Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

As someone using Unity since ~4.5 years now (was writing my own engine for years before) and finally working constantly on a serious project since almost 2 years, this saddens me as deeply as I have ever felt towards this whole endeavour of creating games or even creating art for that matter. It's this gut-wrenching cold corporate disconnection, pure distilled greed and ethically questionable "we can change the ToS at any time" kind of operating that I consider to be the absolute opposite of what one would expect as a foundation for creativity.

For many years now growing older, I more and more experience the true meaning of "this is why we can't have nice things...". I stopped counting the moments where I started to like and love, defend and recommend something only to witness some time later how it is consumed by some high level money hungry array of people, twisted and flipped, punched to death and milked until it is as dry as the humour one must have to endure all that.

I had many discussions about all the quirks of Unity; in the end, my stoicism or maybe sunk cost bias kept me on track or rather kept me coding custom C# solutions right next to the engine. But there is no custom solution for things like this mess. I really hope 'they' think very intensively about this and let common sense prevail after that. This is an (as communicated) unseen and unheard of concept of impossible madness, for which even further clarification could not alleviate the worries and concerns people have now expressed in over 10000 replies.

Well, actually it might be also okay if big M buys it already. I apologize for venting and my bad english but this really had to get out of my system after staring at the screen in utter disbelief for over six hours.

 

I would be willing to pay a royalty from dollar one, honestly.

I really dont get why people think royalties are bad.

I had a business where rent was a 20% cut of gross revenue, (not counting sales tax), and it was great, as rent was by far the greatest cost, therefore, the business was essentially risk free from day one, and rent pretty close to regular rent. Plus, the owner had a vested interest in my success.

 

The correct answer was 3 April 2023 when they removed this section from the TOS without telling anyone they'd done so:
“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 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).”

 

imho a mass-unsubscribe of plus/pro licences on exact day (say 30 days from now) would wake up that silent room.

imagine 10 000 dev studios canceling their sub on one day.

10000 forum posts is mainly just noise

 

No one thinks royalties are bad. People think 'unilaterally forcing people onto a new TOS after promising you would never do that again' is bad. It's not about the (frankly bizarre) plan in front of us, its the fact they've decided they can come up with a new fee or condition whenever they feel like it and users just have to put up with it.

And everyone knows that the best products are developed when your technology partner is actively trying to leech as much money from you as possible.

 

Oh, this was just a thought on royalties, since the topic came up a while ago. The pay per install thing is completely insane. The retroactive pay per install thing is just evil, legal.or not.

 

I have never been a member or written to the forum and i have been reading this topic for days. I registered now because i had things i wanted to say. I am using unity and i have a tons of assets. I have game project worked on it for 2 years. This last decision has drained all my motivation. I do not do anything. I just go to bed, get up, sit in front of the computer and see if the decision has been reversed. I am exhausted and very angry.

People have been calculating here for days how much they will pay for Unity, so that means everything is accepted, we just need some bargaining.. There are very few people who declare that they do not accept this plan in its entirety. It is not possible to accept this decision.

Also, some people think that this forum is their own WhatsApp group or Discord group and constantly spam messages. While people are in a truly hopeless wait, this minority i mentioned is busy making their own chat and shamelessly started celebrating 10 thousand messages. These people i mentioned already sent 5-6 thousand of the 10 thousand messages. I hope Unity will step back from this plan and i will never experience the feeling of being on the same side as these d***s again.

 

Jason Booth is a strong factor in me deciding whether I'll port or not. That man's work is indispensable.

 

Or we just abandon ship. They're in the "Find Out" portion right now.

 

This is a forum where comments are discussed and responded to, why do you say that the people who answer here are assholes, they have families, wives and children to take care of, they have careers and jobs to take care of. . If you don't like it then just shut up and leave.

 

Don't expect a rollback from this CEO. His pride is of far higher importance to him than the company. He'd rather see the company go down. In fact, he has a history of ruining companies as CEO. Not to mention him being hostile to devs (specifically indie devs), or the SA allegations against him that Unity ignores.

