Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

I have literally not seen one single dev asking for a magic royalty free service. I have seen MANY saying that a per-purchase royalty would be perfectly fair. The entire point is that the specific proposed system, per-install fee, can actually bankrupt people. Some devs have also been doing their OWN math and have determined that with their budget, switching to an engine with other fee options is the cheaper choice.

Unity can glorify their magic calculator all they want, they are implementing a worse pricing system

 

What an absolutely braindead take. Do some more thinking please.

 

So charging royalties for software use is more evil than literal genocide. Thanks for you're...enlightening opinion lol

 

Can you track pirated versions of your app being installed? (is not downloads btw, this is important pay attention)

 

Heck, grab all the free stuff you can while you're at it. Might as well, right?

This was something I noticed about Godot, too.

I'm also seeing a distinct lack of any notice that our rights regarding how the TOS applies to the use of older versions of the software is not in the summary of what's changed in the TOS, which feels particularly relevant here.

The fact that it's open source and MIT-licensed means that anyone (or any group) can, at any time, fork the project and continue operating as if nothing ever happened. It is impossible to be locked into a S***ty future decision by Godot's decision-makers.

 

this. is. exactly. what. it. is.

this may be a test, how to see how much devs will swallow and set roadmap for the milking accordingly. or, like someone said, create overpriced products and promise discounts to force/lure devs to get other services.

 

Not even close (note: not a lawyer, talk to an actual lawyer if you wanted to go this route). In this case you show the TOS relevant to the version you made. You look at Unitys claimed installs, you show your install bot, full of installs they missed. You show that you're not operating under the relevant license, and that even if you were, their methods are unreliable, and so because they can't prove the number of installations (beyond the number you just admitted to in court to disprove their system), you're not paying for something that didn't happen.

There's two outcomes here. You either prove in court that Unity is trying to enforce an unenforceable contract and it's business as usual, or you get hit for all the fees you couldn't afford already, and go out of business which was already going to be the outcome of this license structure. It's the same downside either way, with a higher upside to go to court.

 

Unity, please help me know how you know which is a pirated copy, and which is not.
I sell game on gog.com (more than 200k) . A gamer buys it, download the game, unzip, and play on his PC.

But some day, he copies the download zip file to a memory stick and share it to his friend.
His friend unzip the game, and plays it on another PC, he is happy with that pirate version.
And, Unity take money from me from that pirated version???

I don't believe Unity can tell the different between the version play on the first gamer, and the version he shares to his friend. It exactly the same every byte on disk.

In worst case, he can share the game that he downloaded to a pirated site, or torrent.

You could say: "So dont put your game on gog.com, sell it on Steam!"
But you know, they could copy everything. Thats something Denuvo and thousands of Studios try to fight. Unity, you think you can detect a pirate version - something that Denuvo cannot do for decades ??

And if you say: "We can, believe us, we can know what is pirated, and not count them". So what happen if you make mistake? Well, then you got more money, and I lost more money.

If you can solve this problem. I, and many other devs, will continue to use Unity for a long time.

 

We don't give a flying F*** about where you are selling your games. Others are selling ways Unity cannot track because they admitted they do not have the technology and they explicitly said, they will be guessing anyway (proprietary data model).

 

Xi Jinping doesn't run the company; Tim Sweeney does, and he's no scumbag. Tim's just a loveable nerd who loves game development.

Now, perhaps things will change in the future when Tim's not around. Maybe they'll become corporate greed-monster without concern for developers like the board at Unity. Who knows? But in the here and now, it's a pretty great option for a lot of developers.

 

The details are not set in stone right now because unity believed that people will accept these changes and move on. Now they are trying to add small modifications to please the devs but probably is too late.

The details were already stone hard so we have already past that point.

People are not overreacting but are reacting appropriately to the message they have received

 

Okay, let me ask you.
I have no plan to buy your pro plan because with that money I build new game from scratch.
0.20$ per install is a serious money, for that money in North Macedonia, and in general in the poor contries you can buy a peace of bread. Maybe I will never go above the threshold but my question is:

HOW TO HOPE AND DREAM ABOUT SUCCESS AGAIN?

when this announcement impacted my mental health, caused me anxiety and crashed all my hopes and dreams, that if i work hard I will have enough to survive. Game Dev was a difficult path, but you made it even worse.
And now, despite the yearly plan, you want even more from my poor tiny cake. I was learning Unity and I invested lot of tie and paid courses for it.... for a betrayal.

P.S. I was your loyal fan, sometimes I was getting into a debates supporting Unity.
But, I was wrong. You are S***.

