Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

It's dawning on me that Unity doesn't care if I leave.

For now, I'm on a Unity Free plan, with a project not yet released (no matter how big)

I cost them server traffic and I'm not generating them any revenue outside of asset store purchases. Getting rid of me is beneficial to them.

 

Please explain to me what circumstance you can end up IN DEBT FOR UP TO MILLIONS OF DOLLARS if you get viral success using Unreal.

Because that is now a possibility with Unity.

 

Said technology, works with a data model to create some sort of piracy detector, that they've kept secret rather than providing to users. You know, an accurate piracy detector would be a huge selling point for Unity. That they not only didn't make this available to developers, but still aren't making this available to developers aside from supposedly not charging for installs via piracy shows that this really doesn't exist.

Then, supposedly having a way to track installs when they can't even define what an install is to end users, or keep consistent messaging on reinstalls, different devices, and so on... while also wanting to do secret 1 on 1's with every studio to come up with real values, rather than simply being able to be up front with pricing shows that they're not ready.

I like Unity, I've built a career on making Unity games professionally, but working with a company that is changing the TOS on a whim isn't viable for me to work with in the future and the lack of answers really isn't helping matters.

The absolute bare minimum is that any of this supposed security needs to not be a black box, because security through obscurity does not work and can't be trusted. If they have this technology they should be able to open it up to scrutiny and prove it works.

 

Well, not really. No one wants to stay a begginer forever. Why would I learn a engine that will be worse on my future? It's bad for everyone. Agreed that Unreal is not the way to go though

 

Are you absolutely insane or is ChatGPT now a thing on the Unity forums lol?

 

there are other plans... (i mean, unity has other models)

 

The more people migrate, the more likely asset store dev will follow. Economic 101, demand and supply. Basically the more people use godot, the more godot ecosystem will catch up to your need.

When unity had its first exodus, godot dev, being honest, warned it's not as performant (single thread scene graph), but godot is open, so user flocked to solve that, and a soon after you had a recommendation on youtube popping up "how we multi threaded godot scene".

Godot has also modernize their asset store, so there is now a way for them to migrate. Here is the thing to know about tech:

It's brutally fast, replacement go through an exponential curve before saturation.

Unity (around 2) had that phase, where they were underdogs for some times then took over all existing engine, and saturate the market, forcing epic to do its move, in a snap after a few good decision, I feel like godot is on that zone right now, it happen to myspace to facebook, for yahoo to google.

I will say invest now, and you might be lift by the wave. Unity is PROBABLY not on its last blunder. If there is a exodus of unity dev, some of them will also land on godot, like early waves.

 

And there are other engines.

 

The unbelievable thing about this whole situation is that companies are talking about going bankrupt, not simply losing revenue. BANKRUPT. Let that sink in dear Unity corpos.

 

Omg you're right! It's so much better! I can't believe I'm going to go from just paying Unity for my Pro subscriptions to paying them $40,000USD+ a year for a game I released 8 years ago! Yes!

Oh you mean new developers? The ones that want to use Unity to make a successful game that makes them money? Wow, it's so great that if they achieve that success they get to now give Unity likely 100x more money than they would've before the change! Yes!

 

A deal with uncapped loss is better...It must be a joke

 

are you trolling as soon as you make 200,000k and that is not a lot that's gross that's before wages cost taxes fees for being on a market be it phone app or steam so on, I can make a java script to ruin yeah get it? 4chan already making dev raid teams and trying scripts. fact this is the first game engine I have heard of that you can go broke for making a successful game and I've been working on launched games all the way back to using software called Milkshape my first games private release to friends were made on the commodore 64. The only thing close to this disaster is what happed to torque game engine back in 2012 or so.

 

explain, please

 

As I understand. If they are assets that you acquired through the asset store, the license is yours to use in the engine you like. 3D models, soundtracks, sprites, etc. can be moved without problem, now with the tools and scripts I imagine you will need some conversion. Fortunately godot supports C#

 

i can not see your user's info, why?

 

You don't need to block the name out. Just about everyone here knows who it is. Heck the Digital Foundry discord knows who it is. I can't wait to see their take on this mess come the next DF Weekly.

 

The problem is no one wants to makes deals with a company that can rewrite the previously agreed upon deal. You are unaffected by this chang?. Great! What about next one?

 

Agree, I was thinking of getting more staff in 2024. I would have liked. Now I'm not sure of how much money I'll need and surely I'll never hire a unity developer since I'll never start a project again with this pile of...

 

Before u do so, read eula and asset license

 

Hi Impheris, from what I understand and based on the other post, I would have to pay for the game which I sold for a client if it hit the target and doesn't earn anything after selling it.

 

Here's another fun idea that popped into my head while reading your comment. You get a bunch of sales all at once, likely due to some kind of bundling deal - something extremely common for devs. Later down the road the game gets some traction and loads of people realize they already own it and install it then. That means that you as a busines *must* keep track of those differences and keep those funds in your account permanently until such a time as they are required. And if you don't you could not only end up getting slammed with some serious debt but hit with legal issues for bad accounting practices too (admittedly something any business should already be concerned with though). It's just more time and energy you have to sink into managing your own business now just so you can pay Unity later.

It can get even spicier? What if your plan changes due to revenue intake for the year? Does that put you in a different bracket? It might help your costs, or it could seriously inflate them? Who knows? Indie dev life ain't that predictable.

Can someone call up the Spiffing Brit and see if he can help come up with more ways that one could break this perfectly balanced system?

 

So, a fee upon any unique install is better, loss of privacy is better, getting bankrupt because of hackers i better, F2P games vanishing from the face of the planet is better. I wish you the best of lucks in continuing using Unity lol.

