Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

No, they're not charging for every actual install. They're charging for an made-up number of installs.

 

The updated chart states "new installs per month". Now while I could be wrong, the "per month" seems to indicate that the tier pricing resets per month (but Unity has been nothing if not unclear with this entire thing so...)

 

No, but the moment you get to 200k revenue unity will demand 160k fee.

this will help you understand better.

https://skidvis.github.io/unity-fee-calculator/

the revenue can and will be calculated by unity on info they made up. meaning AI algorithms that think you make money because you have these huge downloads. Even if the game is free maybe you are getting money from patreon or you got donations. Or you have micro-transactions. Or you have ads in the games.

At some point the 200k threshold will trigger and you have to pay 160k out of the blue.

Some think they can avoid this 160k by getting one of the pro subscriptions when they hit the moment they need to pay but that is wishful thinking. Because the "debt" against unity was done when you had no subscription.

While unity license changes are retroactive your pro "protection" is not

 

I read "I'm going to be Medvedev now". Which is a curious choice!

 

But without subscription fees I suppose?

 

This is from our Feasibility Study 2 years ago...

 

An overly complicated, opaque and trust-breaching solution to a genuine problem that reeks of "must not have the same method as Epic".

I honestly believe that if they'd have just gone for a % on sales with the proposition of "our profitability will allow us to improve the software, allowing you guys to be become more efficient, sell a higher volume of better games, and be more profitable yourselves" would have washed.

 

we live in wild times!

 

https://unity.com/runtime-fee

Nice finding, if we combine this :

"All determinations, calculations of installs, and revenue related to the Unity Runtime Fee will be made by Unity in its sole discretion."

and this:

"Unity may also waive all or any part of the Unity Runtime Fee in its sole discretion."

=> we could elevate that unity 'designed' rule to LEGALY grab rich companies(like owners of Genshin Impact/Call of duty) and skip poor's saying 'Aha, ok, so your pockets empty, please go, here zero invoice'

 

Best wreckage since Stephen Elop sold Nokia's phones to Microsoft.

 

Unreal Engine for Unity Developers | Unreal Engine 5.0 Documentation

 

https://impromptugames.com/movingtounreal.html
Moving to Unreal from Unity step by step

 

@eizenhorn Looking forward to your response?

 

Wow, just wow. This is simply unbelievable. Makes me seriously consider moving to Unreal. I will certainly stop recommending Unity as I have done for years. I really can't believe this.

 

by adding random dice rolls where there is something slightly off with the game. maybe the icon on desktop is not centered. or the menus sometimes do not show up. or the audio may or may not work.

 

It doesn't matter where is your company based, what matter is where the download/server-call occurred.

(SOURCE: Unity Runtime Fee | Unity)

And they also include offline sales:

 

Is this your random generated invoice, Unity?
Dude, please, is this your random generated invoice, Unity?
Look, Unity. Have you ever heard of Vietnam?
You're killing your father, Unity.
You'll see what happens.

 

After 14 years of loyalty to Unity. After seeing bad moves, after bad moves... Bugs that are not fixed, useless services, prices raising, no significant improvements since rental licence fees were introduced... At that time, I was forced to switch to Plus (from Pro) because of such a price raising just to remove the splash screen like most of my collegues did...

This last one will lead a lot of Unity fellow users to switch to another render engine... And Unity will end like Flash ended in its time. I prefer changing boat before it sinks definitively. Such a dumb decision is the reflect of a desperate company that is not going well I guess. And if not...maybe get rid of indies is the goal : In every way, Unity cannot be trusted anymore.

For me, Unreal will be the way to go in next months...

 

We seems speaking about different things. Lets clear it:
You pay for every last month new installs every months. Runtime fee threshhold counts based on last 12 months, which means price pre install (0.15$ you'll pa per new install or 0.075$ etc) based on last 12 month installs amount above limit. This threshold NOT reset it accumulative value for latest 12 months.


Edit: Ah small correction - 12 month for $ limit. Installs - lifetime count (this I was wrong about 12 month, sorry) but calculations above still valid ad price per one install still not resets.

 

I imagine their system might look something like this. Mostly based on what I've seen in the past in their UI systems.

Code (CSharp):

1. void OnEnable()
2. {
3.     //tried to do it in Start but it caused race conditions, sure hope this works!!
4.     //if not maybe we can try a co-routine instead! can't use Tasks because of non-safe APIs
5.     int dollarsClientOwesUnity = Mathf.CeilToInt(GetSteamSalesScreenScape() * Random.Range(0, Time.unscaledTimeAsDouble);
6.     SendBill(ClientID, dollarsClientOwesUnity)
7. }

 

It's not even clear how this payouts will be handled. I am a freelancer with a Unity Pro license and building apps for third party customer. Will Unity ask me the money because the installs are related to my license? How will they ask for fee to the final customer if they even don't have a Unity Account? Who will be legally responsible for the payouts?

 

I see, still, it opens a major problem for physical copies and 2nd hand-market as if someone resold a physical copy to someone else, it will be consider as new install in unity eyes

 

You have a few different thresholds
-Over $1 million in revenue based on last 12 months.
-Over 1 million life time installs.

If you reach those then you pay 0.15 per install for the first 100,000 installs each month. Then it decreases for that month.

 

I am so sorry but this is now my destiny!

 

I mean who can tell at this point? They've changed so many details in last twelve hours it's hard to know if they ever even had a plan or if they literally came up with the idea like maybe a few minutes before making the official announcement.

 

Fees should always be clear, accurate and concise.
Unity and their defenders forget that.

 

No, your error invalidates the calculations, because there's no "accumulative value" nor "last 12 month installs" ; you're imagining stuff...
There's :
- Install Threshold (lifetime)
- New install per month

And this is _all_ .

Maybe you need to take a rest ? (or it's me who does ! )

 

Does anybody have any actual proof that only certain industries can take this plan!?

All I can see in the content is "industries such as [blah]"

 

Also probably the shape created during Riccitiello's morning routine will be also inputted in the random AI-algorithm determinates who gets billed that day.

 

Dear Unity Team,

You keep replying to posts on Twitter, "clarifying" completely pointless questions nobody cares about.

Can you please answer the most important question already??? Why are you dodging this???? What the hell happens to F2P games like mine that are slightly above the 1M F2P limit but have 500k+ downloads each month???

Do you really expect us to pay 45k EACH MONTH????? That is WAY more than we have left over after fees. How would that even work????? And why in the world would you EVER feel entitled to literally MORE THAN ALL OF THE MONEY WE MAKE with our game??? We are a small team and we each barely make a decent developer salary right now. Even the current Pro fee is a hard hit for us.

Can I PLEASE get an answer for this.

You said on Twitter that we shouldn't worry because this will "only affect 10% of developers". Well great I'm part of those 10% and this is F***ing me over completely so thanks for that.

Please for the love of God just answer this already, I feel like I'm losing my mind this is so incredibly stupid. There's no way you're really going to leave this fee uncapped.

People keep talking about "theoretical cases in which people could owe more than they make". There is nothing "theoretical" about this. This is exactly my situation and I'm honestly terrified right now.

 

Who is spreading false information now @eizenhorn lol lol

 

Unless you can make a special deal with Unity whoever owns the license will pay.

 

hey, does anyone know where I can get a DRM-free unity compiler and editor?

if not, it's a week away. get to it, hackers.

 

Oh I see what your understanding is. No. You pay only once for these 100k new installs only month they happened. Like in Jan you got 1kk 1kk$. Then in Feb you have 100k new installs - you'll pay 0.15$ for install and will pay 15k$ in Feb. Then in March if you have literally 0 new installs - you pay 0$. Then if in March you again have 10k new installs - you'll pay for them 1500$.

 

This is the totally accurate point of concerned. The unfairness of the plan is second of topmost priority that only people with no brain would agree with

 

Made this calculation sheet. Its just for the Pro plan and only if you are above both thresholds, but think it does the trick for answering a lot of questions.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VUeUshho03braI7rx02X_C6osU6QwmuiTfQ77QLlS3w/edit?usp=sharing

You can edit the blue numbers only. Am I missing something?

 

Well it doesn't invalidate calculations as numbers (as they just covers 5 months) will be the same. And about 12 months it's definitely here:

 

If you develop a game for a third party for a fixed price, and they happen to trigger Unity's mighty calculator, you might get charged on top your actual revenue. Obviously, you can't transfer such costs to the third party, or you won't get the contract in the first place. Result: You and your client will have to make the project on a different engine. Simple.

 

Just switch to a royalty based fee. This stupid fee system is a nightmare, did Unity let one of the accountants come up with it and somehow the decision makers decided it was good? It's needlessly complex, and the FAQ does not alleviate concerns around beta, demo and illicit installs. Not even going to get into issues around F2P games, I'm sure this has been discussed already.

 

@eizenhorn Please help everyone answer?

 

All good questions, just like the myriad of others that have been asked about the boundless number of edge cases. Almost like they proposed this to a bunch of programmers that think about this sort of stuff all day long. Too bad it's pretty evident that they didn't spend much more time thinking about it than it took to write it all down and format their post with some nice fonts.

 

Yes and also if you put your game on GOG, which is DRM free, so you cannot add any protection. Then one person can buy game, put it on torrent and then you can have only one real sale, but thousands of "installs".

I don't see how they could reasonably count installs. The only thing that they can realistically do is to generate some hash of the system properties (cpu, os), save it to registry (if it's Windows game) and then count it as one install. And how will they determine install of WebGL game? Every time you open the game in incognito tab = new install, delete cookies = new install, etc.

 

if your plan is so much better than revenue share, atleast allow me to opt for revenue share, atleast I wont go bankrupt on a f2p game

 

If you can not understand "lifetime", there is no point in discussing here. You literally forget the "misinformation" you said minutes ago

 

This is a mistake in the hasted Forum FAQ. The correct reference is here : https://unity.com/pricing-updates#unity-runtime-fee .
The example there matches the table numbers. it's clearly stated the install threshold is lifetime, not the past 12 months. The guy who wrote the FAQ on the forum in a hurry clearly needs a break as well...

 

Be strong my friend. Damn I feel bad for businesses like Yours. Hope they F***ing pick up their brains already and revert this crap

 

Yes, in fact Unity can earn MUCH more by simply implementing a 1% royalty scheme above a certain threshold (say, $ 1 million per year)

 

They don't consider web games at all.

https://twitter.com/unity/status/1702077049425596900