I, for one, have vowed to ditch Unity as long as he is CEO and this policy in place. Short of both those things changing there is no going back. I invite others to join me, regardless of if you think you will make a difference in the end or not.

I do feel bad for the regular Unity employees. I hope they can find work elsewhere.

 

Imagine if Adobe announced that as of Jan 1, 2024 they would start charging a nickel-per-use for every image ever made with Photoshop in history, providing it's met some just-invented usage threshold and the creator has some recent earnings to tax. It reads and looks like a joke, but the words are taken straight from Unity's real explanation of their policy...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/16ju43x/calculateliteralpayperview/

Photoshop Image Fee

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Photoshop Image Fee that’s based on online image views.
We are introducing a Photoshop Image Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying digital image is viewed online by an user. We chose this because each time an image is viewed, the user recieves benefit from the value of the Photoshop tool. Also we believe that an initial view-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from other monetizaiton of their digital images, unlike an ongoing revenue share.

Thresholds for revenue and views
Digital images qualify for the Photoshop Image Fee after two criteria have been met: 1) the image has generated a minimum revenue threshold in the last 12 months, and 2) the image has passed a minimum lifetime online view count. We set high revenue and view thresholds to avoid impacting those who have yet to find scale, meaning they don’t need to pay the fee until they have reached significant success.

FAQ

Do I still need to pay for my Photoshop subscription plan?
Yes. The Photoshop subscription plan is separate from the Photoshop Image Fee.

How is Photoshop collecting the number of views?
We leverage our own proprietary data model and will provide estimates of the number of times the image is viewed online – this estimate will cover an invoice for views on all platforms.

Will this fee apply to all images that are already online on January 1, 2024?
Yes, the fee applies to all eligible images currently in market created with Photoshop. We look at an image’s lifetime views to determine eligibility for the fee.

 

If it's a legitimate job to make money then you have no right to criticize them, that's how many companies operate and a lot of people work to feed their families.

 

maybe their legal team sucks like their engine team and finance team

 

We gotta keep the riot going til the man understands, man. Pass the bottle and gas can.

 

What I'm worried about is:
The result may be that those who continue to use Unity are unsuccessful small developers/losers (after all, there are no installations and no impact), while successful developers with high incomes/downloads have switched to new engines.

High fees for downloads ---> Punishing successful developers, will inevitably cause them to leave.

Unity's revenue will rise in the short term, but as successful developers leave, revenue will drop significantly.

At that time, Unity became an engine for losers.

 

What price should I set my pay to unlock mobile game at to guarantee that Unity will not calculate a charge higher than my revenue?

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/adobe-pantone-color-subscription-fee

good pick!

 

100% agree. I am making a game for PC which will be sold on Steam and I've been working on the fuggin thing for six years. I hope I fall into the categories financially that will make this impact me some day but there is no guarantee.

I do agree with you that there is some envy of those who can pop out on a mobile game every quarter and make money while I have been slaving away for years. But at the same time I don't fault them for having a successful endeavor. They have different skills than I do. But yes I do consider what I am doing art. I am not doing it for money. At least money is not my primary motivator (John R strike me down because I am a stupid bastard if I'm not out to make money hand over fist).

That said I still want to fight alongside those who are most impacted because this is flat out wrong. And I also can see scenarios where it could impact me even in the premium PC-only market, such as piracy, gift bundles, targeted attacks from malicious actors who have a vendetta against me. I called it out 50-100 pages ago but I already have people out to get me because they think my game is fake or it's taking too long. They already threatened they will leave bad reviews on launch. Now they will just install the game 50,000 times instead and take me out in my wallet.

Bottom line the installs is not an acceptable metric for charging us. And I stand with anyone who feels that way.

 

What you're worried about is pointless, if the fees go back to the way they were and the company focuses on developing and fixing the engine, it will return to its glory days, especially fast given what it already has.

 

The real issue here is that now we have a 200k threshold, next year the threshold is 0$ and everyone pay just per install, and turns out that every runtime you have release is now an unlimited lifetime backdoor to your income that you agreed to.