 

I have Altered the Deal, Pray I Don’t Alter It Any Further.

 

you are not talking about business, you are talking about "what happen if a hacker try to f you" that is not a real reason right now, not until unity says something about it

 

Hey !
Small question, if we make one million dl on game but totaly free with no revenu, should we pay install ?

 

Maybe you're used to just accepting having the rug pulled out from under you and being told to like it, but the vast majority don't have battered wife syndrome. Nothing about this was ok, whether the deal is "good" or not is a very distant concern at this point. Do learn to read a room

 

again, this is not a real case, is just "imagine if...." this is not a real reason, not until unity says something about it

 

Ok this is a scary thought, and reinforces how the whole 'install' tax is such a dumb idea. I wonder how Unity will try to downplay this?

 

See:

What do you not understand about this? This is a game of completely uncapped liability where if you don't estimate the right revenue-per-download ratio before you release you could lose every penny and end up having to legally declare bankruptcy to escape the accumulating fees.

You would have to be:

• Charging for every single download
• Psychic to know how much you will make per download on ads or in game purchases
• Absolutely certain your game will be a failure
• Or, completely insane to just roll the dice knowing you could be bankrupted by success

 

Nothing here is real without a legal document if you want to be completely technical about it.

 

nop... you need +200.000 dl AND +200.000 in revenue, so, you do not have to pay anything

 

No

But if you sell 200000 copies of 1$ game and half the users installs it twice you are in debt

 

Listen pal, I don't know what world you live in but right now there are THOUSANDS of Unity games that are pirated on countless websites. Right now. Who says any of these hackers won't abuse the system and blackmail devs WHO HAVE NOT EVEN THEIR GAMES OUT ANYMORE to pay them so they don't have to pay to Unity.

You don't even seem to BEGIN to grasp the situation cause you're probably a hobbyist or simply a shill.

 

i'll just ignore the rest of your comment just because the way it started xD i'm trying to calm a person here, so...

 

good advice, unity may have done its tacky little tricks there too.

 

You can't calm them without being the person in charge of the decision making.

 

So if you sell a game for $15 you can sell a whooping of 13.3k copies before you start paying lol.

 

Unity Install Fee based Ransomware research unlocked.

 

No because you need 200k installations as well, but that could come after 10k purchases, 100k purchases, or 200k, we have no idea.

 

Please start writing emails to our Unity sales representatives with your complains asking them to pass your message to the management. Forum is not enough. I already sent mine.

 

Here's the bottom line, Unity.

All of your users will be fine. We will all be irritated and move to a new engine. It will cost some people a lot, but ultimately less than they think, and they'll be relived at a whole new open world.

The only player grievously wounded here is Unity. You're bleeding from a massive self-inflicted wound.

We are all begging you to stop destroying yourself.

 

Waste numerous years of your life developing for a dead game engine that could put you into millions of dollars of debt if you release with it unlocked.

 

but you are not O . O

 

Are you still not understanding the concept of "uncapped liability"? Do you know what that means? What are you celebrating?

 

I think what a lot of people and unity don't understand, is that not all dev want to stay in the business of making game.

Think Dani, he moved on, but now he has a ticking time bomb on his back because of a few games he made back then. Imagine being a dev, made some game for fun and quick coffee cash, then turns out you have to pay 2000 a year, while not making game, to avoid bankruptcy ... that's absurd!

This scheme basically prevent you from quitting dev, because you side game might explode, and now you have a recurring fee for a tools you aren't using. Dumb!

That's gambling for the worse.

 

I used a hacker as a example look at any number of successful phone app games there downloads are giant to there player base. I didn't want to say hay if your trying to make a steam game probally should already be using that other engine. The main reason to use unity was phone and webgl just straight up.

For a typical game with not many downloads you can be looking at $0-$1 per day. For games that get better download rates say in the 1000-2000 download a day rate it's much better. On average you are looking at around $5 eCPM with the best ad services. So to make real money on ads alone you need a lot of downloads. The average rate of return on selling items on mobile is .10 cents for life time of player remember whales spend for every thousand players that don't.

That is google play statics not mine so if you need 1000 views to make 5 Dolores your looking at a exchange rate soon as you hit cap and don't forget you do not get all that 200k before you hit cap google play alone gets 30% or more alone and now your doing around 1000-2000 installs a day. this is not a game making a ton of money your losing 100 to 200 a day letting people download your game.

 

Unity, given the Terms of Service can be changed freely, here's some suggestions for the near future:

- Launch of Runtime Fees - charged to the developer/distributor each time a Player opens a game.
For those games stuck on phones, that folks don't ever update or redownload, Unity's going to need overcome these limitations of the Installation Fee not being frequently triggered by charging each time the game is opened. Developers will have to foresee this, encouraging them to build monetisation in to otherwise owned long lifetime games.

- Time of Runtime Usage Fees - per minute of usage is clean, clear, simple and easy to calculate
Launching fees and Installation fees have an oversight. If a game is only played during Christmas seasons or otherwise limited in the number of times it's applicable to being played, Unity should maximise revenue from their users' Runtime deployment via the Player's Precious Minutes (PPM). This will encourage game developers to priorities monetising those PPM, too.

- Framework Usage Fees - premium API calls incur small usage fees each time one of its members is used.
Entire areas of the engine have taken a long time to fester into being. URP, Post Processing, The New Input System and a few others come to mind. What better way to incentivise Unity's continued development of these and many other frameworks than to reward them for the ability to call into and use these features? Bundling these things for free was never going to be a sustainable business model, this is truly user pays taken to a democratic and granular level.

Go Unity!

 

Turns out it`s exactly what i was doing for last 10years

 

Sorta. He would have to make the financial threshold but once that's met he would immediately owe them money.