Unity's new "per-install" pricing enrages the game development community
For years, the Unity Engine has earned goodwill from developers large and small for its royalty-free licensing structure, which meant developers incurred no extra costs based on how well a game sold. That goodwill has now been largely thrown out the window due to Unity's Tuesday announcement of a new fee structure that will start charging developers on a "per-install" basis after certain minimum thresholds are met.
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"There's no royalties, no fucking around," Unity CEO John Riccitiello memorably told GamesIndustry.biz when rolling out the free Personal tier in 2015. "We're not nickel-and-diming people, and we're not charging them a royalty. When we say it's free, it's free."Now that Unity has announced plans to nickel-and-dime successful Unity developers (with a fee that is not technically a royalty), the reaction from those developers has been swift and universally angry, to put it mildly. "I can say, unequivocally, if you're starting a new game project, do not use Unity," Necrosoft Games' Brandon Sheffield—a longtime Unity Engine supporter—said in a post entitled "The Death of Unity." "Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted."
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Unity initially told Axios' Stephen Totilo that the "per-install" fee applies even if a single user deleted and re-installed a game or installed it on two devices. A few hours later, though, Totilo reported that Unity had "regrouped" and decided to only charge developers for a user's initial installation of a game on a single device (but an initial installation on a secondary device—such as a Steam Deck—would still count as a second install).Meanwhile, in its FAQ, Unity made a vague promise to adapt "fraud detection practices in our Ads technology, which is solving a similar problem" to prevent developers from being charged for pirated copies.
Unity shuts two offices, citing threats after controversial pricing changes
Unity Technologies has temporarily closed two of its offices amid what the company says are threats to employee safety. The move follows Tuesday's announcement of a highly controversial new fee structure for the company's popular Unity Engine.
News of the closures started dripping out via social media this morning, with employees describing "credible threats" reported to law enforcement and "safety threats" targeting the company's San Francisco and Austin, Texas, offices. "Surprising how far people are willing to go in today's age," Unity Product Manager Utsav Jamwal wrote. "Unfortunate."
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A Bloomberg report confirmed that the Austin and San Francisco offices had been closed and reported that the closure had led to the cancellation of a planned employee town hall meeting led by CEO John Riccitiello.
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Garry Newman, creator of Garry's Mod and the Unity-based Rust, also announced Wednesday that "Rust 2 definitely won't be a Unity game," because "Unity has shown its power. We can see what they can and are willing to do. You can't un-ring that bell... The trust is gone."
Related Stories
After nearly a week of protracted developer anger over a newly announced runtime fee of up to $0.20 per game install, Unity says it will be "making changes" to that policy and will share a further update "in a couple of days."
In a late Sunday social media post, Unity offered apologies for the "confusion and angst" caused by the sudden announcement of the policy last Tuesday. "We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy," the post reads. "Thank you for your honest and critical feedback."
[...] "Publishers can no longer trust that the deals they make with Unity developers won't worsen over time," Zeboyd Digital Entertainment's Robert Boyd said in a statement that sums up similar feelings being expressed publicly by many developers.
[...] "If they make line 1 of their EULA one that guarantees we can continue to use current and past versions of Unity under those terms, maybe with a provision that they can scale the sub fee within some reasonable bounds—that's better than trust," indie developer Tom Francis wrote in a blog post about the complicated legal terms underlying the whole situation.
[...] Caves of Qud developer Brian Bucklew memorably documented his marathon porting work from Unity to Godot over the weekend, though the situation for the retro-styled 2D roguelike might not be representative of more complex porting efforts.
[...] Earlier this year, about a week after Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast faced widespread criticism for changes to its longstanding Open Gaming License, the company tried to partially walk back those changes with a draft that kept many of the most controversial points. A week later, the company fully backed off and promised the original license would "remain untouched."
Previously:
Developer Dis-Unity - 20230915
In the wake of Unity's sudden fee structure change announcement last week, a European trade group representing thousands of game developers is calling on governments to "update their regulatory framework" to curb what they see as a "looming market failure" caused by "potentially anti-competitive market behavior."
In an open letter published last week, the European Games Developer Federation goes through a lot of the now-familiar arguments for why Unity's decision to charge up to $0.20 per game install will be bad for the industry. The federation of 23 national game developer trade associations argues that the new fee structure will make it "much harder for [small and midsize developers] to build reliable business plans" by "significantly increas[ing] the game development costs for most game developers relying on [Unity's] services."
[...] Beyond simply being bad for the industry, though, the EGDF argues that "Unity's move might be anti-competitive" in a way that demands government action. The group takes a special exception to Unity's history of bundling its game engine with services like analytics, in-game chat, ad networks and mediation tools, user acquisition tools, and more. That kind of bundling creates "a significant vendor lock risk for game developers using Unity services," which "also makes it difficult for many game middleware developers to compete against Unity."
Previously:
Unity CEO John Riccitiello is Retiring, Effective Immediately
Former EA CEO will be replaced in interim by James Whitehurst from IBM/Red Hat:
John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the company whose 3D game engine had recently seen backlash from developers over proposed fee structures, will retire as CEO, president, and board chairman at the company, according to a press release issued late on a Monday afternoon, one many observe as a holiday.
