Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

Yes, each game needs to meet over $200k in sales AND 200k installs over the last 12 months.

I don't think it's good or bad yet. Still looking for answers and clarity from Unity.

 

Time to buy some put options on Unity stock

 

Prob U5?

 

When they promised a new GI system before we knew that they couldn't deliver? It was like 2017 or something.

 

I am more bothered by the always online requirement - i travel a lot and like to use Unity when travelling and have no internet connection when doing so. This kind've kills it for me. I don't understand why that is the case - why do we need a constant connection. Sometimes i go off grid for 2 weeks and spend time on Unity and now I can't do that? For what reason??? It's so silly.

 

Its awful how you treat your developers. You should be ashamed of this. Charging for installs rather than revenue split is actually awful to not just developers but to the whole gaming sphere

 

You know, this makes me think of something.

When running servers for multiplayer games for friends, I typically try and get everything in a Docker container, just to keep things clean and isolated. However, that's meant that I've reinstalled a server a few times just to try and get everything just right, and ensure something I can make reproducible if I spin up a different server down the line, but I'm going to approach things a whole lot differently if I know just trying to set up a server for friends is going to cost a developer of a game money every time I try this.

For an example, see this Valheim server container on Docker Hub. 10,000,000+ pulls. It uses SteamCMD to fetch the dedicated server files as part of the setup/update process. This is something that's used by people who have already bought the game. It's not generating any additional revenue for the developers. Would every new server cost devs the per-install cost? Would this just destroy the incentive to offer dedicated servers for multiplayer games like this? The more I think about this, the worse it seems.

 

What does this mean for non-game applications? If I make custom software for consulting, could I get away with just making it with Unity Personal since my customer would only have maybe 5 installs max?

 

i've read and re-read the post and the faq
what the????? i am getting tired of unity already, editor breaking bugs, very little quality of life improvements, ended up buing a bunch on the asset store, and every "news" coming from them is either a disapointment, or straight bad news
F it, putting my project on hold right now, will come back in a couple days to see if they realize what a bunch of BS this is
if not, well, lets see

 

we refuse to work on such terms

 

When was dark mode free? I'm still recovering!

 

I have cancelled the auto renewal for my Plus plan. This new plan only works for me if I am not successful. I don't want to be that.

Unity now owns Supersonic, one of the leading hypercasual publishers in the world. They work on high volumes of low value installs. The margins are small. Unity must know this because they own them. The publishers not leading the market will have even smaller margins. Unity dominates in this market with many publishers using SDKs that only work with Unity. Unity is killing the hypercasual sector with this move.

Unity profits and loses seem mostly dependent on advertising, much of which comes from hypercasual. So they have killed themselves.

Financially this doesn't work for many Unity users, plus suddenly having Unity needing to know income and user numbers is an additional problem with privacy, plus potential for very high costs (especially if Unity figures disagrees with the developers, resulting in legal and accountancy fees).

I have been using Unity for about 14 years, and planned to continue doing so for my games, despite using Unreal at work. That changed today.

 

They can implement a major, horribly conceived pricing overhaul in mere months, but can't implement calling a method with an Enum for an onClick event in the inspector even when given 13 years...wonderful to know where the priority is at.

 

You are safe.

 

It's really not a simple matter to switch engines. I have four years of work put into my unreleased Unity project.
And the only other options seem to be scrappy hobbyist engines or the hulking beast that is Unreal. Even though many game engines exist - there's not exactly a drop-in replacement for Unity.

They seem to be making things up as they go. What kind of ridiculous business model is "we're gonna guess how much you owe us" anyway?

 

Did Unity choose today for this announcement because they knew all eyes would be on Apple, so the news about the pricing change wouldn't gain much traction?

 

Installs are tracked by a "just trust us bro" proprietary technology

 

1) For mobile, is revenue calculation BEFORE or AFTER iOS / Google platform fees?

