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Why Unity's New Install Fees Are Spurring Massive Backlash Among Game Developers - IGN (www.ign.com)
submitted 2 years ago by geosoco@kbin.social to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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The Unity Runtime Fee is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024, and it's been universally panned by developers on social media since its announcement earlier today.

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For instance, if a free-to-play game has made $200,0000 in the last 12 months but has millions of people installing it, the developer could end up owing Unity more than the profit earned from in-game purchases.

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Others are worried this could lead some smaller developers who built their games on Unity to pull titles from digital storefronts to prevent more people from racking up downloads.

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"I bet Steam, Epic, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft will love having waves of developers pulling their games," writes Forest from Among Us developer Innersloth Games. "Innersloth has always paid Unity appropriately for licenses and services we use. I'm not a discourse guy, but this is undue and will force my hand."

Other developers are actually asking people online to not install their game built in Unity, with Paper Trail developer Huenry Hueffman writing, "if you buy our Unity game, please don't install it… demos also count, dont install this demo, you'll literally bankrupt me".

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Unity also clarified that the fee will not apply to charity games or charity bundles. Unity defended the pricing model, saying it's designed to only charge developers who have already found financial success.

We only succeed when you succeed. Our 5% royalty model only kicks in after your first $1M in gross revenue, meaning that if you make $1,000,001 you owe us 5 cents. And this is per title!
Also, revenue generated from the Epic Games Store will be excluded from that 5% royalty.

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Unity has been under pressure lately, laying off hundreds of employees in the first half of 2023. Riccitiello also came under fire in 2022 for referring to developers who don't focus on microtransactions as the "biggest f*cking idiots" before apologizing. Featured in everything from Cuphead to Beat Saber to Pokemon Go, it has been lauded for ease of use. However, trust in the platform has been declining over the years, leading many developers to look to alternatives.

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[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 144 points 2 years ago

Riccitiello also came under fire in 2022 for referring to developers who don't focus on microtransactions as the "biggest f*cking idiots" before apologizing.

Classic CEO brainrot. There's more to life than just maximizing profit.

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 years ago

Maybe this will be the kick in the rear that gets people to drop them enmasse. I'd definitely explore the other options for any new projects I was starting.

Even if they drop this fee, is it really worth the headache in the future when they try something again?

[-] doctorcrimson@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago

No, Unity has always been an inferior engine to others such as Unreal Engine, Lumberyard, Blender, etc. In fact, the Unreal Engine 3 UDK became free well over a decade ago, and it's basically Unity if Unity weren't the scummy corporate vampires they've always been.

[-] quams69@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Let's not pretend Epic aren't also scummy corporate vampires

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[-] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago

In a capitalist oligarchy? There’s really not.

[-] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 59 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well fuck me, apparently. The Adobe and Sibelius fees already break me, and I’ve invested enough in Unity assets (not to mention the learning curve) to get a game close to preproduction, and this could drive me out.

I’m a tiny Dev just trying to break into VR, console, and mobile by myself, and am dirt poor with no support, just my knowledge and talent. I’m working on three beta projects, but this makes me scared to continue on Unity.

I’m a good designer and developer with industry experience, but my health has forced me into smaller Indy projects. I put all my eggs in Unity’s basket and now it feels like they’re ditching me just at the point I was ready for production.

God dammit. :(

[-] doctorcrimson@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 years ago

It's not like nobody warned you Unity was bad, they've been hounding developers forever. I've personally been warning people to not touch unity and instead use the vastly superior Unreal Engine, ever since the UDK days. This isn't the fall of Unity, it's mid descent.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

Kick 'em while they're down

[-] weirdo_from_space@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 years ago

For future projects you may want to consider Godot or Stride. Free and Open Source.

[-] SkyeStarfall 15 points 2 years ago

Sometimes it seems to me that almost everything that isn't FOSS/non-profit goes down the shitter these days in the name of profit. It really does feel like the only way to avoid getting fucked over is to completely ditch commercial stuff.

Our world sure does work, eh?

[-] FalseDiamond@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 years ago

Stallman was right all along.

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[-] Skrinkus@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago

Jump ship to Musescore and Affinity while you're at it my friend.

[-] Luci@lemmy.ca 52 points 2 years ago

Just a reminder that other game engines exist. Some are even free and just as powerful, if not more.

[-] geosoco@kbin.social 48 points 2 years ago

Like godot!

Here's a bunch of other dev related tools link.

[-] static09@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago
[-] Kata1yst@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago

And O3DE, formally Amazon Lumberyard / CryEngine

https://o3de.org/

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[-] M500@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

I know nothing about game dev.

Is godot really just as powerful? I’ve heard of it, but I always thought it was for 2d stuff.

[-] EnglishMobster@kbin.social 13 points 2 years ago

Godot is a passable engine. It doesn't have a massive pile of money behind it, but it'll generally do most things adequately.

