Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

$1M revenue is not high of a number. Let's be honest. Out of that $1 mil, about 50% goes to platform, taxes, then out of the remaining 50%, operating costs and salaries easily take another 50%.

$1M is not equal to $1M profit. If they said $1M profit, sure it is fair. It is very fair.
But many companies have more than $1M revenue but make losses.

Revenue is the scale of the business, not the money that its making.
So, revenue is just the size of the risk running the business.
Now Unity, just forced us with a perpetual, infinite amount of risk.
There is no safe guard, no guarantee, and most importantly no way to fight back.
Its pretty much "Trust me bro" right after they broke the promise not to change TOS.
You think the announcement is bad, but wait until the invoices come knocking at your door.
In case anyone thinks this is "sort of not bad", you are very naive.

 

No one will step in and speak officially, they are waiting for the drama to burn out. Maybe offer some better terms.

In the end, every sane developer and publisher will make sure to never make nor publish any game made with the Unity engine. Only a few studios that can't easily escape will stay and pay the fee.

 

If you’re in development of a game right now, why would you choose Unity when it can choose to apply this tax to you at anytime by lowering the thresholds and won’t be able to safeguard you from malicious and redundant installs of your game?

 

You appear to have missed the fact that this is

Honestly if the heavyweights of the unity forums alone banded together to make an open source alternative to unity based on unity 3-5 style (aka before it was destroyed), it would be something amazing to behold. I bet we could make something great if we managed to work out the logistics .

 

If they just thought to do percent revenue share, most of the problems goes away. The proposed pricing doesn't even scale with the developer's profits, they just want to fill their bottomline.

 

@Mike-Geig hows that calculator going bro?

 

2k monthly income is more than 95 percent of the entire world's population makes.

how MORE REAL can you get?

 

Unity itself literally have more than $1B (yeah, B in billion) revenue and still make a losses.

 

Imagine, you use Unity Personal and publish your game in Play Store as a free game with micro transaction, and five years later you got 2.000.000 installs but never reaching 200K USD revenue threesold.

And suddenly you or someone do something that makes your game went viral and it makes you to obtain 250K USD revenue in the last 12 months.

And now the scariest things are about to happen:.

2.000.000 - 200.000 = 1.800.000 installs

1.800.000 x 0.20 USD = 360.000 USD

250.000 - 360.000 = -110.000

Wops, now you have 110K USD debt to Unity.....

 

Join the Unity to Unreal Refugees! We will feed you the C++ bread
https://discord.gg/ARfx3AB3ZF

 

Problem is you can change MACs and serial IDs via script. OS's have had a ridiculously difficult time determining UUID for even their own installs. Who's gonna trust this metric and then why use it?

Any price changes should be made on the currently accepted verifiable system (per revenue), whoever thought moving over to this new unverifiable system and failed to see how easily exploitable it is let alone their inability to foresee the subsequent developer backlash should not be making decisions.

 

Pfff. They will reach threshold in revenue after 10 month and they must pay and after that they must pay A LOT.
You can calculate it yourself and then tell me if they will be profitable.

 

I mean that's the big question.

1. How are you going to accurately track installs without overly invasive software? How do you stop people who spoof IDs?

2. How can anyone trust these metrics when the methodology is not transparent?

3. Why use installs in the first place compared to a much simpler to understand yet effective revenue sharing policy?

 

Hey Thanks for giving us KSP, but yep totally right what you say.

 

Then you're speaking about Godot. It's open source and anyone can contribute. And completely free.

 

As a longtime Unity developer (v4.x) and a developer that was told that a bug I submitted would "cost too much to fix", this is just another stupid move from a badly driven company. How many other game engine companies charge for installs? Nobody? I was already considering transitioning to another engine, this is definitely the sign that its time to bail.

 

While this may generate cash for Unity in the short term, it cannibalizes their long-term profits as developers switch engines.

I just don't see why any developer would start a project using Unity going forward.

On one hand you have Epic games taking 5%. On the other you have Unity taking anywhere from a small % like Unreal to massively more than a company even makes. On top of that, you have to pay Unity $2k per seat just for the pleasure of them bankrupting your company later.

Unreal: Free up until $1M then 5% royalty
Unity: $2k per seat then 0% to infinity % royalty

What company is going to take on an unbounded financial risk + pay Unity to do so?

To everyone thinking this doesn't impact you, even if you don't pay the fee, it does.