 

https://twistedvoxel.com/unity-playstation-xbox-nintendo-pay-on-behalf-of-devs/

Unity Technologies has stated that PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo will pay the company’s new runtime fee on behalf of game developers.

A new FAQ has been shared by Unity Technologies, which answers questions regarding the company’s recent change in pricing plan for its game development engine.​

Has anyone at Unity let these companies (and Valve) know that Unity says they'll foot the bill on top of their own bandwidth costs? What will they do when these companies laugh in their faces?

Does anyone at the C level at Unity have any F***ing clue what they're doing? Too busy making millions each year and then whining there's no money to pay devs?

​

 

Let's not bash Epic for what they have not done.

But as far as I know, Epic is not a publicly traded company and Tim Sweeney owns majority share. Their policy is tencent doesn't get a say in Epic's operations. I mean, take it with a grain of salt, but there are public records. I am not saying Epic is good - they are a company too - but let's be honest, they are at least not insane like Unity right now.

If Epic goes bat S*** crazy like Unity, then I will move on, but hopefully not in the next 10 years. I think 3 engines in 30 year dev career is not bad. I am in my 11~12th year and this is my first migration (Unity -> Unreal). I am prepared for another migration in the remainder of my time as a dev. If you think about the span of a 30 year period, 3 game engines are actually not that bad. I mean, its crazy to think something to stay good for 30 years.

 

Ahh got it, that's cool.

 

Can someone make a backup of this thread. Just in case something happens...

 

Well the bottom kissers went to the surface. There you go.

 

I'm curious if I have been lying to Google and my customers by claiming we don't track anything they do while Unity actually has been tracking them this whole time..
I don't use most Unity services to avoid this issue.
Google forces developers to sign a legal form with the types of tracking being done to clients.
This is unacceptable that you're refusing to address this.

 

I wouldn't go there. Under his management became Epic a child-extortion-machine basically.

Where do you think all that free money comes developers enjoy over Unreal-realm?

Broken families, children emptying out credit cards and so on. So no, Tim isn't a loveable nerd, but also not a Chinese dictator, obviously.

 

Haha it cracks me up they would move to Epic of all places because of Trust.

Godot? Godot is fair game. Still ass but maybe the influx will actually make it good enough to use.

"It is not about the money, it is about trust!" Says they are moving to Epic. Haha

If things do go south and I HAVE to move to Unreal I will do so with full awareness they are very, very likely to do me worse. Just a matter of when.

 

I dunno, man, I feel like you kind of have to be a little scummy to run a game with the monetization practices of Fortnite.

 

Does anyone have any info on section 8 of the legacy TOS?

==========================
8. Modifications.

Unity may update these Unity Software Additional Terms at any time for any reason and without notice (the “Updated Terms”) and those Updated Terms will apply to the most recent current-year version of the Unity Software, provided that, if the Updated Terms adversely impact your rights, you may elect to continue to use any current-year versions of the Unity Software (e.g., 2018.x and 2018.y and any Long Term Supported (LTS) versions for that current-year release) according to the terms that applied just prior to the Updated Terms (the “Prior Terms”). The Updated Terms will then not apply to your use of those current-year versions unless and until you update to a subsequent year version of the Unity Software (e.g. from 2019.4 to 2020.1). If material modifications are made to these Terms, Unity will endeavor to notify you of the modification. If a modification is required to comply with applicable law, the modification will apply notwithstanding this section. Except as explicitly set forth in this paragraph, your use of any new version or release of the Unity Software will be subject to the Updated Terms applicable to that release or version. You understand that it is your responsibility to maintain complete records establishing your entitlement to Prior Terms.
==========================

 

You're referring to one Tweet from an unverified account.

And most of the traffic in this topic was for the memes. When the memes got banned, posts rate slowed way down. Look on the Unity3D Reddit, literally every post is a meme thread

 

At least UE provides sources that you could verify for potential malicious practices. And if something changes in corporate politics, you are free to keep using and modify the current version.

 

they can't, they have no idea.

yes

changes nothing, pirates will not remove the unity install trackers from the exe files because it doesn't matter and is a pointless job for them, they will remove only the drm protection.

 

Like I said, we believe what we believe. I respect that.
Good luck on your dev journey mate. Cheers.

 

Unity will do a deal behind closed doors to reduce the blowback.

 

There's nothing to accept at the moment. Changes don't go into effect until next year

 

I'm sure Unity sat down and made individual agreements with their biggest [highest yielding] customers before the announcement. I don't think they would have dared to do it without that.

