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My statement on the Unity stuff (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-15 05:37:50
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey!

Like so many game developers, I was dismayed to learn about the radical shift in Unity's pricing model.

In brief, the company has announced that as of January 2024, games that surpass a yearly threshold of revenue and installs will be forced to pay 20 cents per install.

Not per sale - but per install.

This opens up so many potential issues surrounding things like Game Pass, Epic Game Store freebies, piracy, demos, bundles, re-installing games, "install-bombing", and more. It even has some developers worried that they could potentially owe Unity more money than they actually make from the game! It's a baffling decision and the deal completely stinks for indie game makers.

And by springing this grim contract-change on developers with barely any notice, and applying it retroactively to games already on the market, Unity is showing a callous disregard for the talented people who use their software. The company has lost the trust and backing of its users and that broken relationship can't be healed so easily.

I've personally been using Unity to make my games - Platformer Toolkit and the still-in-progress (promise! truly! for real!) Untitled Magnet Game - and I plan to finish making Magnet Game in Unity. But I'll be investigating other engines going forward. I hope that Unity will reverse this call and make a different choice - but I'll still be considering my options.

If you've been inspired by my videos or tutorials to get into game making and are considering using Unity, you may wish to try other engines instead. I don't have any tutorials for Godot or Unreal (yet?) but there's plenty of great stuff on YouTube.

Basically: I've never been so embarrassed to use a piece of software and I have an Adobe CC license for god's sake.

Mark

Files

Comments

The Magician's Toolkit

The adobe cc license but killed me hahahah. Horrible change on Unity's side. Horrible. Have no idea why they would do this.

Moon Spirit

I feel you. Unity better reverse that call b/c this makes as much sense as car companies charging you money every time you start your car

bemusedHorseman

Don't give them ideas...! Tesla at minimum absolutely has the tech to do that.

Max Goldstein

I had a paragraph typed up about how there could be a reasonable version of this policy and deleted it when I realized that this isn't like most software licenses. This is a charge not on the use of Unity itself, but on something created with Unity. Microsoft doesn't get to charge me when I print a Word document. Samsung and Google don't own photos taken with a Galaxy running Android. Adobe doesn't get royalties when a Photoshopped image is put on a billboard. And so on for music and VFX and code and every other piece of software that creates something else.

C.J. Smith

So I guess that if I do indeed get a new computer soon, I should try to install everything before the year ends, got it.

Damyan Momchev

While this is true, game engine licenses have always been different. UE takes a percentage cut from the sales of games made with it past a certain revenue threshold, for example. The difference is that UE has always been open and honest about it. When free software is provided to users, the company making the software needs to make money somehow. Unity's licensing was extremely liberal and this is why I and many others chose it as an engine, on top of the solid software to begin with. However, the current pricing structure was obviously created to appease shareholders who bought stocks in a company that has not been profitable for years, with zero regard for what it means for developers. I, personally, am considering a move to Godot. I am even thinking of porting my so-far-only Steam game to Godot and updating it, despite it making no money and being a rather sub-par game in general.

Vacui

The news stinks I agree, it really is incomprehensible with what logical reason it was greenlighted, because after reading countless official messages it is clear Unity didn't thought this trough. For example they have yet to explain how they want to gather this info (outside telling us about a proprietary "algorithm" which we have to trust is reliable). So I would bet everything will either be changed by January, or it will not be enforced once in effect. But I don't have a Unity game out there, so it is easier for me to say. I feel for all the developers and I hope this gives somebody the strength to try something new, or to stand their ground and appeal to what is clearly a tyrannical decision. I can't wait to see the next GMTK Game Jam graph of the "engines used".

Wawro

Thank you for this public service announcement. I was not aware of this but seems to be evidence of the enshitification of products. That really shows such disregard for the community and consumers.

Bryan Gillis

Even if they do completely go back on this, they can't regain the lost trust. How can developers know that when they're 2 years into a project on Unity that the company won't spring a new horrible pricing model on them that they'll have to abide by or else abandon their project?

Vacui

I agree with you, but only in theory. Trust is important, but so is necessity, if a developer has no alternatives or the existing ones are too costly, they will have to risk it and keep going forward.

OSW Review

Thank u for the update and opinion. Mark u are held in high regard, and the only way Unity reverse course is if they're embarrassed enough on social media. If there's enough backlash they'll backpedal. Could u use your platform to spring your fanbase into action? Tweet something for ur fans to do?

Maxime Zielony

I'd go with MONEY on this one. Just a hunch. More seriously, it reminds me about the outrage when Netflix introduced the "household rule" recently. Thing is, it looks like Netflix gained subscribers with that crazy move. Maybe it wasn't a bad move (for them!) money wise. I could see how Unity thinks that their almost monopolistic position could allow them to make such a greedy move, and that the outrage would only last a few weeks. I hope they are VERY wrong.

Mister Grr

Thanks for making a statement! I'm glad you aren't letting this stop your magnet game development, and I'm happy to hear you're considering an engine switch. I'm very curious what you choose! I think I'm going to try Unreal, even though my main focus is usually 2D w/pixel art.

Anthony M Davis

Fortunately for 2D devs, Unreal 5.3 finally has an orthographic camera. So, that's a decent step...I guess?

Codeconut

While I'm sure Unity will be fine and may even reverse course, I do think re-creating untitled magnet game in a new engine would be a fascinating experiment in "progress". How much of the progress you've made on untitled magnet game has been from the actual assets and code, and how much of the progress has been simply learning what to build? Feels like "learning unity" was one video, and "learning to build/use systems" was another, so you'd probably have to redo those. Beyond that though, you have such a clear idea of what you want the game to be now (compared to when you started), I really wonder how long it would take you to rebuild the game in Unreal Engine or Godot.

Damiano Tagliaferri

Maybe to earn more from GamePass downloads. Seems still a bit nonsense

Megabyte01

Unity had a similar policy for years. Their terms were arguably not quite as generous as Epic's, but they were evidently good enough to foster a community of developers who used Unity to usher in a great time period for indies. Now, I can't help thinking that Unity is about to cook the goose just to get one more golden egg.

Megabyte01

Are there any kind of petitions we can sign as developers and gamers to get Unity's attention? I don't think the suits realize how much damage they are doing to themselves and the industry as a whole.

Mario Liebisch

There is a "Unity Collective Letter" by multiple mobile dev studios unhappy with the change turning off their ironSource/Unity Ads for the forseeable future. You can sign the petition even if you don't currently develop with Unity. Not sure Mark is okay with links, so just google it. 🙂

Johan Agstam

For people considering Godot the youtube channel "Nonsensical 2D" is a great channel by a solo dev who uses the engine, mostly focusing on game art.

Josh Foreman

They are (or until recent layoffs, WERE) a massive company. Like thousands of employees and several studios around the world. I had no idea until I did some contract work for them a couple years ago. I was just scratching my head wondering how they could accomplish so little with so many people. So if I had to wager, I'd say leadership can't figure out how to do efficient development, and the only other way to keep that many people (those who are left anyway) employed is to find a way to jack up their revenue. But boy does this plan display some incredible ignorance on the decision maker's part. I've got friends who still work there and I know THEY are not happy about this at all.

Mithos56

For those looking to migrate, look at the various engines out there before you make a decision to jump to one or the other. One of Unity's strengths is it tends to be pretty flexible and a good choice for a variety of different game types. GODOT, UE, Gamemaker, etc all tend to be just a little bit specialized.

Black Tortoise

And to think, I just started learning Unity :-/