Official Important updates to the Unity Runtime Fee policy

Was very unimpressed when I saw that.

 

The splash screen thing is only for the new versions of the editor most likely(As we got used to see from them(see SSAO, point light shadows and so on)).

 

Yes, I know, but if you only read the blog post you don't get that impression at all. That's what I mean by "hiding the ball." Dishonest PR. Makes you wonder a little if the 200K threshold doesn't have a similar condition that's only mentioned on some other page.

 

Because jason is just a unity shill, the whole stream shows it. Frameing question and things before giving it to marc.

 

Serious question:
For Steam will the "Lifetime unique users" be accepted as a metric to report the number of downloads?

 

Fire John Riccitiello !

We all know he'll F***ing do it again anytime soon.
We can't trust Unity with anything until he's there. He has been failing the whole video game ecosystem single handedly and repeatedly over the last 10+ years.
I bet the splash screen thing will only change in version 2024 that include their forced malware runtime.
I don't trust them to do the right thing while that guy is at the helm, no matter if Marc Whitten is thrown under the bus.

I still don't trust Unity and am still learning Unreal.

 

These are good changes, but I recommend that these TOS changes be retroactively imprinted into all versions of the unity installations where it specifically states the pricing changes and expected terms for using the unity engine. I.e. never update a unity version and in the about it shows these TOS changes embedded into the editor and possibly with the game/product released. Not too familiar with the legal side of things, but if possible to update the EULA to make any retroactive changes to the TOS be a massive fine paid out to all current developers using Unity.

Lastly, I have still yet to get any response on the Unity Support for my asset store purchase refunds for stolen assets sold on the Asset Store. There is too many assets not being monitored on the asset store where Unity collects a profit, same with the asset seller, and we as developers are no longer made whole with our money spent on the assumption that these asset purchases are legit. See SFX sound collections being sold in droves that are mostly stolen. Please clean this up on top of having a better response time then 2+ weeks (still waiting).

Developers should not be punished for using unity, trusting unity and purchasing from the asset store to make their games, fix this.

 

I would rather pay extra than having some noose ready to be tighten on my neck at a moments notice. I will pay extra to avoid the precedent.
Punishing success should not be part of the TOS in any shape or form.
The slippery slope fallacy is a fallacy because the slippery slope is very very real.

 

I still don't get the obsession with the Runtime fee plan. Why are you insisting so much in it?
Hear me out
The initial problem was Unity "was not" making enough money to be "profitable" (although that is at least, debatable). That is why the "Runtime Fee" was put in place, to afford the development of the "Runtime". am I right?

But now you are charging less (way way less), than the old classic renevue share porcentage.
What!? How that works and why you are insisting so much in the runtime fee.

If money is the problem, just take 2.5% of revenue to any game that hits 500k or more. because 2.5% of 500k (12500) is more than the runtime fee pricing (10600$ according with you runtime fee calculator). or better yet, take 3%, no. Take 4%. Everyone would be okay with that.
"If you make more than 200k a year, use Unity Pro, and if your game released with Unity pro, makes more than 500k, give us 4%". Deal, Done, where do I sign?

So, whats the deal with runtime fee obsession?. ajsdnkajsndas just, why tho?
To me, looks like someone is trying to make a "Mark Zurck move" and make a database of players and sell that information to whoever is interested.
Or worse yet, someone is trying to build a database for a future in-game ads implementation.
I don't like the idea that if I make games with Unity 2023 LTS, my games will possibly contain malware that collects data and information from my players, regardless of whether I am eligible for the runtime fee or not. And it seems it would be like this.

spending years of development praying that Unity doesn't make something harmful to everyone again, out of greed (which according to history, every 2 or 3 years is the case).
Or spend years developing my own tools in an Open source Game Engine. Knowing that what I develop is totally mine and no one can charge me for it in the future.

Hmmm ...

 

Your girlfriend cheated on you, but promises to never do it again. Time will tell.

 

@UnityJuju People who do contractual work will now have to pay for Pro even if they don't make revenue > 200k


Bring back plus !