Developers will move off the platform. You may stay but there will less community, fewer assets, examples, open-source projects and ultimately less development on the product itself as Unity's profits evaporate when developers switch over to safer and more affordable engines.

Unity says they make most of their money on ads but what developers are using Unity's ad platform after switching engines? This short-term profit focus may end up bankrupting Unity in the long term.

 

And now, here we are.

 

Honestly, whether or not we are subject to this levy is not the big issue.

We need to recognize that the most critical problem is that people who suddenly declare that they are going to make changes that will have a major impact on the business model in about three months' time are the ones who are thinking about and deciding on the rules.

If this is allowed to happen, who knows what will happen next.
In extreme cases, we don't even know if the thresholds will be in the same place in another three months as they are now.

What will the community and those involved in game development do in such a situation?
Will we be hoping, "Oh God, please let my game be a hit as long as it doesn't exceed the threshold."

 

That is why it is the Mark up of the Beast. Any little pile of mammon they ain't got their meathooks into makes them growl hungrily. Know them by their fruits. Seems every head honcho everywhere is trying to elicit as much rage from their respective commodity livestock as possible. Do not be livestock.

A few months back I thought about getting a 35 foot sailing catamaran and amusing myself with simulation and game mechanic dev whilst floating in the Gulf. Apparently I have to re-dock every three days to log into an internet connection to even use Unity. Had a flood or earthquake knock out your local internet but managed to grab your laptop. You got two days to use it and a month before authorities turn your local internet or power back on. Real compassionate bunch there. Must be that San Francisco fresh air wafting in from the Castro District.

 

R.I.P Unity Engine. Horrible leadership.

 

That is not how this works at all. The charges are per month's installs. That developer is not on the hook for 1.8m installs overnight.

Go read it more carefully. It's still extremely bad but this scenario isn't possible. No reason to spread false scenarios when the real ones are already enough to cause a mass exodus from Unity.

 

The one paralegal that was consulted isn’t qualified to answer and other dudes are busy catching flights.

 

The goal is not justice, but to make money off of you.

 

Ultimately Helgason agreed to appoint the new CEO. Currently Helgason is a board director and large Unity stake holder. He definitely has influence in this matter.

source: https://unity.com/our-company#board-directors

 

I've been running a pretty successful software company in the past, with millions of B2B end-users. None of our product managers, even the juniors, would have ever considered proposing such a desastreous pricing model, let alone the abysmal communications strategy around it. I can only assume Unity has a severe problem in their middle to upper management team. Even if they revert this, the damage done to the company's reputation is beyond repair. Who would ever trust in Unity again after this?

I now run an AR based multi-user metaverse, which end-users can download and use for free, and only brands pay to run their own experiential marketing campaigns, e.g. virtual scavenger hunts in the real world. Nobody can guarantee that the revenue coming out of this stream would cover the costs induced by the users, based on this insane pricing model. So it's not only F2P games that are affected, but any mobile app that has a free tier model. In the upcoming AR markets, there's even more uncertainty which business models will eventually be successful, and no chance to calculate this upfront.

I hate to say it, but this forces me to look into alternatives immediately. I'm so sad about this. I really love Unity.

 

Imagine, if Unity ever has a glitch in their system to detect installs, then everyone is doomed for a while. So many questions and so little transparency and answers.

 

Like I've been saying though anyone that wants to monetize would be stupid to stay on Unity Personal.

 

So he is completly backing up JR.

 

Some fresher info from Twitter: https://twitter.com/CreativeChris1/status/1701877435715686567



Unity owns your game now, you don't own it. You also have to inform Unity about every little thing you do or get charged.



Don't really know how to interpret this one. Have to maintain a separate project just for the demo or not?

 

Obviously we can forget about Unity.

 

Assume unity could accuratly count installs and pirated copies, this still doesn't work. With cloud services like Xbox cloud gaming and GeForce Now it Those gaming services are creating/destroying servers depending on the current demand. Anytime a user plays your game on it, it would be counted as a new install, since a new server will be started up and the game will be either installed via download or cached. It's best practice for cloud services to startup/destroy servers on demand to save on cost. This will inflate installs from legal use of your game.

Tracking via installs even in a fairytale world where you could do it. still wouldn't work. Charging via installs will never be a viable strategy.

 

I keep seeing this Axios article brought up but I would just ignore anything that isn't straight from Unity.