2) Is this calculated from revenue data being pulled from Google / AppStore Connect OR is this data from Unity Analytics?

3) We have a mixed age game, so we turn off ALL tracking for under-aged users. How does revenue from under-aged users affect us?

 

I agree. I believe there are the basis for a class action that will completely block this madness.
You can't suffer anything, even customers have rights.

p.s.
I also think installation tracking practices that have not been disclosed to players and developers are illegal. GDPR for one thing.

 

I hold the extreme, radical position that I don't want to download tracking software on people's computers. If this continues, I'm not willing to use the engine anymore.

In addition, this model doesn't account for games distributed for free, or other situations where a game wouldn't produce revenue proportional to the number of installs, although I guess with what Riccitiello said before they're more than willing to put those people in the red.

 

gonna ask this clearly again cuz it matters:

I have a publisher, is the publisher (who "distributes" the binary) going to get the bill for this and is the publisher going to have to report the numbers on revenue?

or is it even a platform like steam or gamepass?

who is going to get billed and has to do the monthly fee if I the DEVELOPER am not distributing?

please answer the following:
a) the platform
b) the publisher
c) the developer

and if it is a mix, what's divide? what's the rules?
I see a Devolver tweet saying "be sure to mention the engine in the pitch" they obviously see a bill their way.
Do you even have a clue how anything besides the mobile industry works? are you being intentionally vague so you can change the story later or something?

answer the question please: in a publishing situation, if the developer does NOT distribute , who pays?

Its the most basic question possible..

 

Hey Unity, it's not acceptable !!
How can you charge more than we earn????

Our business plan plans to gain 60 million downloads and earn about $1M

If I count correctly, you will charge us $1.1M

Please Unity Official, can you confirm it's correct ?

 

This is amazing. Every day I feel slighty worried about what deranged decision the people behind Unity will make next and how it will affect my life. I've tried to convince myself that I am "just paranoid" and that "no company of that size has people that incompetent runnng it". So optimistic until today. This is a confirmation that everyone in charge at Unity is at, best, profoundly stupid, and at worst, malicious. I should've known better than to trust a company who will pull the rug from underneath me whenever their soulless decision robots incorrectly determine it's the most profitable thing to do. From now on I will strongly recommend anyone against using this game engine and I will start the process of porting my games away from it.

I wish I could reclaim the time I wasted learning and, more frequently, fighting this software and this company.

 

Wait WHAT!? I totally missed this, what the hell?

 

This will dissuade people from doing game jams. Imagine making a really popular game during a weekend game jam with no intentions of selling it and having +200K installs/uninstalls because everyone wants to see your cool game. For all your effort you are punished with a tax.

 

Well, if there ever was a good time to hastily leave the country as a Unity staff member, it is now.

 

Hahaha, you're in for a treat here.
Hate to be that guy, but in contrast to people telling you, you are safe: we got other issues.

Check the unity for industry posts on the forum: we get a nice price hike because it basically doesn't matter what we earn from the project: as soon as your client (!) qualified for the unity industry criteria, you are obliged to run on that license.
Say goodbye to personal or pro - say hello to approx. 4400 USD per seat per year.

Yes...for that we are seemingly off the hook from whatever joyride this "pay per install" thing is going to be

 

Another flaw in this model is how it's tied to a very specific practice. This is the type of thing that potentially stymies innovation in the area in question. It's intrusive in a really bad way.

You could make the case they understand this and don't care. I tend to think they really are that clueless.

 

You're not using realistic numbers. 1m revenue with 1m installs? Many f2p mobile games (including very profitable games) don't earn 1 usd per user, not even close to that. In addition, the runtime fee is not per user, it is per install, including reinstalls.

 

This will count pirated copies for non-DRM titles. (probably DRM titles too).

