Current Events > Unity plans to start charging devs per install

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates

Here are some screencaps from Bluesky that explain why this is a bad idea
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/5/AAc3zuAAE1ZV.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/6/AAc3zuAAE1ZW.jpg

So like if a game made the sales goals to trigger this, you could just keep installing and uninstalling the game to cost the devs money?

RIP unity

no idea what this is glad it doesn't matter to me

Good

SauI_Goodman posted...

no idea what this is glad it doesn't matter to me

Essentially if a game earns 200k a year in sales and reaches the same amount of installs lifetime, Unity starts charging the dev everytime the game gets a new download/install. They even encourage devs putting in microtransactions to provide a steady revenue with this put into place.

No other game engine is doing this, so I imagine every dev is gonna drop Unity in favor of something else. I guess it won't be a problem if you're trying to learn game dev and you won't be earning that much or getting that popular.

Edit: I think the worst thing about this is that it's a retroactive change, so anyone currently making bank with Unity-made games will now get charged.

Monthly rate, huh?

RIP all those 'adult games' made in unity.

That sounds pretty slimy and an easy way to chase your customers off. Hopefully a number cruncher somewhere is going to tell them how stupid it is

So what happens if I just set my firewall to not allow Unity's trackers?

Read this whole topic and still don't quite understand what Unity is or who owns it.

Axiom posted...

Hopefully a number cruncher somewhere is going to tell them how stupid it is

Some number-cruncher already told them they could make a million bajillion dollars just off of games already in the wild.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I mean, it will probably push a lot of smaller indies away from unity

RIP indie studios

How much does Unity currently cost? Charing per install of a game seems awful if true.

SHRlKE posted...

How much does Unity currently cost? Charing per install of a game seems awful if true.

right now it only charges a percentage of your overall profit if you make over a certain threshold

i think it's 5% over $200,000?

Haven't worked in Unity in years and damn glad I left it behind.

Fuck unity. Better off using unreal engine.

Pokemon BDSP and P5S are made in unity, so wonder if TPC or Atlus will do something

yikes

Robot2600 posted...

Fuck unity. Better off using unreal engine.

Yeah, I'm kinda thinking I should just jump to Unreal if I want to learn how to seriously make games. I suppose there's Godot for an easier time, but I don't really want to waste time learning multiple engines.

It's per install? That's idiotic as hell. They're gonna force every dev to abandon them if they stick with that.

voldothegr8 posted...

Read this whole topic and still don't quite understand what Unity is or who owns it.

It's a graphics engine that game developers can use to create their games. It helps them render the characters, objects, backgrounds etc using the engines resources, instead of developers having to manually create all of that themselves

wow this is evil

So one particularly devilish customer could buy a game and spend all day installing and uninstalling the game just to cost the company money?

Trelve posted...

So one particularly devilish customer could buy a game and spend all day installing and uninstalling the game just to cost the company money?

sounds like it

BakonBitz posted...

No other game engine is doing this, so I imagine every dev is gonna drop Unity in favor of something else. I guess it won't be a problem if you're trying to learn game dev and you won't be earning that much or getting that popular.

I see no reason you would learn game dev on Unity with these changes. Might as well learn on Unreal Engine, Godot, Renpy, etc where you are free to publish games using their engine without worry that you may have to pay more money to the engine's owners later.

Trelve posted...

So one particularly devilish customer could buy a game and spend all day installing and uninstalling the game just to cost the company money?

Someone could just use an install/uninstall script and take the manual work out of it

Tmaster148 posted...

I see no reason you would learn game dev on Unity with these changes. Might as well learn on Unreal Engine, Godot, Renpy, etc where you are free to publish games using their engine without worry that you may have to pay more money to the engine's owners later.

Yeah, that's a good point. Better to not waste time learning an engine you're gonna ditch afterwards, just use a different one altogether.

Uh what happens if a Unity game gets released on gamepass?

Smashingpmkns posted...

Uh what happens if a Unity game gets released on gamepass?

Well...tough luck for the devs I guess.

Hell, we don't even know if pirated copies counts towards the install rate.

Glad I used MonoGame for my recent projects.

Not that any of them are sell-worthy anyway. The two notable ones, one is unfinished and honestly I'm not that happy with how it was going, might reboot the whole idea if I do stick with it; the other is a clone of a classic game (Lemmings 3D) so not really something I can sell, unless I reskin it completely.

well, reading through it, there are thresholds. they won't just take anyone's money. you need to reach certain amounts, based on the different license tier you have.

still extremely slimy. you also get less fees if you sign up for their services. so it's basically forcing sign ups to their additional bs.

let's be honest, if you're working on your own game, you're not going to hit those thresholds unless you're lucky or (somehow) have great marketing (lol). it's not going to affect tons of indie studios, but a lot will be hit. major studios are fucked. overall it's just nasty though and i hope they reconsider this bs.

mehmeh1 posted...