 

won't continue to use unity for future games if this isn't reverted or changed

edit: if installs = purchases 1:1, then i would be OK with it on pc
not sure that would work for app devs

 

Dear Unity

All of this public destruction of Unity comes at a cost. You will lose big developers, small developers alike. No one can or likely will trust you given what your so called plan is.

Think about it Unity, from a business perspective what would generate you more income for your bottom line?

Do a revenue share model like every other God forsaken engine and service (which does suck but sucks less) where developers big and small can at least predict what the cost points would be, while maintaining a semi healthy relationship with your customers (Read that as us)

Or

Alienate ever last one of the developers both for game and asset development that studios big and small are ligenamently considering flipping their desks, ripping apart Unity in all social platforms, and finally leaving for good? While were on the subject of cost justification, wouldnt doing all that tracking and then addressing tickets for develolers who say they shouldnt be charged for these set of installs and so on and so forth (u should hopefully see where i am getting at) cost more against you all these things considered, then the first more acceptable idea?

If you choose the latter option you are not going to bring in money but probability wise will lose substantial business and income as a result.

Choosing the first option would suck for developers but less suck for developers as they can predict costs (like any normal business needs to do) and u "might" get to keep your custkmer base.

So what says you Unity? Choose to destroy yourself with this incredible not very thought out plan or choose to work with your customers (aka the developers)

You all (unity) seem to forget that we do not necessarily need you. We would rather stay in most cases but you certainly need us. (Surely you dont need me specifically but come on do u not see this fallout from ALL THE UNITY DEVELOPERS?)

 

How dare you dream to have a successful game with low ARPU. You should only be allowed to reach thresholds that Unity sets for you arbitrarily.

 

Because they have been dunking on Epic "predatory" royalties for years.

They are now on a hard spot, it's true that games raking the money aren't bringing any substantial income to Unity.
But this is absurd.
Also the biggest deal about Unity over UE is that it wasn't royalty based.
If Unity comes with royalties making the comparison between engines a direct match how many users will choose Unity ?

 

Adding my voice to the choir. This is a stupendously stupid decision and what's even more frustrating is that they don't even know the answers to the most pressing questions for something they'll launch in less than 4 months. Are you kidding me?

Asking for more money is always going to generate pushback, but I could stomach a revenue share model. It's clear, uncomplicated and scales directly with revenue the product generates. I'm not ever going to go with some model based on proprietary algorithms that we don't have access to; I cannot trust UT to prioritize making a stable editor, much less something that I cannot even see myself.

I've already committed our studio to move on to a different engine after our current project ships but was ultimately willing to stick to Unity if I saw tangible improvements. This announcement just killed all of my confidence, I don't know if there is anything UT can do at this point to bring me back.

 

JR transitioned Unity to a public company and this has made Helgason a very rich man. Just let that sink in.

 

the year is 2061. your grandkid asks you "Grandpa, what was life like back then?" so you boot up a virtual machine installed on your internal brain implant to project windows 10 from your eyes and launch your game. then getting a bill the next month for $0.47 USD (adjusted for inflation)

 

yeah i remember, it was all about technology and being leading the industry... now unity is strugling agains engines like godot and i'm not saying this just today for this problem, i've been saying this for months now, unity is not the best game engine anymore, its features are not leading anything, in fact unity 2023 feels like a +5yo game engine IMO but hey... there are new fees xD without offering nothing solid

 

https://dotesports.com/business/new...n-comes-mere-days-after-ceo-sells-2000-shares



Well well...

 

There is no universe where Unity has the technology to track legitimate vs pirated installs. That tech alone could be licensed for billions. So we already know they're just making up those numbers based on some garbage "model" they've invested too much money in to not use. What's the recourse if you think they're wrong? How would one even contest numbers when they are sourced straight from their ass?

 

I've thought about this a bit: what if they're the sole source for an official download with anything else being immediately treated as a pirated installation?

 

Unity...seriously...what the...

 

Well, 4000 replies on one thread in about 24 hours. That is about 3 message every minute. Non-stop.

 

It IS overly invasive and it IS prone to error, because the error will ALWAYS favor Unity, who is at sole discretion in how your installs are tracked.

 

If that happens, pay $2,000 for a Unity Pro licence and then you don't have to pay any install fees and get to keep $248,000 of that $250,000.

 

I mean they could do that if they broke all privacy laws known to man.