{Discussion} is it feasible to reduce unity's cut from the asset store?

I believe the cut is 30%, correct me If i'm wrong.

Seeing how the asset store, especially for new developers, is almost a complete must -- I think it isn't unrealistic to expect unity to reduce it's cut. I don't think I'm going too far when I say If unity had 4 legs, the asset store is the foundation for 2 of those legs.

I checked unity's earning report, while they don't give the exact asset store revenue, they did group it up with something else and the total revenue was 9% of it's yearly rev.

I'd say, the asset store is 3%? Rough to tell exactly. Although I do agree that 3-5% is a relevantly large part of a company's revenue. If you can find the asset store's exact revenue, do share.

Seeing how the asset store creators are struggling already, I'm fairly surprised it's still at 30% considering what other large marketplaces have been doing.

I believe Unity's asset store is far superior, If I ignore quite literally everything, just the sorting is enough. Which just surprises the hell out of me, that Unreal doesn't have basic, expected, sorting.

But isn't 30% a bit too much? I mean, even if reducing the asset cut isn't an option, maybe make special circumstances. For example, if you make under X, unity's cut is lower by X.

Something else I was thinking, which frankly could be called naive but, maybe yearly grants to asset store creators? Based on multiple factors, making sure bright, new creators/assets can also be noticed.

Being an asset store creator is 50% product, 50% support. Not easy. Especially with all unity has been doing.

What do you think?

 

No it isn't must. Specially if you mean new content creators.

However, you could ask same question about Steam, or other mobile stores.

Epic came forward, to combat such.

But if anything, you can sell your assets on your own website as many does as well.
You don't have to use Asset Store.

 

That's not true. It is not a must. You can work perfectly fine without using it.

You can't really reduce the cut, but you can sell your packages elsewhere.

 

True - given that they have the same price on all platforms.

 

Unity's 30% is unfortunately pretty industry standard. Unity will cut their rate if they see not doing so as potentially costing them revenue or market share. With no serious alternative store catering specifically to Unity developers, there is virtually no pressure from competition. So don't expect them to change their rate any time soon.

If you want Unity to cut their rate, either start your own store, or support some alternative store with a significantly reduced rate, in order to grow it large enough so Unity feels the pressure from this alternative store. Under pressure, Unity will make changes in order to compete. Until then, it is take it or leave it. Talking about getting Unity to reduce their rate without any reason for them to actually need to, is just a waste of time.

 

No. For new developers the asset store is very much a trap and a crutch. I have hundreds of assets that I bought back when I was getting started. Most of the assets have never seen any use because once I learned the basics they assisted with they immediately lost most of their value.

You don't become a better developer by buying assets. New developers should learn how to do things themselves.

 

Additionally, a big problem for new developers is self support for code based assets. Code assets I've purchased eventually need code changes, because I'm using the asset differently than the original developer anticipated, because I need to increase its performance, or because I am using it in a newer version of Unity. I actually can't think of a single code asset I've purchased where I haven't needed to make changes for my projects.

Making changes to other people's code is more difficult than writing your own. They will write in a completely different style. They may use features of C# or Unity you are less familiar with. You can't successfully make changes to other people's code if you don't understand what the code is doing. For a new developer, that is no small task.

For this reason I think code assets are a terrible idea for new developers to purchase. Simple assets of audio, textures, etc, make a lot more sense for a new developer. But I think many new developers see the Asset Store and think they can just drop in some code assets, and build a game like legos, but it doesn't work out well.