 

Huge F***ing nope. If you're going to use it to bill people, the fact that it's "proprietary" doesn't mean S***. There is no accurate accounting if both sides are using different equations to figure out the total owed. "You can dispute the number..." isn't good enough, disputes cost money, time, energy, etc. and if we don't know how you idiots came up with your valuation, how the F*** do you expect anyone to accurately or substantially dispute that?

 

You have to pass the revenue threshold and the install threshold, not one or the other.

 

also, are we going to talk about how Ricitiello sold 2000 shares on September 6th, right before this stuff was announced?

 

At the very least, it requires both a revenue and install count threshold to be crossed for now. But it also makes monetizing games a really weird, difficult prospect. You either have to go all in, or make it completely free or risk suddenly getting hit with an eye-watering bill once you're past the point of where it's free. Going viral is suddenly a terrifying prospect if you're not making a significant margin on purchase.

 

Oh there they are, answering the questions! They weren't on their official forum but rather on social media!

Yep, trust me bro. It has worked well for us in the past, right?

 

Absolutely unreal, no pun intended.

 

This thought has crossed my mind as well.

 

Not intended, but incredibly suggestive.

 

We are making an app not entirely related to video games and that app is suppose to be free, what do I say to my client ? That now we will have to pay 0.20 per install when the app has no monetization at all in it ?????? This is a joke right ????

 

Everything about these announcements are genuinely infuriating.
Always-online requirement?
Pay per install?
Removal of Plus?
Bean counters somewhere were disappointed that users weren't quite angry enough, and decided to fix that. Excellent work. The vendor lock-in of the asset store makes it difficult to leave, as well. Awesome. Now we must decide between not wasting our investments into the platform, or having integrity.

 

CEO's only care about the share holders. Since the day Unity announced that they were going public, this (and many other cash grabs) will occur.

 

Could you maybe link the tweet? I need to see this. And the comments.

 

cheating

 

If the app is not making any money, you won't have to pay for installs.

 

There is still no clarification on the topic of piracy, and security against malicious actors. They also still did not clarify exactly what "distributing the game" refers to. If it is a pirated installation, I did not distribute it, but the twitter post implies that they will simply count installs, therefore if people pirate our game Unity will ask for a fee from us.

 

I wonder if they will accept my dispute where I used my "proprietary" method that I'm not going to disclose to them to tell them that I owe them way less than they thought I did.

 

Right here is my official (sic) reply listing questions that I have and ones I've collected since page 4 of this thread, provided in a simple bullet point structure that hopefully someone at Unity will take notice of and mark as items that need addressing with accurate and simple answers.

It should be noted that I started to read through the FAQ to filter the points here before I posted this, but that was just another rabbit hole of issues, and I've already wasted over half a day of my holiday on this, so i've not bothered meaning some questions here might be 'answered' in the FAQ. I'll make a post about the FAQ later and then afterwards one looking at the T&C assuming there is one and I can find it.


Personal Statements from me
Charging a fee per 'install' ( however that is defined ) will obviously affect budget priced games greater than higher price ones. Whilst higher priced games will hit the threshold quicker, as a proportion of their profits Unity fee will be far less, whilst budget games will take longer to hit threshold, but will end up paying out a massive proportion of their profit.

Can Unity provide a 'breakeven' point to show that this install fee can never adversely affect a budget mobile game?

So many aspects of this change appears to be a 'Trust Me Bro' situation from Unity - that's not transparent and would seem easily abused no matter the safe guards Unity might claim.

The FAQ states Invoicing is done monthly, yet I would not be surprised if many stores are paying out on much longer time scales say 60-90 days! This potentially immediately puts developers into a loss or even technical bankruptcy! This appears very poorly thought out.

Hold on why are we even talking about tracking installs and not sales!!!

