Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

I'm trying to read and keep up with this thread but I have some questions which maybe were already asked/answered.. sorry if this is a repost!
- Will the Unity Runtime now include DRM to track "installs"?
- Is it tracking installs or will the runtime just call home every launch? Otherwise how can you deal with mobile or standalone VR (APK format) or the Steam store where there is no "installer" process (or maybe there is some installation process that I'm not aware of?)
- I assume installing on multiple devices each counts as an install, unless Unity adds a login like publishers do when we e.g. play an EA game purchased on Steam?
- Will upgrading hardware count as an install? Will the "installer counter" process be able to be intelligent enough to not detect that use-case? I guess it could be alleviated with a login system but... I'm not sure end-users will be happy with having to login to Unity before playing games, especially f2p.

Re: github ToS - I'm guessing they made the repo private because they were getting fed up with people spamming bug reports regarding these changes.

 

But nothing changed.

 

Outside the consensus outrage, in my case doubling my user acquisition costs overnight….

how about a suggestion:
- Unity Free is, minus publication to any platform
- next tier, an annual $20 fee for Unity Free with publication


I expect to see a massive backlash to this decision. Could be Unity’s fatal error.

 

It says the threshold is paying for the engine to continue they will just find a way to charge it to us

 

Another thing I am curious about - does Unity's runtime (which is so amazing by the way and totally worth $5 per install, why stop at $.20) use any type of libraries or anything they have licensed from other entities? So they are essentially charging us for a product they haven't even fully created themselves?

The nature of software is that it is all built upon the work of others in some way. And a runtime is not a creative work like a game is. Makes me really wonder how they think they can charge for this on a per-install basis.

Attorneys are about to be feasting.

 

Oh my, I think I've read more than 3k comments in this thread.

offtopic. what is the game you have made if you can share?

ontopic. maybe for your students you can use opensource engines. this way in the future we will have new generations of developers that can get back the power from the hands of the people like this unity CEO that called unity developers stupid.

 

In case developers (especially mobile) want something actionable to do about this:

1. Stop using Unity Ads.
2. Stop using Ironsource.
3. Stop using Levelplay.

Unity will be forced to the table and will do whatever we ask for and we really don't lose anything by doing this.

 

mmm without real numbers if a little bit difficult to understand

Maybe you are confused?

 

Unity: that sounds like a you problem

 

Will you work with us like you "worked" with this fellow?

From:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/thi...ort-if-you-believe-this-is-a-mistake.1485819/

Update:
You were flagged in our system for non compliance use of licensing within the last 90 days. There is nothing I can further assist you with.
Respectfully,
Josh

"For god sake, what a problem.
They even contacted my old boss and he confirmed i'm not working in any project anymore with him, and in fact, I have never been an employee as I worked as a freelancer and have no company bound with him.
Probably will look for a lawyer and see what I can do now."

 

Just wait until the announcement for 5$ per install

 

I actually already posted a few more updates about that. The point of my post it to just point out the AND statement.
The price increase could kill studios very easily in needs reversed. Just wanted to make sure more accurate statement were made, but I agree it is a full S*** storm in so many ways.

 

You forgot 4.

Stop using Unity and cancel your subscription

 

there is a new API native in unity that will track installs.

what is impossible for what I can see is how do they track anything else (ad revenue, in app purchases) that is where real revenue is made, so if a game is free to play, how can unity know its revenue?

 

I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of Unity sending me an invoice every month no accountability in proving where they got their numbers. I've dealt with trying to get money from Unity Ads, and I was always shocked at how low the revenue was from ads, even when I had good traffic according to Apple's metrics. I have no reason to believe Unity won't behave in the same manner.

 

so, a $70 AAA game installed on a PC would pay the same install fee as a F2P mobile game? I mean, the policy was introduced in bad faith, but it's also just incredibly blunt and frankly stupid from a business perspective. F2P is a huge segment of the market, and Unity could effectively kill off the entire genre with this policy.

 

for now no one knows what are the technical specifications

we are at "trust me bro" type of explanations.

they hinted at adding some sort of tracking that will comply with various privacy laws. not clear if you can opt out or not which opens a huge cans of worms with google and apple stores. how this tracker works is not clear but it appears will detect when the install launcher is launched and count that as an install.

 

That this won't impact most customers is not true.

Direct charges sure ok. But indirectly if you drive away studios making good games on Unity, the hell that doesn't impact everyone else. Engines are pretty much defined by the games made on them.

So we have Unity which is not doing great as a company. It's value is not growing relative to the competition. Yet they manage to come up with something that begs studios to stop and ask the question why are we using Unity.

If you don't want to be a game engine just say so. Go out with some dignity.

 

Could really change an industry over night.

I suspect publishers will push devs to Godot or other.
They may refuse to publish games made in unity.


Good thinking unity!

 

Many of us are locked in with a decade of tech built upon it. I don't mean this in a hyperbolic or emotional way. This really is our leverage and it will work. Most of Unity's revenue comes from their ads.