Pokemon BDSP and P5S are made in unity, so wonder if TPC or Atlus will do something

You can bet your ass that The Pokemon Company and SEGA have negotiated a special deal and will be completely unaffected by this.

Anyways, it's not specifically every install it's every install on new hardware. Still outrageous of course and I'd be VERY curious how Unity determines an install on new hardware.

Enclave posted...

You can bet your ass that The Pokemon Company and SEGA have negotiated a special deal and will be completely unaffected by this.

Anyways, it's not specifically every install it's every install on new hardware. Still outrageous of course and I'd be VERY curious how Unity determines an install on new hardware.

Seems like you could loophole that by providing the game only via streaming...

Enclave posted...

You can bet your ass that The Pokemon Company and SEGA have negotiated a special deal and will be completely unaffected by this.

Anyways, it's not specifically every install it's every install on new hardware. Still outrageous of course and I'd be VERY curious how Unity determines an install on new hardware.

Likely via the MAC address

somebody needs to break down what's special about each engine.

if you showed me 10 random clips of 3d video games, i wouldn't be able to tell one engine from another.

except for capcom since they apparently have the "resident evil" engine xd

Seems like all you need to do is set up a temporary proxy to India for the runtime install, and save a bucket of money.

Or, go the DirectX / .Net route, and insist end-users install the runtime themselves.

AsucaHayashi posted...

somebody needs to break down what's special about each engine.

if you showed me 10 random clips of 3d video games, i wouldn't be able to tell one engine from another.

except for capcom since they apparently have the "resident evil" engine xd

sort of hard to explain to people without some knowledge of programming

a game engine is essentially a package of pre-written code that is used to streamline and simplify the process of writing code for a game

so there are already pre written pieces of code for basic game things like character controller and movement, and depending on the engine youre using it may auto generate a lot of the necessary background code for you

the benefit of using an engine like Unity is that a lot of that stuff is very complex, especially physics calculations. The reason why a bigger developer might want to create their own engine is to fine tune things like that, as well as not have to pay fees, but that is prohibitively expensive for small and hobbyist developers

BakonBitz posted...

Essentially if a game earns 200k a year in sales and reaches the same amount of installs lifetime, Unity starts charging the dev everytime the game gets a new download/install. They even encourage devs putting in microtransactions to provide a steady revenue with this put into place.

The owner said a while back that anyone not filling a game with shitty microtransactions was an idiot, right? Did many people move away from Unity when that happened?

Also this makes me think of that 4chan post where the guy pirates a game 1,000,000 times, causing the developer to lose 60 million dollars and bankrupting them, but for real.

The threshold thing makes no sense. It should be bracketed like taxes

199,999 installs = no fees, 200,000 installs, 20c per install? Thats insane

Enclave posted...

Anyways, it's not specifically every install it's every install on new hardware. Still outrageous of course and I'd be VERY curious how Unity determines an install on new hardware.

According to Unity themselves it's every install. Bundles and charity stuff are exempt from this though, so Indie Humble Bundles are safe.

https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1701679721027633280?s=20

TheGoldenEel posted...

199,999 installs = no fees, 200,000 installs, 20c per install? Thats insane

This is how "limited edition" downloads happen.

rip Unity

make no mistake, this will be devastating for indie game development and indie gaming. Many beloved games like Hollow Knight, Subnautica, Ori & the Blind Forest, Cities: Skylines, Cuphead, Fall Guys, Genshin Impact, Pillars of Eternity, Beat Saber, Monument Valley, Among Us, etc were made in Unity, and starting in 2024 this change makes every install of these games a liability

2023 when corporations go full shitass

TheGoldenEel posted...

Genshin Impact

LOL.

TheGoldenEel posted...

The threshold thing makes no sense. It should be bracketed like taxes

199,999 installs = no fees, 200,000 installs, 20c per install? Thats insane

my understanding is

you have to have made $200K revenue + 200,000 installs in a 12 month period. And then its only installs after 200,000. So if you sold a game for $1 and made 200,001 installs youd pay the fee then once for the one install over 200,000.

But that was always the case with Unity since they took no fees until you made a certain revenue amount. And even then you can subscribe to Unity Pro if you are going to hit that amount to reduce your fees

still monumentally stupid

Xerun posted...

But that was always the case with Unity since they took no fees until you made a certain revenue amount.

Any middleware vendor that insists on knowing your revenue is already overreaching.

A tablesaw manufacturer would never get away with this, why should a graphics library?

Questionmarktarius posted...

Any middleware vendor that insists on knowing your revenue is already overreaching.

A tablesaw manufacturer would never get away with this, why should a graphics library?

Unreal Engine is no different in this case. I believe theres is 5% over $1m

Well that's dumb.