Last week, Unity debuted a new generative AI platform dubbed Unity Spark that will purportedly allow users to prompt video games into existence. Unity explained Spark will pull "artist-created assets" from the Unity Asset Store to meet the demands of its would-be developers.
But what if you're an Asset Store publisher who doesn't want to support Unity's latest generative AI endeavour? Well, the company is making a whole bunch of assets available to Spark users by default, meaning creators will need to manually opt-out by excluding individual assets and packages.
Squeakross: Home Squeak developer Luka Lescuyer sounded the alarm on Bluesky after receiving an email from Unity confirming one of their Asset Store packages had been converted into "Itemised Objects," making them available in Unity Spark.
In that same email, Unity noted "excluded packages and items won't be available in Unity Spark, in the Unity Editor, through the Unity CLI, or in other future ways users can discover Itemised Objects."
Lescuyer described the process of excluding assets as "awful and not clear" and said itemisation—which they feel is basically another word for AI scraping—should be opt-in, not opt-out.
Speaking to Vertical Slice over email, Lescuyer explained only one of their asset packs was itemised initially, but that Unity sought to itemise another soon after.
"I had 12 of them and one of them was selected. It was a free asset pack. They haven't explained why they selected this one," he said. "They didn't really communicate about it, just added my asset pack and sent me an email."
Lescuyer feels Unity is forcing Asset Creators into itemisation without being fully transparent about what that means, especially in relation to Unity Spark.
"If you're not following Unity news and have no idea what Unity Spark is, the email doesn't make it clear it's AI," added Lescuyer. "I'm firmly against AI and I won't use Unity Spark ever, so I am not okay with them using my assets for this. I wish it was opt-in instead of opt-out, Unity is always very opaque on how stuff are handled so I'm not really surprised either."
Lescuyer has now depreciated all of their assets so they cannot be accessed by Spark.
Unity says itemisation is not "scraping" and was one of its "most requested" features
In the email from Unity shared on Bluesky by Lescuyer, the company tells asset creators to check out a "Discussions post" on the private Asset Store forum for more information.
Vertical Slice reached out to Unity for comment and asked whether the company could share the full text from that forum post. "Unfortunately this is a private forum with Asset Store publishers so the link won't be accessible," said a Unity representative.
Unity also rejected the idea that itemisation allows assets to be "scraped" by Spark, but confirmed creators are being opted into the process by default.
"Assets aren't being scraped. Itemisation is one of our community’s most requested Asset Store features. It breaks packages into individual items, so users can find and use exactly what they need, and publishers’ work becomes easier to discover and reaches new creators. We announced the change to publishers in the Asset Store’s publisher Discussions forum," added the rep.
"The feature is on by default because it’s being rolled out across the whole catalogue to deliver an improved Asset Store experience. Publishers are emailed before any of their itemised content goes live, and they can exclude any package or individual item, including from Unity Spark, at any time."
The representative said itemisation is being rolled out across the Asset Store in batches.
When asked whether Unity Spark will able to access both free and paid assets, Unity said the generative AI platform will allow users to build with a "selection of free Asset Store content" at first. "Support for paid assets is something we’re exploring, and we’ll have more details to share with publishers when they're ready," they added.
In an FAQ made available to Asset Store publishers and shared with Vertical Slice, Unity said "itemising" content is simply a way to enable new "methods of discovery and use."
"The full package you sell on the Asset Store continues to be available as it is today. We generate a per-asset index of what the package contains. Each item gets its own preview, description, and metadata so it can be searched, discovered, and evaluated on its own. Your original pack is untouched and remains the product that developers purchase from the Asset Store," reads the FAQ.
"Developers continue to purchase your content via Asset Store. New discovery pathways may lead to new users finding and using your content. We believe that more users will purchase more content if they find it more easily discoverable."
The FAQ notes that assets are "not being used by Unity to train AI models." On the subject of excluding assets, it states the following:
"Yes. If you feel an 'Itemized' asset is not suitable for discovery and use, the preview page linked in your notice email enables you to set the status of itemized assets. Each individual item can be removed from discovery and distribution. It remains part of your full package."
"You can choose to exclude individual items from itemized discovery or exclude a whole package. Your package remains available on Asset Store. Excluding individual items, or all items in a package, removes it from individual discovery and importing only."
Unity said changing the inclusion status of an asset may take a "day or two" to fully reflect in its systems.
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
