Unity to start charging some developers money every time someone new installs their game

[Genava55]

An article from Rock Paper Shotgun.
 

Quote

The makers of game creation software Unity have announced a new pricing structure. They're calling it the "Unity Runtime Fee", and it means qualifying developers who use Unity will be charged an extra fee for each player that installs their game.

In response to widespread criticism of the changes from game developers, Unity have since posted a further statement, saying, "Yes, this is a price increase and it will only affect a small subset of current Unity Editor users."

Developers will only be charged the fee if their game has crossed certain thresholds. For example, developers using Unity Personal or Plus editions will be charged a fee per-game install if their game has generated $200,000 USD in revenue in the past 12 months and has been installed 200,000 times across its lifetime. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise users, meanwhile, will be charged per-install for games that have generated $1m USD in the past 12 months and which have 1 million lifetime installs.

The amount charged per-install also varies depending on the version of Unity used, and installs will only start being tracked from January 1st, 2024 onwards.

Full story here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/unity-to-start-charging-some-developers-money-every-time-someone-new-installs-their-game

Other related news:

Video-Game Company Unity Closes Offices Following Death Threat: https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/unity-received-death-threat-from-one-of-its-employees-claims-report-3498506

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement, raising eyebrows : https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-bosses-sold-stock-days-before-development-fees-announcement-raising-eyebrows

Edited September 15, 2023 by Genava55

[Trinketos]

Why are there people who specialize in an engine?

is dumb in my opinion. 

[Gurken Khan]

52 minutes ago, Trinketos said:

Why are there people who specialize in an engine?

is dumb in my opinion. 

???

An engine is the foundation of any game. The better the engine, the better the player-experience. (Not that a good engine would be the only thing a good game requires, ofc.)

I heard a couple of days ago (Yong Yea) that they're already back-paddling on this because of the backlash, so I just see how it turns out.

It immediately reminded me of the Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/D&D thing.

[guerringuerrin]

On 15/09/2023 at 9:44 AM, Genava55 said:

An article from Rock Paper Shotgun.
 

Full story here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/unity-to-start-charging-some-developers-money-every-time-someone-new-installs-their-game

Other related news:

Video-Game Company Unity Closes Offices Following Death Threat: https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/unity-received-death-threat-from-one-of-its-employees-claims-report-3498506

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement, raising eyebrows : https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-bosses-sold-stock-days-before-development-fees-announcement-raising-eyebrows

Yeah, this sucks. The community are so angry right now. These misers CEOs... Aren't they already rich enough?

[Gurken Khan]

Since I heard that the CEO of Unity was before at EA and he was too greedy even for them, I would like to say that I'm not surprised by anything anymore; however, they're still finding surprising ways of making it worse. If the total destruction of Unity (along with some insider trading, probably) isn't the goal, I don't know what is. It is already hurting studios, and I don't see how anyone would decide on using Unity going forward.

 

 

[Joe-Lay]

On 16/09/2023 at 1:23 PM, guerringuerrin said:

These misers CEOs... Aren't they already rich enough?

A lot of the time, it's the miserly stockholders. If a CEO isn't increasng company revenue enough... Pfft! Off he goes! The stockholders replace him and he is stuck out on the streets.