 

Serious Question:
Will deceased developers be fined???
Like, there is one I was told about, "Creature_Unknown", they passed earlier this year, all their games published are Unity, and appearently are decently popular in the furry community, would they still be fined??
Like fr.

 

Long long time Unity user here, wanted to drop my 20 cents. Our plan for our current Unity project is to:
1: Move from using engine built-in features to our own features, meaning own physics engine, own scene graph, own Gameobject etc. Abstract the Unity engine behind a middleware layer, and only use Unity for rendering, input and so on.
2: Code another implementation of our engine middleware, possibly to Monogame or FNA.

This way the game can use whichever backing engine we choose, and need no longer be tied to one supplier. Unfortunately shaders cannot easily be as shared between engines as can textures and sound files, we haven't figured out that one yet. Perhaps a tool to automatically translate them...

 

Heyo bro, with all due respect you need to chill. I say that in not in a confrontational way, going into depression aint gonna help you.

You are seeing things worse than they are. Like, for a fact most people here have not accepted it at all. Trust me, Im one of those that are in the neutral area and still need to see the final contract, people are pissed and (allegedly) leaving already.

Also, the memeing is cathartic. Again, going into a low wont help any of us.

Start moving bro. Dont even need to be work related. Go relax a bit, what is done is done. Either they will revert it or not and you dont need to know that down by the minute. If you feel like working work on not engine related stuff. You arent passing the vibe check. Take care of yourself mate.

 

Would you trust a company that has lost credibility?

 

yeah, idk i think that is a lie, because i do not think a company like voodoo would do that, that looks like a pretty bad idea or maybe i'm missing something

 

You hit the point! Agree with you!

 

There are real questions about the legality of this. It is not something that has been tested in court before, and I imagine it will end up there at some point.
Beyond the legality issue though is the moral and ethical one. It is clear where Unity stands: No ethics nor moral values, and screw anyone who disagrees.

They ruined their trust long ago, always promising to win it back. Beyond a reversal and major high-level firings, including the CEO, there is no winning anything back. The abusive relationship is over.

 

If Godot makes an asset store it will make this possible while also creating another source of revenue for Godot

 

I’m not judging but you’re trolling, piss off.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe this is on their roadmap? Maybe I'm misremembering though. Only thing keeping me from Godot is the MoltenVK translation layer for iOS and metal. I need every possible bit of performance I can get, and this simply adds too much overhead for my liking. Of course, I could make a Metal backend myself since the Engine is Open Source. I may revisit that actually to see how feasible it would be.

Godot is also very unintuitive with it's UI. Of course that is not as big of a deal to me right now. But maybe if more people switch it would also improve.

 

Looking at the maths involved, pushing people using Unity Personal to Pro seems to be at least one of the things Unity wants to happen.

Let's say Unity calculates 500k installs. This means your choice of fees for the year is either:

• $60k for Unity Personal (300k * $0.2 for the Runtime fee), or
• $2k for Unity Pro ($2040 for Unity Pro, no Runtime fee)

If Unity calculates 1.5m installs, your choice becomes:

• $260k for Unity Personal (1.3m * $0.2 for the Runtime fee), or
• $47k for Unity Pro ($2040 for Unity Pro, 100k * $0.15 + 400k * $0.075 for the Runtime fee)

 

...per seat...

 

And for companies that buy seats in bulk, say 20 seats, what does *that* math look like in each of those situations? How about 40 seats?

 

In this case it's not what the company will do but that their post suggested they don't even know what the change is. If you don't know how and why you're being charged you're always going to be surprised when it happens and in this case it could be an expensive surprise.

 

I hope whoever came up with that one likes the freaking lawsuits.

And I hope Unity enjoys their entire platform crashing and burning.

I will now be strongly considering Godot and Unreal. If anyone has purchased anything during the currently ongoing sales, I hope they get a refund.

 

Here's the thing that really pisses me off. Unity Plus is being axed, effective immediately. I can buy in to one more year of it if I pay a lump fee of about $600 sometime in October, which is what I'll probably end up doing. yay for me.

But let's see what I'm getting for Pro...

