Although it is mostly not used for the biggest AAA games, the Unity engine is still a popular choice for developers of smaller titles or mobile games. But society as such is not doing very well. Last year, for example, it bought a company that developed malware in the past, and this year saw two big waves of layoffs (first 300 and then 600 employees). New messagewhich refers to the price for using the engine, is the last straw for some creators.
Indeed, from January 1, 2024, Unity will introduce a fee for developers for each game installation, after exceeding $200,000 in sales and 200,000 downloads, while the rule will also apply retrospectively to already released games. Amounts vary depending on which version of Unity a creator pays for, with a maximum charge of $0.20 per install.
But the problem is that this system can be easily abused and basically force the bankruptcy of any company that publishes a game built on Unity. The number of installations also includes repeated installations on other devices. Another huge problem is subscription services, such as Game Pass, where millions of players can install titles for free and developers will have to pay for it. And the most bizarre thing about all of this is that, apparently, vampire copies will also be included in the total, from which the developers will not really see a dollar, and on the contrary, they will lose a lot of them.
Unity users understandably don’t like the changes at all. India studio Aggro Crab issued a statement saying that it would strongly consider switching to a different engine if the plans were not scrapped.
Developer Dan Marshall for the magazine Eurogamer called Unity’s decision an absolute disaster: “It’s all absolutely horrible and they need to bring it back now or every developer I know will be gone tomorrow.”
Some creators already directly mention that they prefer to switch to Unreal Enginewhich is often used in the development of AAA titles, or the increasingly popular open-source engine Godot, which a few months ago received a major update in the form of version 4.0. We’ll see if Unity reacts to the criticism.
SIGH pic.twitter.com/YgJEKGVQEI
— AGGRO CRAB (@AggroCrabGames) September 12, 2023
2023-09-12 21:15:17
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