Unity reveals plans to charge developers per game install - plans revoked and CEO fired, lol

[HoboForEternity]

John ricciturdo once again shows the peasants how to destroy a company faster than elon musk can

 

[Van-d-all]

Wtf is even the deal with all those "retroactive" changes recently? I get that for some CEO fucks with dollar signs in their eyes applying money multipliers to already existing products is a major fantasy, but afaik "lex retro non agit" is a major law rule which stems from basic logic and, well, time flow.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-rev...-drawing-criticism-from-development-community

UPDATE 11.45pm: As fury among developers continues to mount following Unity's dramatic changes to its Unity Engine business model, the company has taken to social media to "provide clarifying answers to the top questions" being asked.

"Yes, this is a price increase and it will only affect a small subset of current Unity Editor users," the company insisted in its statement. "Today, a large majority of Unity Editor users are currently not paying anything and will not be affected by this change. The Unity Runtime fee will not impact the majority of our developers.

"The developers who will be impacted are generally those who have successful games and are generating revenue way above the thresholds we outlined in our blog. This means that developers who are still building their business and growing the audience of their games will not pay a fee. The program was designed specifically this way to ensure developers could find success before the install fee takes effect."

Unity has also clarified the changes are "not retroactive or perpetual", noting it will only "charge once for a new install" made after 1st January 2024. However, while it won't be charging for previously made installs, fees do indeed apply to all games currently on the market, meaning should any existing player of an older game that exceeds Unity's various thresholds decide to re-install it after 1st January, a charge will still be made.

The company has also failed to assuage concerns in other areas. It has, for instance, revealed developers will be charged based on its own internal assessment of what it believes to be an accurate number of new installs - as determined by a "proprietary data model" it says it won't fully detail, only noting it believes the system "gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project."

Unity has also failed to shed much light on how it plans to prevent fees being applied to pirated games, or in instances where excess installs might be carried out maliciously. All questions on the subject from concerned developers have been met with the stock reply of, "We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point."

Additionally, while its updated FAQ remains hazy on the exact nature of an "install", Axios' Stephen Totilo has received clarification from Unity that a developer will be charged every time a user installs a game, including each time they choose to delete then reinstall it. Additionally, every new device a game is installed on will count as a chargeable install, making it clear the company plans to accrue fees far and above the number of individual sales of a game.

A bit of good news: charity games and bundles are said to be exempt from the fees. However, demos that let players get "to a full game" will - according to Unity's new FAQ - be hit with a fee, as will all early access games and betas. The same FAQ also dodges the question of whether or not Unity's updated runtime will "call home" to the company, only saying that runtime installs will be calculated based on" GDPR and CCPA-compliant "data from numerous sources".

"We are actively listening to and following your questions closely," the company concludes.

 

[Konjad]

Unity CEO spotted:

 

[Hag]

Kind of wonder if this is going to get jumped by some of those European commission IT lawyers.

 

[Aemar]

Unity CEO spotted:

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Unity is a malware that comes with game engine.
Those that are still using it deserve this.

 

[flyingjohn]

Hm, i wonder if there any big names in the free mobile market that will fuck ex-ea greedbox boy hard for even attempting this.
Oh look, Genshin Impact,Heartstone and Pokemon are made in Unity. I wonder how they are gonna respond?

 

[Karwelas]

 

[Jaedar]

Unity has also clarified the changes are "not retroactive or perpetual", noting it will only "charge once for a new install" made after 1st January 2024. However, while it won't be charging for previously made installs, fees do indeed apply to all games currently on the market, meaning should any existing player of an older game that exceeds Unity's various thresholds decide to re-install it after 1st January, a charge will still be made.

The company has also failed to assuage concerns in other areas. It has, for instance, revealed developers will be charged based on its own internal assessment of what it believes to be an accurate number of new installs - as determined by a "proprietary data model" it says it won't fully detail, only noting it believes the system "gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project."

I feel like there is no way this can be legal. Unity can just send you a bill for an arbitrary amount of money and expect you to pay? And apply that retroactively to products already on the market?

 

[Lord_Potato]

I feel like there is no way this can be legal. Unity can just send you a bill for an arbitrary amount of money and expect you to pay? And apply that retroactively to products already on the market?

I'd be very surprised if that grift managed to stand in any court of law.

 

[Dickie]

Studios with titles heading to Game Pass or other subscription services were also assured that the fee would be charged to the distributor, e.g. Microsoft.

Over The Moon Games, the solo developer behind The Fall, observed that its deal to release its game for free on the Epic Games Store resulted in seven million installs; with Unity's fees, the studio would "owe them three times what Epic paid me."

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/unity-clarifies-new-fee-plans-amid-developer-backlash

 

[Chanel Oberlin]

Time to charge $0.2 per post on the dex. Applies retroactively too, including to those with +1.8 million posts.

 

[Karwelas]

Unity has fallen.
Billions must install.

Seriously tho...

This is most hilarious marketing and clientbase suicide I have witnessed in last few years.

 

[ADL]

 

[newtmonkey]

Absolutely bonkers. Put aside all the stuff that would never stand up in court (if a company chooses not to renew their contract with Unity, how on earth can Unity then go and start charging per install fees for existing games without any contract? What if you simply provided no bank information? Would they send collection agencies after you? All over the world? And based on what contract?)... why on earth would any developer ever work with Unity again, knowing that the company would be willing to even consider such a thing?

In trying to nickel and dime their customers, Unity is gonna go from "unsatisfactory income" to "zero income."

