Current Events > Unity U-Turns on new pricing model.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://x.com/unity/status/1702077049425596900

Looks like a fixed cost per player now and multiple installs wont be charged.

Looks like it's still terrible and they're going out of business

punkfanalways posted...

https://x.com/unity/status/1702077049425596900

Looks like a fixed cost per player now and multiple installs wont be charged.

This isn't a u-turn at all

It's a start, but they still need to run it all the way back

This isnt a u-turn, and still screws developers of existing games

Turbam posted...

It's a start, but they still need to run it all the way back

Whats the current revenue model for Unity? I dont blame them for wanting to make money off their product. Its obviously a good one based on how ubiquitous it is in the game dev world.

TheGoldenEel posted...

This isnt a u-turn, and still screws developers of existing games

I thought I read it doesnt affect retrospectively?

punkfanalways posted...

I thought I read it doesnt affect retrospectively?

It never affected installs retroactively. They are just clarifying the things they already said in their FAQ.

punkfanalways posted...

Whats the current revenue model for Unity? I dont blame them for wanting to make money off their product. Its obviously a good one based on how ubiquitous it is in the game dev world.

You're legally required to pay for a subscription if your team is over a certain size and they get a cut off sales from the asset store.

They need to run it all the way back. Describing exactly how far back they need to run it would be exceptionally crude and possibly moddable.

Tyranthraxus posted...

This isn't a u-turn at all

with their first model a bot farm could install and uninstall games repeatedly to put an entire developer out of business

this is a pretty huge backtrack

thronedfire2 posted...

with their first model a bot farm could install and uninstall games repeatedly to put an entire developer out of business

this is a pretty huge backtrack

I don't think anyone ever genuinely felt bot installs would be honored. It just wasn't explicit in the contract. If they tried to charge you for bot installs you could sue them for fraud.

It's a tad less fucky than before, but it's still utter bullshit.

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't think anyone ever genuinely felt bot installs would be honored. It just wasn't explicit in the contract. If they tried to charge you for bot installs you could sue them for fraud.

if it's not explicitly limited by the contract it's going to happen

that's the way the world works

and the first contract didn't say anything about bot installs. if just said they would charge for *every* install.

thronedfire2 posted...

if it's not explicitly limited by the contract it's going to happen

that's the way the world works

and the first contract didn't say anything about bot installs. if just said they would charge for *every* install.

That's like saying the contract doesn't explicitly say I have to pay the fee so I don't have to pay it.

That shit would never hold up in court.

I don't understand what Unity is exactly. What's going on?

Ar0ge posted...

I don't understand what Unity is exactly. What's going on?

It's a popular game engine used by indie and AAA devs

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't think anyone ever genuinely felt bot installs would be honored. It just wasn't explicit in the contract. If they tried to charge you for bot installs you could sue them for fraud.

I dunno man. Deffo seen on the other topic on here and Reddit it was mentioned multiple times.

Ar0ge posted...

I don't understand what Unity is exactly. What's going on?

Unity's just a game engine that people can use to make games with. Same with Unreal Engine.

Tyranthraxus posted...

That's like saying the contract doesn't explicitly say I have to pay the fee so I don't have to pay it.

That shit would never hold up in court.

what?

their first proposal was that devs would have to pay them a fee for every install. there was absolutely nothing in there about installs done by bots but that's what would have inevitably happened if they weren't forced to retract and rewrite the contract.

thronedfire2 posted...

what?

their first proposal was that devs would have to pay them a fee for every install. there was absolutely nothing in there about installs done by bots but that's what would have inevitably happened if they weren't forced to retract and rewrite the contract.

No the contract just said what the fee was not that I had to pay it.

There's absolutely no way Unity would have honored bot install farms. Whether it's in the contract or not, that would be considered fraud at even the most surface level examinations. The fact that they're clarifying that they won't charge for it is nice but it's obvious they never intended to.

This policy is plenty shit as is and nothing they've said counts as any kind of reversal. And even if they reverse the whole thing it's too late. They've already proven they're willing to dump spyware into the runtime and there's no reason to ever trust them again with any game.

Tyranthraxus posted...

No the contract just said what the fee was not that I had to pay it.

There's absolutely no way Unity would have honored bot install farms. Whether it's in the contract or not, that would be considered fraud at even the most surface level examinations. The fact that they're clarifying that they won't charge for it is nice but it's obvious they never intended to.

This policy is plenty shit as is and nothing they've said counts as any kind of reversal. And even if they reverse the whole thing it's too late. They've already proven they're willing to dump spyware into the runtime and there's no reason to ever trust them again with any game.

so you think they would have been paying people to verify that every game install was valid and wasn't coming from a bot instead of just setting up a program to charge the fee for every install?

that's very...optimistic of you

It still can't be allowed to go through. Make no mistake. If they get away with it then others will follow suit.

It's hilarious watching a business go "Okay we may have tried to fuck you too hard with this one. How about we fuck you slightly less? No? Well I can't stop thrusting so we're gonna have to figure something out."

Punished_Blinx posted...

It's hilarious watching a business go "Okay we may have tried to fuck you too hard with this one. How about we fuck you slightly less? No? Well I can't stop thrusting so we're gonna have to figure something out."

"oh sorry, give us 20 minutes. we have to run to CVS for lube"

thronedfire2 posted...

so you think they would have been paying people to verify that every game install was valid and wasn't coming from a bot instead of just setting up a program to charge the fee for every install?

that's very...optimistic of you

They would have to during discovery. That's how it works.

i love how the outrage is page 1 but this is page 6, no kudos for rolling it back!

Naysaspace posted...

i love how the outrage is page 1 but this is page 6, no kudos for rolling it back!

They don't deserve shit. It's something that should never have been done in the first place.

So devs just have to trust Unity's word that they will reliably detect fraudulent installs? Even if Unity have a financial incentive to not do that?

Also, see:
https://twitter.com/Alistair_McF/status/1701997285167489522

punkfanalways posted...

fixed cost per player

the hell does that mean?

Questionmarktarius posted...

the hell does that mean?

Charged per game sale basically rather than install.

punkfanalways posted...

Charged per game sale basically rather than install.

Explain how that does anything to assure F2P games that they won't get fucked

Tyranthraxus posted...

Explain how that does anything to assure F2P games that they won't get fucked

F2P games wont be making 200k in revenue. I think that was the threshold right.

It's still shit.

At this point I would not be surprised if they just tried to create the biggest pile of shit possible, just to back down in a "U-Turn", to sell this as a "look, it's actually much better than before, we listen to you".

punkfanalways posted...

Charged per game sale basically rather than install.

That's not what the posts says though. Sounds like Unity is doubling down on charging per install.

They've clarified they won't tax re-installs for the same device, but will still charge when a user installs it on multiple devices. It's also unclear how they're going to count re-installing on the same device after an OS change, or a (partial) hardware swap.

In the FAQ Unity says they'll "work with" developers who are targeted by fraudulent installs or piracy, but they're entirely opaque on how exactly they plan on detecting that. A "trust me, bro" just isn't going to cut it, especially knowing that accurately detecting that goes against Unity's financial interests.

Apparently the Slay the Spire dev put out their first ever public statement that they're going back to rebuild a new game they've been working on for two years to get away from Unity.

punkfanalways posted...

F2P games wont be making 200k in revenue. I think that was the threshold right.

F2P games regularly make millions

Tyranthraxus posted...

F2P games regularly make millions

I don't see the issue then.