• Publish to game consoles. -- I don't need this at all.
• Guidance from Partner Advisor -- I don't even know anyone who would want this
• Priority Customer Service -- FOR WHAT?!? They can't fix anything in the engine. The forums serve this purpose.
• Unity Mars tools for AR/MR -- I don't know how many people use these, but as I pointed out in an earlier thread in the VR section, these tools are severely lacking.
• Havok Physics for Unity for ECS-based projects -- Don't need this at all.
• Custom options available -- Don't need this at all
  • Technical support -- Don't need this at all
  • On-demand training -- Don't need this at all.
• Splash screen customization -- THIS IS WHAT I'M ACTUALLY PAYING FOR

So basically I'm going to be paying $185 a MONTH to get the option to turn off the splash screen.

Not. Effing. Cool.

 

The company's been suffering from bad leadership for years and years.I have no doubt Unity's developers are top tier, but it feels like the engine is going nowhere.

From lofty ambitions, to development hell. Management flip flopping between "the newest fads" while venturing into new fields like film that seemingly is going nowhere... spending investors money like they're on cocaine... Unity's been running through the forest, flailing their arms, barking at birds and face-planting every tree at least twice. New features that could affect a massive part of their audience is ignore so they can work on technology that only a handful of companies will even consider picking up. For most the platform is stagnant, and now they ramp up prices?

Larger and smaller game companies have steadily been leaving the platform, I've yet to hear anyone regretting their choice. Incidents like this must instill further confidence in that decision.

Rolling back the install fee won't fix the core problem. If management can run companies into the ground and still make hundreds of millions doing so - why should they care.

 

Except... a number of people DID read the ToS before downloading and installing Unity. This change was accompanied by a silent ToS change to something wholly incompatible with the ToS many agreed to.

 

Indeed. There are at least two major AAA studios working with Unity that I know of: Bethesda (Fallout Shelter) and Blizzard (Hearthstone). I imagine they have custom licenses but with how enterprise has install fees too I wouldn't be surprised if they're going to try to apply it to them too.

 

totally agreed

 

activision, the ones who made pokemon go, there are others

 

No. All this does is tell people the ToS means jack **** and can change on a whim.

 

Dear John Riccitiello,

I hope this letter finds you well. I want to express our appreciation for your interest in FeeFree Funworks and the opportunity you explored with us. Your proposal to introduce a Unity Runtime Fee has been carefully considered by our team, and I regret to inform you that we are unable to move forward with it at this time.

We appreciate the thought and effort you put into your proposal and your desire to align with our goals and principles. However, after a thorough evaluation, we have decided that introducing a Unity Runtime Fee based on each install may not be the most suitable approach for our business model.

We understand your reasoning behind this fee structure, including the belief that it allows creators to retain the financial gains from player engagement. While we acknowledge the merits of this perspective, we have chosen to pursue alternative strategies that align more closely with our current business objectives.

Please understand that this decision is not a reflection of the value of your proposal or your ideas. We are continuously exploring new opportunities and strategies to enhance our offerings and remain competitive in the market.

We appreciate your understanding of our decision and your interest in collaborating with us. We would be open to discussing future proposals or exploring other avenues for potential partnership in the future. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.

Once again, we thank you for considering FeeFree Funworks for your proposal, and we wish you success in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

W.M.R Jap-A-Joe
CEO FeeFree Funworks

 

Two interesting readings:
https://twitter.com/oleivarrudi/status/1702706966974362027
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/16j6cip/ironsource_is_the_reason/

 

I think I detect some hostility. Do any of you actually think I approve of or support Unity's decisions?

I specifically talked about people on Personal being pushed to Pro. I said nothing about game devs large enough that they are already using Pro (or Enterprise, or a custom agreement). On what basis would a larger dev (which would need many seats) have revenue under the old Personal threshold?

Why are you asking me? The maths is right there in my post. Just multiply the $2k part by however many seats are needed.

 

The reason is they did an IPO, these are just symptoms.

 

Nope. Your theory has been brought up before, and is valid, but, every time it is brought up, it uses one seat in the calculation.

 

I hate this. I've put so much into learning unity.....

 

is not all lost, there are alternative that are very similar to unity, with some time you'll be fine