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Unity to Start Charging Per-Installation Fee with New Business Model Update

AleksandarK

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Unity is introducing some notable changes to its pricing and service offerings, slated to take effect on January 1, 2024. The new Unity Runtime Fee will be based on the number of game installs at the heart of these changes. This fee will apply every time an end user downloads a qualifying game. Unity believes this initial install-based fee allows creators to retain the financial benefits of ongoing player engagement, unlike a model based on revenue sharing. The company clarifies that the fee refers explicitly to the Unity Runtime, part of the Unity Engine that enables games to run on different devices. Additionally, these changes are not going to be not retroactive or perpetual. Instead, all fees will start counting on January 1, 2024. The fee will apply once for each new install and not an ongoing perpetual license royalty, like revenue share.

However, the new Unity Runtime Fee comes with specific thresholds for revenue and installs, designed to ensure that smaller creators are not adversely affected. For Unity Personal and Unity Plus, the fee applies only to games that have generated $200,000 or more in the last 12 months and have a minimum of 200,000 lifetime installs. For Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, the fee kicks in for games that have made $1,000,000 or more in the last 12 months and have at least 1,000,000 lifetime installs. The table below shows which Unity accounts pay what fees, with costs ranging from $0.2 per install after the first 200,000 installs. After one million installs, each new install starts at $0.15 and $0.125 for Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, respectively. As the game gains traction, install fees decay, as shown in the table below.



Update 15:36 UTC: Unity issued a statement on company's Twitter/X account that promises changes in the couple of days.

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback.

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Alternative headline:

"Unreal Engine booming as developers abandon Unity."
 
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The per install scam must be a right wheeze for the owners of unity, because games can be installed multiple times costing the games dev each time you install it if you over the install limit that activates the fee. This is just crazy and I would have thought bordering on, if not illegal. I would exspect to see some competition and market regulatory bodies to have something to say about this.
 
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Perhaps this is meant to reduce amount of cheap Unity made crap flooding Steam and such?
 
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Why so complex, to my knowledge unreal engine has a much simpler fee system, just follow it and make more competitive.
 
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It seems to make they're trying to make more out of high profile titles like BG3 and Rogue Trader.
 
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I've heard U is gonna get the shit shorted out of it over this. How to piss ppl off in one easy step... :laugh:
 
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This makes me fear for a couple of games I like, hopefully they can run away without too much damage...
 
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This all relates to unity somehow not being profitable. How these guys manage to waste so much cash as to be unprofitable, while unreal makes money hand over fist, is anybody's guess. Sounds to me like they should be firing their C suite and restructuring management.
 
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It seems to make they're trying to make more out of high profile titles like BG3 and Rogue Trader.

BG3 uses a proprietary engine developed by Larian. This change does not impact that game at all..
 
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*cough* Godot Engine *cough*
 
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So every time I install a high-profile Unity game, the developer gets charged. What a load of...! :shadedshu: Contracts like this should be illegal.
 
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Perhaps this is meant to reduce amount of cheap Unity made crap flooding Steam and such?
Probably not. "For Unity Personal and Unity Plus, the fee applies only to games that have generated $200,000 or more in the last 12 months and have a minimum of 200,000 lifetime installs"

It's meant to make Unity more money.
 
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Nope, ill not buy into that.

and devs are not going to swallow it.

shit I change my mind so often they would have to be musk to cope.
 
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Unity Technologies Inc. canceled a planned town hall and closed two offices Thursday after receiving what it said was a credible death threat in the wake of a controversial pricing decision earlier this week.

The company was “made aware of a potential threat to some of our offices" and has "taken immediate and proactive measures to ensure the safety of our employees,” a spokesperson said in a statement. Unity is closing offices that could be potential targets on Thursday and Friday, and is “fully cooperating with law enforcement.”
Gotta smh my head at this story.
 
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If they want to do this they should make a clean break and introduce Unity 2

I don't see how any judge would side with unity if this were to go to court
 
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Just another nail in the coffin... what with them already alienating modding communities thanks to il2cpp...
 
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Yeah right... They saw how unpopular this is and knew they would get roasted and are now scrambling for solutions before loosing all their clients to Unreal :D
And polygon reached out to SF FBI and was told no report has been filed. HMMMMM......
 
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I don't see how any judge would side with unity if this were to go to court
It's not retroactive, ie it only applies to new builds. Which means anything newly made. Which while perfectly legal, is plenty bad enough to avoid using it.

Just another nail in the coffin... what with them already alienating modding communities thanks to il2cpp...
At least IL2CPP had technical merits. This is just greed.

Mofos act lile they be the only game engine out there.
They are the only high level one really worth its salt other than maybe godot. Guess what I expect will see a huge influx of dev-users soon?
 
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IMG_1134.jpeg

Yeah, about what I expected
 
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What's wrong with Unreal?
Nothing, but it's not a high level language based one. It uses C++ to my knowledge. This makes both modding more diffilcult, and attracts a different type of dev.
 
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