a page from?

Publication Date: November 3, 2023

Updated: May 6, 2024

Godot is ostensibly a free and open-source game engine. However, several key factors suggest that Godot operates disingenuously. One such key factor is Godot’s for-profit W4 Games company, co-founded by Juan Linietsky and Rémi Verschelde, the lead developer and project manager of allegedly non-profit Godot respectively:

One of W4 Games’ investors is Bob Young, the co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat, an enterprise-focused open-source company that IBM went on to acquire. According to the article titled “How W4 plans to monetize the Godot game engine using Red Hat’s open source playbook”, Juan Linietsky claims to follow Red Hat’s success story:

“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.”

[…]

“Bob is an incredible human being who helped create a whole new type of business where nobody expected it was possible,” Linietsky continued. “He identified the opportunity for Godot and W4 as very similar to Linux and Red Hat two decades ago, and has been very kind to share his wisdom with us, as well as becoming an investor in our company.”

The cooperation between Godot and Red Hat doesn’t stop here. The official Godot channel previously published a video titled “Godot for the Enterprise - Luke Dary - GodotCon2021”:

Luke Dary is an employee at Red Hat. He said, “Godot played a part in both the 2019 and 2020 Red Hat Summit technical demos.” Red Hat officially promoted Godot at GDC 2021:

As you may already know, Unity’s pricing changes caused a stir in the game development industry. Some overzealous Godot users contributed to further destabilizing Unity’s situation. They opportunistically infiltrated the unofficial r/Unity3D subreddit to promote Godot, which de facto turned out to be a front group for attracting new Godot users, read Waiting and Unionizing for Blue Robot: Are Godot advocates infiltrating Unity?

Progressively, Unity adjusted its pricing model to cater to its users. This included suggesting an alternative rev-share model and removing the requirement to display Unity’s splash screen. John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity, later resigned and was replaced by James Whitehurst as the interim CEO and President of Unity. James Whitehurst is the former CEO of Red Hat.

It’s hard to say how the appointment of Unity’s new interim CEO will impact the development trajectories of both Unity and Godot. However, there are already discussions about how Whitehurst might steer Unity through turbulent waters, and whether Godot can weather the tsunami caused by Unity’s decisions. Some even say that Whitehurst might stick to his usual playbook and acqui-hire the Godot project leads, so Unity wouldn’t have to fret about Godot potentially disrupting the industry.

It is not far-fetched to imagine a scenario where Godot, the open-source game engine, is influenced by the Red Hat CEO’s connections when such connections already exist. This possibility gains credibility due to Juan Linietsky’s recent statement that he doesn’t make any technical decisions in Godot anymore and that calling himself the technical director would be an overstatement. With this void in the technical leadership, it becomes necessary to fill the gap.

According to some discussions that previously happened within the Godot community, people have variously described the interplay between Godot, W4 Games, and Red Hat to be “cautiously optimistic”:

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While others expressed that Juan Linietsky controlling both W4 Games and Godot are warning signs that must not be avoided:

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In fact, such concerns are reminiscent and/or analogous to Software Freedom Conservancy’s thoughts on IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat:

I’ve heard people imagining the best from this deal, and also people imagining the worst. The one thing everyone can agree on is that there’s a lot of uncertainty, despite whatever reassurances are contained in corporate messaging. Because of this, I think it’s a good time to remind everyone of the ways we can protect ourselves now and in the future from these kinds of uncertainties related to changes in ownership, structure or motivations of corporate players in free and open source software: […]

Dissatisfaction with Godot’s failure to live up to its stated principles of being community-driven finds parallels in other open-source projects, such as Fedora and its commercial distribution Red Hat:

Please remove the "community driven" part from Fedora's official descriptions if no community is supposed to be involved in decision making
byu/LunaSPR inFedora

It should be noted that Godot is in the process of leaving Software Freedom Conservancy for the new Godot Foundation, in order to establish the ultimate control over the funding decisions. They labeled this event as “graduation.” Godot also announced the work-in-progress Asset Store, likely in an attempt to replicate Unity’s business model in this regard

These decisions are inconsistent with Juan’s claim about Godot’s purpose and motivations:

In all seriousness, the current Godot logo was created to convey a friendly, welcoming and informal feeling, which is what the engine represents at heart..

Our goal is to make the best engine you will ever use (having lots of fun along the way) and make sure it’s as accessible as possible for everyone. We are not here to sell a professional product or make money from you [emphasis added]. So, I hope you can accept and enjoy Godot for what it is.

Further reading on the topic of Red Hat: