Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

I think you must have misunderstood my remarks.
I am NOT in favor the per-install model, and nothing I said should suggest that I am.

 

well you could but not without various layers of magic you would need to develop

There is O3DE as well anyone looked into it yet?

I'm enjoying the hunt and play with all the engines ... we settled on UE for our in house stuff but we have a community of game devs we are researching for and helping out as well

 

Keep going buddy Alistair McFarlane on X: "The Rust cheat community already has a working reinstall script for Rust with a unique HW spoofer on each install #Unity @unity ????" / X (twitter.com)

 

I don’t want my games to phone home though, so far they aren’t.

 

I'd like to quote a really good answer from someone:
"My old CTO had my favorite take, "Even if they roll back, it's too late. It's like they just attempted to rob you at gunpoint. The only reason they didn't rob you was because you fought back. How could you ever trust them again? Would you trust somebody with a history of attempted armed robbery? Do you really think they're not going to try that S*** again?"

 

Equity is usually provided as unvested options to lock in someone. It's price is set lower than the trading stock. So there's every incentive to keep the company going at least until all your options are vested and you've auto-sold. A board may lock in an executive by issuing more options - so you're in a rolling situation.

 

Unity 2022.2.13 is the last version in effect, dated March 31, 2023, that is effect/on the 12, October 2022 ToS,

When April 3, 2023 arrives, they Updated Terms/their ToS; thus, this version is the last version that is applicable on the 12, October 2022 ToS. Because, on the April 3, 2023, the ToS was Updated and the clause was removed, and now there was the 'all fees' that was added thence; while on the 12 October 2022 ToS, there was only 'subscription fees' and, there was also, the you may elect to stay on the 'Previous Terms' (that is the March 2022 ToS).

The next Unity version is on April 5, 2023, this version, Unity 2022.2.14, is now on the 3 April 2023 ToS, because it was released After the April 3rd 2023 ToS update.







---------------------------

 

it's not about that, why can't you see that it's about the fact that they are retroactively applying these changes to all editions of unity, which goes against their TOS from 2022, which clearly states you are only beholden to the TOS at the time of your install, if you have 2021.x you shouldn't be dinged by this change, but unity has said here on the forums it is 100% retroactive across the board, if they make it only affect the latest edition of unity no one will update and we will all maintain our current editions.

but then they'll scumbag their way out of that by stopping all updates to those old editions and making them unable to be downloaded without some extreme effort.

 

Imagine watching your revenue closing on $1,000,000 during what should be a joyous occasion, but as it creeps ever closer, dread and panic overwhelm you. You tried pulling the game already from App Store and Google Play and tried telling them to block further in app payments, but somehow they are still processing in app purchases, and dollar by dollar keeps coming in as you inch closer to your absolute doom.

This is so completely crazy. Who is going to dream of "hitting it big" with Unity when "hitting it big" might mean bankruptcy? They are turning a dream into a nightmare.

 

Love your avatar. Stealing it.

 

in addition to your thought/.. Are unity going to go after streamers who make $$$ by streaming about games made by unity?

 

I also find that retroactivity is an unfair move towards those who have invested in Unity for the study and implementation of their projects.

I too have been developing on Unity for over 10 years and just the thought of throwing away 10 years of research, study and work makes me shiver.

Don't think this doesn't bother me too.

 

Not quite my sole criteria, although that is my main development language, but that's all the information I had at the time on Unigine. I'll look into it further but Flax looks interesting, as well. Cross platform and console support is important and Flax has both that and supports C++ and C#.

 

Dude, you perfectly know what I mean here.

Yes, I know that you can, I even wrote a double precision spaceflight demo in unity at some point. Different perspective and camera stacking, etc.

The thing is, it is not a very comfortable experience.

 

Even worse.. You are a simple little dev not even with dreams of making $1M but you have a $1 game on playstore..

Someone "Does you a favour" and your game goes viral.. Between apple/google costs and Unity's cash grab you are a million dollars in debt.

 

Yes, we know. People can plan things in advanced.

 

You use unity engine = You are a subsidiary of Unity Software Inc.

 

Stride3D, CocosSharp, Godot it seems at least ...

 

I have a better analogy:
Staying with Unity is like staying with an abusive partner: if they hit you once, they'll hit you twice.