 

[Orud]

come on, that's fake. no one can be this retarded.

The CEO of Unity is EA's previous manager.

Too much work. I'll bet your ass it's going to be a simple, unsecured, endpoint where you can just spam http messages towards. After 6 months of silence, and bankrupting multiple studio's, they'll probably reply with 'sorry, could have never seen this coming... still expecting those fake game installs to be paid though'.

 

[Spectacle]

Absolutely bonkers. Put aside all the stuff that would never stand up in court (if a company chooses not to renew their contract with Unity, how on earth can Unity then go and start charging per install fees for existing games without any contract? What if you simply provided no bank information? Would they send collection agencies after you? All over the world? And based on what contract?)... why on earth would any developer ever work with Unity again, knowing that the company would be willing to even consider such a thing?

In trying to nickel and dime their customers, Unity is gonna go from "unsatisfactory income" to "zero income."

They might get a short term cash boost. If you've been developing a unity game for several years and are due to release it in 2024, it's too late to choose another engine. You'll just have to eat the cost of the new fees, or abandon everything you've invested in the game.

 

[Orud]

Will page refreshes for browser games using Unity count as new installs?

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Plap plap plap get fucked kusoge devs plap plap plap

 

[dbx]

Been a while since we had this kind of tech panic: https://www.eurogamer.net/unity-rev...-drawing-criticism-from-development-community

Unity reveals plans to charge per game install, drawing criticism from development community​

"It's an absolute f*cking catastrophe".

Unity has announced dramatic changes to its Unity Engine business model which will see it introduce a monthly fee per new game install beginning on 1st January next year - a move that has drawn considerable criticism from the development community.

Unity - the engine behind countless acclaimed games including Tunic, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Citizen Sleeper, RimWorld, Outer Wilds, Fall Guys, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Cities: Skylines - was previously licenced to developers using a royalty free model built around subscription tiers. Anyone whose revenue or funding was less than $100k over the course of the year (and who didn't want access to features such as the ability to remove the Unity splash screen) could stick to the free Unity Personal licence, while a Unity Plus subscription was required up to $200k in revenue, and a Unity Pro or above subscription was needed for more.

As of 1st January, 2024, however, developers will be expected to pay an additional monthly Unity Runtime Fee per new game install - seemingly including re-installs and installs across multiple devices - on top of their existing licence subscription, with those fees kicking in for titles that have made $200k or more in the last 12 months and have at least 200k lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscribers, meanwhile, will see the fees applied after passing the $1m revenue and 1m lifetime installs threshold.

Once the fees kick in, developers using Unity Personal will be expected to pay $0.2 per new install above the 200k threshold each month, while Unity Pro and Enterprise subscribers will be required to pay $0.15 and $0.125 respectively after crossing the 1m line - a figure that will decrease as higher install thresholds are reached. Unity Plus, meanwhile, is being retired as of today, meaning access to advanced features will now require at least a $2k annual subscription - an increase of over $1,600 compared to Unity Plus.

Unity's new fees will be applied retroactively to all games already on the market that cross its revenue and install thresholds, and to all to all games regardless of price - raising questions around the viability of free game giveaways, game demos, bundles, and more - and there's concern developers may now face charges for pirated game installs. There are also questions around how the changes will complicate the logistics of being on services like Game Pass.

The industry response so far appears to be a mixture of outrage, disbelief, and confusion, with some developers already publicly pledging to switch engines. Eurogamer has reached out to number of studios for their response to today's changes, including Size Five Games' Dan Marshall, creator of the acclaimed Lair of the Clockwork God, The Swindle, and more.

"It's an absolute fucking catastrophe," Marshall told us, "and I'll be jumping ship to Unreal as soon as I can. Most indies simply don't have the resources to deal with these kind of batshit logistics. Publishers are less likely to take on Unity games, because there's now a cost and an overhead," he continued. "How this is being tracked is super vague and feels half-thought-through. It seems open to review-bombing exploits, but in a way that actually costs developers. If someone buys a game on Steam and installs in on three machines, are Devs liable for three payments? If so, that sucks. Gamepass is suddenly a massive headache... the list goes on.

"It's all just utterly horrible, and they need to backtrack on this instantly or every Dev I know is likely jumping ship tomorrow."

"I have a couple of projects on the go in Unity right now," Marshall continued, "and they're far enough along that changing engine isn't an option, and I get a sickly feeling in my stomach just thinking about this. A horrendous policy, presumably dreamed up by the money men. I'm legitimately quite angry. I've been using Unity for over 10 years, that's a lot of investment in a system I'm about to drop like a hot rock."

We'll continue to share developers reactions as we hear more.

If I were a jew with access to premarkets I'd short U, let's see how it fares today https://www.google.com/finance/quote/U:NYSE

EDIT: down 2,5% and falling 15 minutes after market opened

EDIT2: lol, -3%

EDIT3: a part of me want to believe that this is plain stock market manipulation, nobody can be this retarded. Sell stock, release retarded news, stock crash, buy cheap and sell later when tretarded news get retracted

 

[flyingjohn]

nobody can be this retarded

They need money fast. They have 7000 employees (after the firings) which beats both Epic and Valve together, and that eats money.
Said employee influx came because the current CEO decided to initiate a hiring spree and he can't back down now. The only thing he can do is get some monies fast and wait until next year to fire the majority of the hires.

 

[Chanel Oberlin]

They have 7000 employees

What the fuck do they do?

 

[flyingjohn]

They have 7000 employees

What the fuck do they do?

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody needs to go full Elon on that company.