Edit: plus was for 100k to 200k, the 200k limit was just hidden in the pricing page
Still putting the limit on the contractor's client is wrong, now that unity has rev-share it should stop putting that much pressure on contractors

 

Oh, there's one other thing that needs to be removed from all future versions of the TOS that hasn't been brought up yet:

The forced arbitration clause.

This needs to be removed so that the next time Unity tries anything so scummy again, they can't depend on a system heavily skewed in their favor.

My trust under this leadership cannot be regained, but it may go some way towards regaining the trust of others.

 

you can only remove the now tarnished Unity logo if you opt into new TOS.. ? im also assuming Unity personal will also still be required to be ONLINE to use ? makes one Curious as to what data the analytics gather on the Developers? only reason for something like this.

 

Hey Unity. Yes I have accepted the changes to your terms and will continue with Unity.

I just wanted you to know that everything that has happened and is happeninng, even now in this thread, is all your fault.

 

What about consoles? Do we still have to buy the pro license on day one or are we able to use our personal license for publishing on consoles if we are under the 200k revenue? Thanks.

 

Completely meaningless until "we will make sure" changes to "we have made sure."

 

It’s reasonable for me now, well done.

Anyway, in my opinion, much of the damage caused by all this price turmoil will be challenging to remedy. Most studios (if not all) have lost confidence in Unity, and even though it's been less than 2 weeks since the initial announcement, many developers have decided to switch to another engine for their upcoming projects, mainly Unreal and Godot. I'm talking about developers who already have a strong knowledge base in Unity because those who are new and starting from scratch in game development are unlikely to want to begin here after reading the dozens of articles and hundreds of opinions on social media.

It's a shame that all this commotion has arisen from publishing an unfortunate initial announcement without careful consideration or consultation with developers for feedback. The proposed agreement now seems reasonable to me and does not pose a threat to studios.

 

Pretty sure the answer is yes. Subscription prices will also be updated (increased) pretty soon, I'm sure.

 

Totally believable after aquiring a company for 4.4b dollar, which is just exactle fitted to do that.

 

So if my competitor run my game 10 000 000 times on emulator i lost money?
F.E my fee is 1.25 but after "FAKE" installs i lost all 2.5?

 

I'm not following.

 

Jason is just a non combative personality. He always addresses negative situations like this. Plus, the lionshare of his career is based on Unity development and teaching Unity developers. Even if this wasn't exactly how his personality already was, he'd have a major incentive to not be openly hostile towards one of the hands that feeds him. Why should be hostile though? What would he gain besides some random internet people's respect. He'd hurt his relationship with Unity and anger some other random internet people in the process.

 

they always cheat again...

 

How else do you ensure that the ppl you put out there get the most prefiltered perspective possible

 

And that is the issue with him, he will just not make a hard stand at all, because he is fed by them. so just stupid simple pr damage control where nothing reliable or serious is coming from. It is just so totally obvious.

 

Sorry, meant to say that I have been waiting a month and two weeks for a response.

 

If they are professionals in statistics it wood as norrmal install for me in Google Play Console.

 

The chat was extremely hostile anyway as you'd expect so I don't know what point they were trying to make.

 

Requiring people to sub to him in order to comment during the stream is scummy regardless.

 

Dear Unity, If we are still under 200k we should be able to use our personal license on consoles like XBOX. Because we still haven't earned 200k yet on that time. Please consider this, @karl_jones

 

Why though? For anyone using 2024 or newer Unity versions, Plus is free, as everything in it is folded down into Personal. But if you mean, for pre-2024 Unity users, it is a bit unfair that to simply remove the splash screen, they will need to spend 4x the cost of Plus to get Pro and remove the splash screen. But under all other scenarios, the removal of Plus benefits people positively.

 

So what was the point of the Ironrsource merger?

We're being told that unity needs to be profitable, have to pay more for it but we should ignore the elephant in the room?

 

That I can't defend. That's not cool. I wonder if he did that intentionally? Like, if that is selected by default, or you have to explicitly select that option? If the latter, dick move. Not sure though.