 

They're not saying. Furthermore they're not even saying what constitutes an install. If I put a standalone game in a folder on my desktop and run it, is that an install? If I drag that game into another subfolder, thereby changing the games directory is it a new install? If I patch certain game files does it trigger an install? How about a DLC that runs a secondary exe inside of a subfolder in my games installation directory? What if my game is a single launcher application that uses asset bundles to add on various in app purchased content (extra games)?

They're not only trying to charge on a metric they probably can't verify, and aren't saying how they'll determine it, but aren't even defining what that metric is in the first place. It's just "trust us".

 

That's the one i'm going to use too. It's "unity lite". The learning curve it's not steep and to be honest, i felt quite at home, but don't expect some (big or small) of the features that unity has.

 

I'm skimming through the past release announcements for Flax and I found mention of 64-bit precision too though only partially thanks to using PhysX.

https://flaxengine.com/blog/flax-1-4-released/
https://docs.flaxengine.com/manual/editor/large-worlds/

 

Flax has very clear licensing, as well:


How it works?

• Use Flax for free for uncommercial or educational usage
• Create your game and deploy it to all the supported platforms
• Use Flax Samples and all learning resources for free
• Use full source code (on GitHub)
• Ship your game and pay a 4% royalty on earnings exceeding $250,000 (per calendar quarter)

 

Tens of thousands of F2P developers have no other option now. We can't continue distributing millions of copies for free to earn 1-2 cents for every install we receive.

We have 2 options now:

1- Switch to another engine and continue making F2P games
2- Switch to the indie model and start making Steam games with Unity

I'm sure you're an indie developer. You tell me, what should we do? Should we find another engine, or should we all switch to the indie model and saturate the Steam market with thousands of new games every day?

 

if they stream about their own game then yes, is considered revenue and will be added to the threshold pool of 200k

 

A lot of people are sticking around cause there still helping the new forum users and answering questions, Unity has its die hard fans but hard to even open a project

 

You can't just remove the game and solve the problem, if a single copy of your runtime is out, that's enough to create unlimited installations for your entire lifetime

 

That would correspond to Unity 2021.3.22f1 LTS:

LTS Release 2021.3.22f1
Released: March 29, 2023

 

What a complete disgrace. Apparently, the spirit the program has always had is changing very frequently. I hope Unity is sued into oblivion.

 

"No. You get Pro."

Ok hotshot. You can be the test subject for those "pray I don't alter it any further" ToS changes Unity is now stating they can change on a whim, retroactively.

Your "Pro" suggestion means squat when they can change the rules as they go, per the new ToS.

See, nobody would bat an eye if they had some % revshare like UE and you were LOCKED. Everybody is rightfully calling foul that there is ZERO transparency into how Unity's BLACK BOX "trust me bro" works when counting "installs" or when they will change pricing because they are literally warning you now that they will.

Good luck, test subject. Godspeed.

 

Here's the thing I still find most puzzling after fuming about this for a few days...

It doesn't seem difficult to come up with a change in the business model that would increase Unity's revenue but also feel aligned with the mission statement of "democratizing game development." Especially if they really are targeting the top earners (which would make sense given their own statements). Why not:

1. Make "Plus" completely free for those earning less than a certain threshold (get rid of personal)
2. Keep consoles behind the "Pro" license - even increase if you have to... but ideally not -- let small Indies get out there.
3. Add revenue share above a threshold regardless of license. Whatever that number is... match Unreal, or don't.

First of all, this would continue to give everyone the engine to bring people in (without the stupid splash screen which currently is negative publicity for anyone using it). Second, you can still eliminate one of the license types if that was REALLY confusing people (though this is a laughable excuse on Unity's part). Finally, you still only target the upper earners with a transaction that can be easily understood and correctly pre-accounted for by larger players.

We get it, you need to take a bigger cut from the people that have big hits. That's fair. But the current thinking:

1. Turns off existing Indies and small houses
2. Turns off new developers and learners with an interest in game dev
3. Turns off the whole Youtube and content creator communities
4. Turns off Asset Store developers
5. Turns off the big players

All for what? Being able to spy on the enduser or mine data? If not that, then what is the incentive for this madness?

 

Instead of everyone bitching and moaning about the price changes as we have done for 154 pages, why don't we start proposing some alternatives?

1.) Cap the install fee to 5% of the game's revenue
2.) Keep the Unity Plus subscription tier

I'd be happy with this, personally, even though my games are F2P.
I know Unity needs to become profitable, and 5% revenue share capped is fine.