 

A prophetic video:

 

The drama has penetrated mainstream Youtube:

 

In practice, it would be extremely risky to use a billing method based on "made-up" numbers, as it could potentially lead to legal actions, financial penalties, and damage to Unity's reputation. It would be advisable to use a billing method based on verifiable data and transparent calculations to avoid these risks.

My 20 cents

 

I really hope they face legal pushback on this because then we at least get to use our current editor versions.

 

There is no way for you to track installs honestly and reliably. You claim to have anti piracy measures, but that is the biggest joke of them all. There is no such thing. You will make small teams with a pretty modest income (200,000 isn't really that much for a team) pay for every time the game is pirated. You will bankrupt us. Fire the CEO. Replace the Board.

 

I've used Unity for over 10 years. I was a refugee from when Flash burned to the ground. I'm not afraid of it all burning down again.

 

For some reason a post I just saw got deleted... out of the blue. Kid you not (attached).

 

Clarifying an unacceptable policy does not make it better.

 

I just want to explicitly point out that this does not in any way answer the question.

 

lol unity is so buggy who would trust their fraud detection software

 

BTW, your post about their TOS from 24 min ago just got deleted.

 

Not good enough.. Also, when is your boss planning on increasing the fee?

 

In free mobile games that are supported by ads we do not earn money from each user meaning each download does not necessarily give you money some people even download and uninstall it seconds later which will result into us mobile game devs into paying your fee. Which might result into instead of profiting from mobile game development you will make us lose money.

A game with 100k downloads on playstore does not make 100k USD.

So you asking 20k USD (0.2 USD per install on first 100k installs) on a game with 100k downloads that is free and supported by ads will result into me and other devs losing money instead of profiting of the game.

Mobile developers do not profit 0.2 USD per user at all even in very big games made by big companies.

Some people just download it and rarely open it or even uninstall it 3 minutes later.

 

There are just so many contradictions already with what was originally posted and what the employees have posted in this thread... what a f***ing mess.

 

Unity, you absolute muppets.

After the disaster from a year ago we started the process of moving away from Unity and it seems that action is about to pay dividends yet again.

I’m not going to bother writing a long winded explanation of how you’ve f*cked up this time. You know, you just don’t care.

I hope you’re remembered fondly.

 

Careful, unity moderators will delete that and ban your account, and leave a butthurt message.

 

They not gonna back down. They are all in on this:
"Unity removes Github repo to track license changes, then updates their license to remove the clause that lets you use the TOS from the version you shipped with"
https://x.com/jakob_wahlberg/status/1702026219162632652?s=46

 

Wow, I've just had a post about the ToS changes deleted too.

Looks like this issue is making Unity very sensitive. Good

 

I've been there.

wow. the memories man, the memories.

 

Ooh...You want more?

 

And they still are going to lose $800+ million on the year. The problem isn't revenue it's expenses. They will never be profitable with the current operating model no matter how many installs they charge for.

 

So the FAQ on the Pricing Updates page (https://unity.com/pricing-updates) now claims that the distributor of the runtime is charged the fee, not devs - a point of clarification that's notably absent from other "clarifications". If this is actually the case, wouldn't 90% of affected devs actually be off the hook, with these charges going to app stores or digital storefronts instead? Seems like something you'd want to shout pretty loudly, unless that's bullshit too.

Even if that were the case, what incentive would there be for these app stores to actually pony up the costs? What happens if or when they refuse, or smaller storefronts are late on the payments? Why wouldn't this disincentivize storefronts from hosting Unity-built games or apps in the first place? Why would you ever, ever think it a good idea to charge devs or storefronts for the service of hosting your runtimes for you, and why wouldn't any savvy dev or storefront instead change their delivery process so that relevant runtimes are pulled from Unity or (in the case of runtime libraries being inextricably linked to the built game/app package) an anonymous, unchargeable third-party server?

 

Do not freak out, this was maybe a bug on the forum, it happens all the time... Here:
@Tautvydas-Zilys with all due respect

 

Absolutely insane, but kind of expected from ex EA CEO to. I guess someone needs to pay his 11 million dollar salary.

This will kill most big free games on the market on all platforms. They don't make $0.20 per install.

No future developers can trust you any longer now for changing the policy like that. Next year you will probably just raise it. How are you tracking, do you have a backdoor in unity to track?

It's pretty hard for a billion dollar company to completely obliterate it's public image overnight with 1 policy change but I guess you somehow managed.

Nice.

 

what was it? is gone now

 

Sensitive? About this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/16hnibp/unity_silently_removed_their_github_repo_to_track/

 

What about dedicated server costs?
Each time I spin up a new game server for a racing game session, does that count as an install?

 

I have to say this. This fee is a mistake and I'll be moving to another engine if it's not reversed.

 

Moving projects to Gadot. Bye and RIP Unity