 

Most are upgrading anyway, even long term projects if they want to target modern consoles such as upcoming Switch 2 or they need to keep up with mobile SDKs. Only PC/Steam is untouched, practically all other use cases will force people to upgrade to the new terms no matter if the project is new of 5 years into development.

And PC folks might get forced to upgrade too due to some new major hardware and/or software cycle.

 

Hi!

I just wanted to add, as I really liked how someone mentioned in the prior thread with how Unreal handles their splash screen, and since now the "made with Unity" splash is optional on 2023LTS and moving forward...perhaps @Unity can consider implementing a "Unity Premiere" logo, with a disclaimer at the bottom that might mention something along the lines of "...games marked with 'Unity Premiere', are curated games selected by Unity that reach a certain level of quality to earn this Premiere ranking, etc..." (this logo/splash would be earned and not paid for.)

This would be an awesome looking logo/splash screen too, that can be earned by anyone regardless of Unity version level (Personal, Pro, Executive). Developers can submit their games to Unity directly for consideration. I think this would incentivize people to make ambitious games, show what Unity (software) is capable of, and let hard work standout. Unity purchased some amazing tech from Weta and Ziva (both of which I am personally looking forward to using). I just thought it would be a great way to help developers and also gain support with Unity game engine.

In addition, maybe Unity can open a Unity Game Store, have categories for "All Games," "Unity Games," Unity Premiere Games" and/or any categories they want.

I think both are viable ways for Unity to make extra income, incentivize developers (as any outlet to show games off is great) and maybe just help out with things all-around. These seem like win-wins to me, so I just wanted to add it into the mix.

Thanks!

 

i imagine they wouldnt give extra 100k leniency for nothing in return, its and incentive to migrate to the new TOS

 

Thank you for the changes. This sounds very satisfactory to me. I'm glad it has all worked out

IMO, time to put down the pitch forks and move forward. I'm looking forward to continuing to use Unity. I do love the Unity engine, C#, and everything it has to offer.

If anyone is still that mad, just change engines. I realize how serious this was, but it's been over a week and I'm tired of being angry/worried. These new terms seem perfectly fair to me. As a previous Flash developer, I don't really want to change to a new technology any time soon if I don't have to.

And to all the game devs, I'm glad everyone stuck together, took a stand, and got change to happen.

That being said, I hope everything remains good, and Unity can move forward and continue to make progress. What's done it done, let's move forward.

 

@karl_jones

Can you just ask the management team to add a smaller fee to specifically remove the splash screen. It is kind of awful having to pay 2k $ to remove it. Maybe, 100$ to remove it for a game, one time fee, when using pre 2024 Unity versions?

 

Is there any chance that the internet connection requirement will be removed for unity personal?

 

Being blunt and asking the real, hard questions is not "openly hostile". But anyway, I guess it's too much to ask from someone with a youtube channel. And I guess Unity deliberately chose a "yes-man" for this "interview". I guess the PR-team wrote the questions too.

 

Yeah, stream's definitely damage control. Amount of trust me and listen is above the roof.
I don't know how to trust any of this anymore. Or how anyone will in the future.

Making business is probably what's the current best.
Coping with the risk and hoping it doesn't burn down in flames one day.

Personally, I've picked this engine not because it was best.
Or best on the market, but because it was trustworthy enough.
This just ended up in some kind of weird developer money milking machine which probably will never stop.

TOS was changed once. Then again. In a year it will change again. And again.
Stop it. Work on the engine. Work on the tech instead. Stop doing weird company mergers.
They do not provide any kind of value. Only act as an anchor to the bottom.

 

Well, that's absolutely true, but I think he did ask some tough questions. In fact, he read some questions directly from people, and those didn't mince words. Though to be fair, I am only half through the stream at the moment.

 

AND I thought things will get better...

Seriously. I wish you folks good luck.
Don't say you were not warned.

 

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. In this case you pay the lesser of the two, so no one is affected.