 

We could always pay the pirates to remove the tracking...isn't that the norm now?

Money, money, more money!!!!

 

Eh, uhh, hmmm.

I would caution away from running to Unreal expecting things to be awesome all the time. I think if it becomes advantageous to them they will also screw us over. They do have a better track record than Unity so far, but that doesn’t mean too much.

I think the right thing here would be to go to something like Godot, where you can have control over, this is the way to avoid getting in this situation again.

There are alluring things about Unreal, I feel the pull too, but don’t …romanticize them and get caught off guard if they pull some S*** in the future.

 

It's fine, they changed the definition of "never" in the latest TOS.

 

That's not the point. The point is that when you give Unreal money, you're directly funding the Chinese government. And then you have the nerve to make Unity is evil memes

 

It seems absolutely absurd that a game published years ago will start to accrue potentially massive fees starting the new year. Games are going to be shutdown and pulled due to this change.

This is a total trust buster - why would you ever build on a platform that could effectively rug-pull you at any moment? Imagine building for the last few years to get blindsided by this bs.

 

If you think like that, do you know how much of Unity is chinese owned? Its a publicly traded company. I mean, come on.

 

yet unity plus is not available anymore right now. how do insert this into your "Changes don't go into effect until next year" argument

 

That's a fact: https://twitter.com/tkexpress11/status/1702054769035296863

 

right now unity has just shown their ugly side. they change their TOS under the radar and try to force people into new subscription models without respecting old contracts. its a ** decleration of war from unitys side.

get your version numbers and privacy data and look for their old TOS and how it applies to you. we cant expect that they will respecting anything. so if you are dependend on unity for your current project, log what you can and if you ever get successful and they come for you, lawyer up and sue

 

I guess you also don’t play any games since Tencent has their fingers in most publishers.

 

Yeah and unity's community (the only thing which makes this engine in any way competitive) is disintegrating right now.

 

I don't live in China and just don't care. I trust Tim Sweeney he is a good guy.

 

Unity have been pulling this kind of thing since the IPO. Bad news after bad news. Good news get cancelled 4 months later. Everything's delayed, not production ready after 8 years of development and won't be in the 2023 cycle either, which is also delayed. And now this. If this is not a sign the engine has peaked, I don't know what is.

Few older games have pulled in more than a million dollars in the past 12 months to exceed the threshold. I can see it happening on mobile, but not Steam.

 

Hi Unity! I really appreciate that you have this post open still for feedback. I've just read the updated terms for today and this is still the worst choice I've ever seen this company make. I'm expecting huge losses in platform use over this and generally want to encourage you to not only undo and make a public apology over this, but also over the systems and people in place that led to this decision. I think only with a public apology for what led to even considering this, combined with letting go any leadership responsible, will be the best way to regain trust. Until then the company we as a community helped build over the last ten years feels like it has become hollowed out and worth leaving behind.

Please seriously consider a fundamental redevelopment of the inside of the company.

 

If Epic Games increase their royalty fee to 20% in the future and we still use Unreal Engine 4 at that time, would we have to pay the 20% royalty fee?

 

Yes. Godot is open source under the MIT License. That means that anyone can get a copy of the source code, build Godot, and use it for any purpose. No single entity actually owns Godot.

Even if someone forked Godot and made it part of their proprietary software, they do not have the right to prevent someone else from also forking Godot and continuing to maintain that under an open source license. Most web development relies entirely on open source software for this reason.

You have a valid point about hype. A sudden mass exodus by significant numbers of developers is difficult, considering how much collective time has been invested into games that are mid-development. However, there could very well be a slow trickle away, as serious developers and publishers finish what they have started, but opt for other engines in future projects. Quietly changing the TOS, and more or less tricking people into signing it is a BIG red flag, regardless of what functionally changes. And game engine options are more plentiful now then they were 5-10 years ago. Hobbyists with no intention of monetization will probably continue to use Unity by and large.

 

All I'll say is, Unity needs to sit down and realize their community are people with hearts, that put their lives into games. This isn't the path to go down, making the community live in fear and terror. This is making a profound mistake that will splinter a great deal of the community towards the exit.

 

Are you trying to advertise Unreal? There are plenty of people who do not see Chinese Government as some sort of problem.

Additionally, Unreal has never attempted the sort of shenanigans Unity is currently trying to pull.

 

You don't get it.
They altered the deal and will alter it further in the future.
If you stay with Unity knowing it, you deserve what's coming.