Honestly - and I may be biased as I'm a AAA dev who works with the engine - Unreal is really the way to go. Reasonable pricing on a powerful engine. The main issue is that it's bloated as hell and there's a learning curve... but if you're an indie, it's just as usable as Unity. Plus if you wanted to get into AAA development someday, Unreal is super popular and used everywhere.

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It shines in 2D where Unity falters, yes. But it's perfectly capable of doing 3D competently. It's shaders and lightning pipelines that are a bit rough on the edges, but that can be overcome with time with more brainpower coming in to contribute. The scripting is also far more robust than the hodgepodge that Unity tries to pass off as C#. The great advantage is that Godot is a non-profit foundation with a transparent governance model. Not a predatory venture capitalist behemoth like Unity.

[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's been really great for 2d, 4.0 made it really good for 3d, and it's even decent for general GUI applications, as an engine it feels ready for wider adoption to me.

I think it's not up to Unreal quality, but for the vast majority of indie games I believe it's enough.

[-] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This doesn't help people who were already knee deep in a project.

I might invest in some cheap liquor instead.

[-] LetMeEatCake@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Unity is Unreal's biggest marketer now, it seems...

Curious if some of the many internal AAA engines out there might start to get shopped around as a new alternate to UE. Sony, Ubisoft, and Microsoft all have a few in house engines that at least on paper seem viable for branching out — the biggest obstacle would be support, I suspect. Which isn't a trivial obstacle, to be clear.

idTech is due for a resurgence. Maybe Valve could even get a revival in usage of Source.

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[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 37 points 2 years ago

The aftermath from its main audience, mobile devs, is going to be biblical.

[-] weirdo_from_space@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 years ago

My hope would be that this encourages open source engine usage but it'll probably simply make Unreal Engine more popular instead.

[-] FractalsInfinite@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

To be fair, while unreal isn't FOSS, it's source code is at least openly viewable so devs would find it easier to make easily transferable alternatives

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[-] Dawn@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

I can see why you would think that, but there's alot of stuff unreal just isn't that good at, things like 2d games are a massive struggle to work with in unreal, so it'll gain more popularity, but mainly from devs making 3d games with a focus on high graphics

[-] yokonzo@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Godot is a pretty good alternative for 2D games

[-] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 years ago

I'm confused. I've never licensed a game engine, but I figure you'd write what charges you pay into the contract, and as far as I know, you can't just add additional charges in later without renegotiating the contract. At least, you'd have no way to enforce those. So I'm sort of at a loss how this is even supposed to work.

[-] Mandarbmax@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

The game engine is licensed as a subscription. When January 1st rolls around and the dev's meed to renew their subscription it will have these new terms. Their options are to accept this or to never update their games again.

[-] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

Makes sense. I hope the unity guys come to their senses. This whole thing seems rather self-destructive on the company's part. Unity is far from being a monopoly, with one competitor being free and open source (Godot). And pulling stunts like these, even if you walk them back later, does not engender trust.

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[-] Guntrigger@feddit.ch 24 points 2 years ago

I forgot it was John Riccitiello at the helm of Unity these days. That explains a lot.

Also quite interesting that he's offloaded ~$2mil worth if Unity shares in the past year too

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 22 points 2 years ago

May your golden parachute have secretly been stuffed with lead you greedy abusive piece of shit. Fuck these bait and switch MBAs.

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 12 points 2 years ago

Just read some details, it's a monthly fee too? Wouldn't that really screw over single-player games which don't do recurring revenue?

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 11 points 2 years ago

Good thing i switched from unity to godot a while ago

[-] jdeath@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

i have a couple Unity games that are close to shipping, i think i'll hold off on that and rewrite in Godot instead. I was already considering it since working with Godot is a thousand times more pleasant than Unity anyway.

[-] ott@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 years ago

Can someone explain to me why they might have gone with this strange pricing model instead of the very simple revenue sharing model that Epic uses?

[-] EnglishMobster@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Because a lot of mobile games are made in Unity, and mobile has a higher rate of people who install and then uninstall without really playing the game. People also install things by mistake on mobile, thinking they're something else.

So by charging based on installs, they're able to squeeze developers a lot more (especially mobile game developers). Competitor engines like Unreal don't run very well on mobile.

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[-] Mawkey@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago

Join the Godot Chad's!

[-] geosoco@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago

This article has some new quotes and details. I know we have the other thread going, but this would get buried over there.

[-] lalo@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 years ago

They pushed this change with the always online dev kit. I believe the price change is a smoke screen for the other changes. Soon they might step back on this decision.

[-] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

Unity's CEO must have met with Reddit CEO over a party and after discussion, came to this horrible profit making decision I guess.

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[-] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

Twitter has gotten enshittified. Reddit has gotten enshittified. Now Unity is getting enshittified.

It's time to learn the lesson: don't be a sharecropper on somebody else's property.

[-] mjctechguy@feddit.uk 6 points 2 years ago

L

[-] shapis@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I've been using Godot for engineering simulations and I cannot recommend it enough for this one niche.

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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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