Clarifications

• When does 'Lifetime installs' start ( not running counter)? Is that set to zero on Jan 2024 or is it actually the current lifetime install numbers?
• Can you upgrade your subscription plan before exceeding thresholds and thus avoid being hit with fees and even avoid all fees up to threshold in some cases?
• Does this apply to any game released since Unity 1.0 that uses the 'runtime'? Is that even Legal?
• Who pays, the FAQ implies that whilst it is the publisher/distributor, ultimately the 'Creator' ( developer?) is still liable if they fail?
• What guarantees do we have that install rates wont rise? What is the expected annual inflation cost for these rates?
• What stops me releasing a game for free, but selling NTF's or other items that unlock something in the game - circumnavigating your fees?
• How can you change the rules that retro-actively affect games made with earlier versions of Unity by this 'Unity Runtime fee'?
• When are fees due? They are calculated monthly but how long before have to be paid - what happens if this is shorter than the stores pay out period?

How does install tracking work?

• Does it comply with GDPR - can you prove that?
• Does it comply with CCPA - for consent?
• If its at a store level, not a user/device level, what happens if someone opens a new store and refuses to provide that data to you?
• If its at store level, what right do you have to get our data from the store?
• Will tracking numbers be transparent and will Unity provide detailed breakdowns so they can be checked?
• How will tracking work with webGL - I guess you will have phone home in that build regardless! Maybe even marketed as calling back for the runtime engine or something dumb. However how can you gaurantee unique install that doesn't fall short of GDPR, unless you add that a user must agree ( CCPA issue? ) while the webGL project is being unpacked, running roughshot over the original developers intentions.
• How will it work with legacy games made with earlier versions of Unity?

How does tracking revenue of titles work?

• Will Unity do this somehow, perhaps if its at a store level
• Otherwise its on the developer/publisher - lots more additional management work and if you fail to get your reports in on time what happens?

What is an install?

• Are local debug builds installs included, if not how?
• Are Apple flight test, goole play tests any other test system included, if not how?
• Are free demos included, if not how.
• Are free giveaways included? What if I pass threshold, but then give my game away free?
• What happens with WebGL?
• What about pirate installs? - inflates install count, but no revenue made by developer.
• Whaat about 'install attacks' where users install games without paying, inflating costs for developers? ( Well done Unity you've created a whole new avenue for hackers and extoristinsts!)
• What about no longer existing users such as Stadia?
• Charity Bundles? - Not so much on install count, but likely makes it non-viable finaically to offer game in such bundle.
• What about subscription services like GamePass?
• What about Free Game deals from Epic, GOG etc - i.e. revenue is agreed prior for fixed amount or just lost with the distributor.
• What about reinstalls when?
  • Systems with OS reinstalled
  • New hardware - i.e got a new PC.
  • Multiple hardware linked to account ( e.g. ipad, iphone, MacOSX M1 )
• What about multi-platform titles - buy once get game on multiple platforms, potentially multiple installs but only single purchase ( affects our profits )
• What about family sharing ( Steam, maybe Apple? )
• What about streaming services - e..g GeForce Now.
• What happens with offline installs? Will Unity ignore them, or make up arbitrary data/claims?
• What happens with refunded games?
• Edit 13.09.23-12:57
  • What about server installs, spin up servers etc.
• Edit 15.09.23-05:35
  • How will they be able to differentiate someone installing a purchase in January from someone reinstalling the purchase they made in December?
  • What happens if users purchase a game but do not install it for months or years later? If a large enough number ( say from a bundle sale ) this could be a ticking time bomb for developers.

 

The stock prices are up 2.51% this is disgusting.

 

I had to scroll all the 21 pages and nobody from Unity was able to address the drm-free offline installation.
There are a lot of games on gog that use Unity, will they be forced to go out because they are not drm-free anymore because Unity need to be online and phone home to track each installation?
If I buy a game on gog, download the offline installer, install the game offline, start the game offline, how can Unity count that installation? Will the game just not start?
I really want you to address this because this problem will impact even games under the threshold

 

Until now I have always been a huge advocate of Unity, often suggesting that people look at Unity for their game development needs or even just to learn how to code. This will stop today. You have lost me as your supporter.


This is disgusting