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by blackwater 09/12/2023, 2:34pm PDT |
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Has Unity jumped the shark?
Brandon Sheffield wrote:
I'll break down some of the most important factors in this discussion:
- Unity personal, which is free, now cannot be used offline.
- all tiers of unity now require developers to pay a flat fee of a few cents for every game that's installed
- Unity plus (which is going away), and pro, and enterprise levels all cost a subscription, and most professional developers have to use it.
different tiers of downloads and income determine how much you pay.
- Unity has never made money off subscriptions, it has always made money off its ads platform (which you see in f2p mobile games, etc)
- There's a discount if you use Unity Services.
- This money is meant to help with runtime issues when they can't even get their base stable version to run without crashing.
So the problem becomes this: they are already charging a subscription, and now a per install cost on top of that. What's the point of the subscription if we're also paying another charge on top of that? Why wouldn't it be free at that point?
Also, it's on developers to sort through these two types of costs, meaning Unity has added a bunch of admin work for us, while making it extremely costly for games like Vampire Survivor to sell their game at the price they do. Vampire Survivor's edge was their price, now doing something like that is completely unfeasible. Imagine releasing a game for 99 cents under the personal plan, where Steam takes 30% off the top for their platform fee, and then unity takes 20 cents per install, and now you're making a maximum of 46 cents on the dollar. As a developer who starts a game under the personal plan, because you're not sure how well it'll do, you're punished, astoundingly so, for being a breakout success. Not to mention that sales will now be more costly for developers since Unity is not asking for a percentage, but a flat fee. If I reduce the price of my game, the price unity asks for doesn't decrease.
This all comes out of the developer's pocket, but publishers won't want to be on the hook for it either - expect fewer games to be pitched with Unity going forward.
And NOW consider bundles. Each install or activation counts as something that must be paid. We did the itch.io bundle for ukraine. That was approximately a million games given out per developer. If all those were installed, developers would owe $200,000 just for having given their game to charity. It makes charity bundles completely unfeasible.
On top of this there is no minimum cooldown period after they change their fee, so they can raise it as they like, whenever they like. Effectively we're all locked into an upward-only, per-install pricing model that can change whenever Unity decides they need extra revenue to make their stock look healthy. No developer would have decided to use Unity if this was the business model from the start.
It proves that they're willing to completely change things up with no notice. January is barely 4 months away, and this decision will affect titles that have been in development for years, and haven't factored this into their budgets. If we had the option, we'd change now, but we're too far into development. Unreal Engine, to their credit, only holds you to the EULA you signed up for, not whatever they've decided most recently.
I want to double down on this point - we did not sign up for this. Frankly the Unity Plus tier, which we currently use, which is going away presently, wasn't even around when we signed up. Oh, and did I mention we're automatically being switched to the more expensive Pro from Plus if we don't cancel our subscription? If the agreement changes underneath you as you're making the game, you can't budget for it, and trust is completely lost. We did not plan for this, and it screws us massively on Demonschool, which is tracking to be our most successful game. You might say poor you, but again, we did not sign up for this and have no option to say no, since we're close to release and this change is 4 months out. You can't simply remake an entire game in another engine when you've been working on it for 4+ years.
Kind of hard to imagine a world where all the little indie games aren't Unity. But maybe we will get there?
What will they use instead? Does Godot even work for 3D games, or? |
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Has Unity jumped the shark? by blackwater 09/12/2023, 2:34pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Yes. Epic Games dramatically reduced royalty costs when they noticed Unity by eating their lunch. 09/12/2023, 2:51pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Yes. They are run by stupid people. by I Hate Epic 09/12/2023, 5:00pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
It died today. NT by Mechapaw 09/12/2023, 9:32pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
I saw somewhere that they backed down a little, but the trust is gone. by Ice Cream Jonsey 09/13/2023, 7:01pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
"per install" fee didn't mean what I thought it meant by laudablepuss 09/13/2023, 9:07pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: "per install" fee didn't mean what I thought it meant by laudablepuss 09/13/2023, 9:10pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
They have destroyed their company. by Kenji Carter 09/14/2023, 5:43am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Just found the worst take on all of this. by blackwater 09/14/2023, 10:34am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Also by blackwater 09/14/2023, 10:45am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Now devs are turning off Unity ads. NT by MM 09/15/2023, 6:16am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
What was the benefit of having them on to begin with? NT by Mechapaw 09/16/2023, 12:33am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
It was mobile garbage and app cloners. NT by Mysterio3 09/21/2023, 8:56am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
technofeudalism by laudablepuss 09/21/2023, 6:17am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: technofeudalism by Mysterio3 09/21/2023, 7:43am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: technofeudalism by laudablepuss 09/21/2023, 8:01am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: technofeudalism by Mysterio3 09/21/2023, 8:26am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: technofeudalism by Mysterio3 09/21/2023, 8:49am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
You had it right the first time, his conclusions are terrible by Horus Truthteller 09/21/2023, 11:17am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
wrong NT by Slew? Slewed? 09/21/2023, 11:40am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
so it's just one bad apple then by laudablepuss 09/21/2023, 1:32pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Horus is wrong. by Slew? Slewed? 09/21/2023, 2:18pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
yet again mancarryingthings is correct by Breadtube is brain cancer 09/21/2023, 8:50am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: yet again mancarryingthings is correct by laudablepuss 09/21/2023, 9:37am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
BRILLIANT! I have absolutely no idea what's going on. NT by Laudable Homer Simpson 09/21/2023, 10:24am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
It doesn't connect in any way to what I posted NT by laudablepuss 09/21/2023, 10:43am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
The CIA isn't "cancer" NT by It gives the cancer 09/21/2023, 9:43am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
It's so much more than that. It's that. But more than that. NT by Horus Truthteller 09/21/2023, 2:03pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Were these choads just going to ask developers how many copies they sold? by Mechapaw 09/23/2023, 8:44pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
They have some kind of phone-home thing. by blackwater 09/24/2023, 10:47pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
LOL Riccitiello got shit canned ERM UM "stepped down" NT by Mechapaw 10/09/2023, 7:24pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Yes he "retired" or whatever by laudablepuss 10/10/2023, 9:51am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
He's already got an offer from Sony Interactive Entertainment. by Dream Cast 10/11/2023, 12:29am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
They only fail upwards NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/11/2023, 5:42am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
They give him a job now so he can give them a job later. Connected fuckups unite NT by Mischief Maker 10/11/2023, 11:10am PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
Re: LOL Riccitiello got shit canned ERM UM "stepped down" by Mechapaw 07/02/2024, 9:32pm PDT ![NEW](images/pointy-default-new.gif)
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