 

another alternative that i havent seen mentioned (granted i havent read all 154+ pages) is PlayCanvas. very similar in design to Unity in how you work with it. i use it to teach kids game development but it can be used as a professional development platform if all-web suits your needs.

 

And the idea that they can or will against their own earnings differentiate an install from a reinstall is absurd.

 

I'm just adding a comment for the hell of it, to make more pages show up for this mental thread.
Also, I think unity staff have given up, anyone seen any response lately, or is the weekend, just where indie devs might start work

 

1. NO
2. YES

Keep Plus. No royalties. This is not the contract I signed with Unity and the foundation of knowledge I've built. Otherwise I would've just gone Unreal a long time ago. They cannot change this so abruptly like this. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Increase prices, fine. Grumble grumble whatever.

Restructuring your entire pricing model: NO! I will not accept this.

 

For everyone considering leaving (and for those who think long time developers won't walk). I, a 10+ year Unity dev with a 2 1/2 year EA project on steam RIGHT NOW, cancelled my Unity Pro subscription this very morning and started up an unreal project.

IMPORTANT: I posted an announcement on my Steam, Discord, and Youtube explaining why the game is going into hiatus for an undetermined amount of time. EVERY. SINGLE. REPLY. was SUPPORTIVE and POSITIVE.

Your users will understand. This has grown big enough and is blatantly bad for every to such a degree that the average gamer knows about it and will understand if you need to drop everything and get out.

Atleast thats my experience, and thats my recommendation, GET OUT NOW. if you can't see where this is all heading I don't know what to tell you at this point, but consider this question:

WHY DID THEY DECOUPLE THE COST OF UNITY FROM REVENUE EARNED?

And to those ok with the changes, consider the following scenario:
You made a game, a paid game, and you hit the download AND revenue mark. YAY! You are right, its a good amount of money especially as a solo. Now to celebrate this lovely occasion you want to giveaway your game for a free weekend! After all by your own words you just made more than enough money to be happy. But wait... HOW are you going to give your game away for a free weekend? Burn a pile of $100,000+ because your successful game gets installed 1,000,000 times? After all you've hit your revenue marks, those downloads will be fair game. Every promo code you give out for your game is $.20 out of your pocket. Please THINK about all the repercussions of this.

This is the real crux for me. We are losing CONTROL of how and when we monetize our games. That's what made this such an easy decision for me, I was out day 1 the announced this. I know not everyone is in a position to do so, just please understand what these decisions really mean.

Anyways I have a lot of Unreal tutorials to watch. Good luck everyone <3

 

We’ve been doing that, mine is: fire the C suite and get rid of the board members.

 

Yup - did that yesterday through last night, took quite a while..


For anyone that doesn't know how, on Windows if you're low on space / don't have enough at default download location:
1. Open %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Unity unless you've changed it (paste that into search, run or explorer).
2. Move your "Asset Store-5.x" folder into a folder on another drive that does have enough space.
3. In 2022 at least, under Edit->Preferences->Package Manager->My Assets, set it to your new folder (not including the "Asset Store-5.x" part).
4. Open Package Manager, select My Assets list and then one by one download each. Now you will have a local copy of the .unitypackage for every asset you own.

In case anyone thinks it's pointless, that you can always grab them whenever.. think again:
"2.1 You agree that Unity may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Unity Asset Store (or any features within the Unity Asset Store) to you or to users generally at Unity’s sole discretion, without prior notice to you."
https://unity.com/legal/as-terms

 

Unreal has had double precision since the release of UE5.

 

Also:


Looks like it close to rock bottom, well done Unity management.

 

Unity's reaction: "We don't care about you."

 

"Don't worry baby, I've changed. I would never do that to you again. Don't you know how much I love you? Think of all the good times we had. Let's just be happy now. Can't we render together one more time? Don't you like when we render together? No one renders like you baby ..."

 

Been a member since April

 

How are installs counted for people who use emulators?

Emulator specs refreshes meaning it is a different device meaning fee.

or is unity planning to not calculate emulator installs?

 

This was to be expected.

 

You can:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/large-world-coordinates-in-unreal-engine-5/

 

They are going to pull the number out of their ass, the specifics are a distraction.

 

I'm not sure if a lot of people noticed it, but their license is altered unreal engine license.

 

Unity ceo should be in jail for insider trading