#unity fees

[v--nus]

some more of the well-known games on steam built in unity that may see astronomical price hikes, or they may just be removed from the store entirely, considering many are by small indie devs who can’t afford the ridiculous new fees:

- phasmophobia

- the long dark

- disco elysium

- outer wilds

- subnautica

- firewatch

- life is strange before the storm

- untitled goose game

[lufinabina]

Unity, the defacto household name game engine developer Unity, just did a rugpull that would make every cryptocurrency hypeman jealous to the core.

They want you to pay 20 cents per install for every game that reaches over 200 thousand USD in sales and over 200 000 downloads.

We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed

How are downloads tracked? Is it from data from digital storefronts or is it built into the Runtime code?

Does it mean that the same user could just uninstall and install the game several times, or install the same game on multiple machines costing you 20 cents each time?

How does it work with subscription services such as Game Pass?

Do demos of the same game count? Do pirated copies of your game count?

While the 200k revenue criteria makes sure you don't pay them immediately when your game goes on sale, it doesn't take into account what the game is selling for on storefronts.

Though unlikely for the vast majority of developers, say you have a lucky break and your game hits 1.2 million downloads in the first year after you put it up on sale. That's 200 thousand USD you owe Unity in the "Unity Runtime Fee" alone, and that's a much bigger slice of the revenue for a game costing 1-5 dollars compared to a game costing 10-20 dollars. Essentially you are punished for selling a cheap game, or including your game in a big sale.

And the kicker is that this applies retroactively for all devs for each and every game meeting the threshold, all with no prior communication aside from this blog post. This is just mindboggling to me.

[safetycgreen]

For everyone who's seen the unity "backtrack", please remember that the runtime fee is still absolutely bullshit and you should absolutely not use unity where you can. They've played their hand and decided that they can squeeze money from whatever bullshit they think they can get away with. DO NOT USE UNITY, DO NOT LEARN UNITY, DO NOT MAKE CONTENT FOR UNITY.

This is still an awful tos and absolute poison for the gaming community and the developer community. Install fees are poisonous for everyone.

[veetri-bitcrush]

It's so... uh... dystopian to be hear the friendly Nintendo Direct announcer through the lens of the Unity debacle :P

We're making it guys, we are in the future we've been toying with in fiction.

[nullcasting]

it is time to learn unreal engine and godot, my friends

[glugglestar]

when a company offers a "compromise", look at it like that's what they were implementing in the first place.

chances are, the company is trojan horsing its userbase - giving them a shit deal and then presenting them with a better one when the backlash starts to come in. The deal will be better, but NOT good. do not fall for this tactic

[ravioliwings]

this whole Unity thing might nuke the indie spore remake effort what the fuck

[wheatlev]

starting to think that people don't read the full unity article.

[idrawtoomuch-gw2]

...

[grapeagata]

I hope the uniity headquarters fucking EXPLODE

[windowhateswildworks]

wait if unity starts charging for downloads is that going to affect play wild... yikes

[periidote]

i doubt unreal engine is safe if unity can get away with this bullshit. if unity gets a free pass to change their ToS to include new fees that contradict previous versions of the ToS who knows what companies will be free to do with that precedent

[benignhumor]

The Godot community watching Unity self destruct:

[townpostin]

Jamshedpur Traders to Protest Bazaar Samiti Fee with Torch March

SCCI and Vyapar Mandal organize demonstration against proposed food grain tax Jamshedpur’s business community unites to oppose the Jharkhand government’s plan to impose a Bazaar Samiti fee on food grains. JAMSHEDPUR – The Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and Vyapar Mandal will lead a torch procession on September 1 to protest the proposed Bazaar Samiti fee on food grains. The…

[vampirecatprince]

I was thinking of going with Godot for my game project and just accepting that possible console releases would involve a remake, BUT I just found out that Game Maker Studio just revealed a new one time fee set up for non-console commercial ports AND has a free option for actually making the game and non-commercial uses...