{"id":25245,"date":"2023-09-19T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=25245"},"modified":"2024-01-23T23:45:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T07:45:11","slug":"unity-new-fee-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/unity-new-fee-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity Is Falling Apart. What Does That Mean for Gamers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Update \u2014 September 26, 2023:<\/strong><\/p>\nUnity has announced a change to the new policy. Instead of rolling back the changes in their entirety, as the game dev community has asked, several changes have been made to soften the blow. Specifically, any games built on the Unity Personal plan will be exempt from the installation fee, which gets solo developers off the hook. Solo devs can stay on the Personal plan so long as they don\u2019t make more than 200,000 USD per year.

\nFor devs on higher-tier plans, previously-released games will no longer be subject to the fee, so long as they use an older version of Unity. Any games made with (or updated to) the next version of Unity that make over 1 million USD in trailing revenue in 12 months will have the fee applied.\nGames that have the fee applied can choose between two kinds of payment: a 2.5% revenue share, or an install fee based on the number of new installs. Both of these numbers are self reported (Oh my God what\u2019s the point?) and you can always pay whichever number is lower.

\nOn the upside, these changes do make the policy less immediately detrimental to game devs. It\u2019s likely that those who already have Unity-based games in the work will be able to release them with somewhat less trepidation. Nevertheless, the damage to Unity\u2019s reputation and community remains. Moreover, these fees are just less damaging, not gone. The fact that such an egregious policy was announced without consulting a single dev, and against the advice of numerous Unity employees, does not bode well for future policy decisions.\n \n<\/div>
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If you keep even a passing eye on the gaming industry, you\u2019ve probably heard about this: Unity did something big, momentous, history-making, and arguably very dumb. (What? I\u2019m not going to sugar-coat it.) Specifically, the company changed its pricing model in a way that especially hurts its largest user base: indie and mobile game developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your favorite games and game developers may well be affected by this, and not for the better.<\/strong> If you want to know what the heck Unity is, why everyone\u2019s mad about it, and what this means for you, read on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Is a Game Engine?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you already know what a game engine is, you can skip to the next section. If you don\u2019t know how games are made but you just like to play them, this is what you need to know: a game engine is basically a bunch of code that makes it easier and faster to develop games. This bunch of code may also come with some graphical apps to make the process even easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example from an open source engine called Godot:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Engines can streamline the process of creating everything from lighting, to animation, to terrain generation, in-game physics, and more. For that reason, you want a good one with lots of useful features. Some companies make their own, others use an engine created by a third party, like Unreal, Godot, or Unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Happened with Unity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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In the Beginning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear: Unity was incredibly popular, right up until September 12th, 2023. In fact, it was just about everywhere. You see, Unity can be used to make both 2D and 3D games, and you can export those games for every platform, including PCs, consoles, and smartphones. You can even play Unity games in a browser, just like the Flash games of yore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, Unity started out with a great free plan. Any aspiring game developer could start building their game without paying a dime. Once the game started to make money, Unity would charge a monthly fee per person on the team, depending on how much money the company was making. This made it almost risk-free to experiment with Unity, at least in terms of fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, Unity\u2019s popularity with independent game developers and small publishers skyrocketed over time.<\/strong> It was used for visual novels, freemium mobile games, in-depth RPGs, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s a quick list of some of the most popular games made in Unity:<\/strong><\/p>\n

  • Beat Saber\n<\/li>
  • Cities: Skylines\n <\/li>
  • Cuphead\n<\/li>
  • Cult of the Lamb\n<\/li>
  • Escape from Tarkov\n<\/li>
  • Hearthstone\n<\/li>
  • Hollow Knight\n<\/li>
  • Monument Valley\n<\/li>
  • Ori and the Blind Forest\n<\/li>
  • Pillars of Eternity\n<\/li>
  • Pok\u00e9mon Go\n<\/li>
  • Return of the Obra Din\n<\/li>
  • Rimworld\n<\/li>
  • Subnautica\n<\/li>
  • Untitled Goose Game\n<\/li>
  • Valheim \n<\/li>\n \n<\/div>
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    See also: any other game that starts with a logo that looks like this.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"the<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    The Fall<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    On September 12, 2023, Unity announced a change in their monetization strategy. In addition<\/em> to not-so-cheap fees, Unity intends to charge an additional fee every time a Unity-based game<\/em> is installed by the end user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And it\u2019s not just the first installation. The original plan called for this charge to be made every time a user installed the game, reinstalled the game, or installed the same game on a different device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here\u2019s the general breakdown of the fees:<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"Unity's<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    The upshot is that developers on the Personal and Plus plans (independent developers, usually), would be required to pay 20 cents every time<\/em> the game is installed. Developers on more expensive plans would pay less, but even they are not immune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This presents us with several terrible scenarios.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \nTo quote Mike Blackney, developer of Dead Static Drive:

    \n\n> Make a game
    \n> Game is freemium
    \n> Game makes 200k from in-app purchases after being installed 3 million times
    \n> Now owe Unity 20c per 2.8M installs, $560K
    \n> That\u2019s 360K more than we made
    \n\n\n \n<\/p><\/div>
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    Developers listed several more potential issues, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n