[...] The timing of Riccitiello's retirement is certainly intriguing, given Unity's recent history. After announcing a per-install fee that many developers felt would endanger their livelihoods, Unity made major changes and has sent other executives on something of an apology tour. Riccitiello previously served as CEO at Electronic Arts, where his resignation came soon after SimCity's technically (if not financially) disastrous launch, though Riccitiello himself cited financial results.
Unity CEO 'Retires' In The Wake Of Fee Fiasco
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Unity has announced the immediate retirement of president, CEO, chair, and board member John Riccitiello.
The boss's departure follows a botched attempt to charge developers per-install fees for games created with Unity's tools – a step that effectively amounted to charging royalties on each sale of a game. Unity had previously promised never to do such a thing.
Developers did not appreciate Unity's proposal, expressing opposition so vigorous the toolmaker canceled a Town Hall Meeting and mostly walked back its new pricing plan.
Riccitiello's departure was announced in a press release headlined "Unity Announces Leadership Transition." Tellingly, Unity posted it to Business Wire – a press release distribution service and repository that many comms people regard as a source of on-the-record info – rather than its own site.
[...] You may or may not know that Riccitiello was CEO of games publishing house Electronic Arts from February 2007 to March 2013; back then he quit that biz saying he was accountable for EA's under-performing finances. He joined Unity the following year.
Previously:
Unity Makes Major Changes to Controversial Install-Fee Program
Unity Promises "Changes" to Install Fee Plans as Developer Fallout Continues
Developer Dis-Unity
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/10/behind-the-scenes-of-unitys-rushed-out-install-fee-program/
It's been over a month now since Unity partially backtracked on its controversial proposed "pay per install" fee structure, a trust-destroying saga that seems to have contributed to the retirement of Unity CEO John Riccitiello. Now, a new report highlights some of the internal divisions over the "rushed-out" policy introduction and provides new insight into what may have been motivating the company to even attempt such a plan.
Business-focused site MobileGamer.biz cites multiple "sources from inside Unity and across the mobile games business" in reporting that Unity received some significant pushback from senior-level managers before rolling out its initial fee-restructuring plans. "Half of the people in that meeting said that this model is too complicated, it's not going to be well-received, and we should talk to people before we do this," one anonymous source told the site. "It felt very rushed. We had this meeting and were told it was happening, but we were not told a date. And then before we knew it, it was out there."
After the negative reaction to that initial plan, Unity reportedly considered a modification that would take up to 4 percent of revenue from the largest Unity publishers—slightly under the 5 percent charged by the Unreal Engine. The final policy knocked that cap down to 2.5 percent only after the extent of the backlash became clear.
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Despite bringing in over $1.8 billion in revenue in the 12 months ending in June 2023, Unity was nearly a billion dollars away from profitability during that same period, thanks in large part to a wave of expensive acquisitions. The perilous financial situation was reflected in Unity's tumultuous stock price, which grew from a 2020 IPO price of $68 a share to a peak of nearly $200 a share in late 2021, only to tumble to $37 a share by the beginning of September.
Previously:
Unity CEO John Riccitiello is Retiring, Effective Immediately 20231011
Unity Dev Group Dissolves After 13 Years Over "Completely Eroded" Company Trust 20230927
Unity Makes Major Changes to Controversial Install-Fee Program 20230925
EU Game Devs Ask Regulators to Look at Unity's "Anti-Competitive" Bundling 20230923
Unity Promises "Changes" to Install Fee Plans as Developer Fallout Continues 20230918
Developer Dis-Unity 20230915
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Saturday September 16 2023, @04:57PM (11 children)
It’s the trap of capitalism: profits must increase quarterly. Whatever you are doing, you’re doing it wrong if it does not increase profit.
Simple mathematics show that it is impossible to have growth every quarter, it becomes exponential and thus must stop at some point. The thing is, it usually stops when the product is no longer usable and many customers have become enemies of the company.
Customer service, customer loyalty, product quality, employee buy-in, nothing matters; only increasing profit.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2023, @05:02PM (6 children)
You're confusing "capitalism" with a publicly-traded company.
I'm not a publicly-traded company.
I'm a private business. I have the same number of clients as I did before COVID, and I've managed to decrease costs to clients by ~15% over the last 3 years.
Sure, I'm earning less "big evil CEO profits", but my customers are happier and they're all paying attention to the companies that have jacked prices over the last few years.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2023, @06:35PM
Almost ditto here -- small private company. We haven't managed to lower our prices, but we've kept increases to well below the published inflation numbers. From memory, no increases through the covid years and 2% last year. The customers say they are happy and we're happy (but far from private-jet rich).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2023, @11:19PM (4 children)
In order to know the organizational structure of the overclass, we need a map of ownership. We don't have one because the legal system makes it possible for people to conceal what they own. But you can be sure that at the very top of the hierarchy are the central bankers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday September 17 2023, @03:31AM (3 children)
Do you have an interest, much less a legitimate need, in knowing that? My take is that the people who speak of "the overclass" (and similar us versus them narratives) aren't interested in the particulars or facts. They've already decided what they know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2023, @02:30PM (2 children)
...and you're the person who decides what knowledge is "legitimate" or if someone "needs to know"?
He already said it was private information.
I'm sure there are plenty of things in this world that you don't know due to privacy that would be beneficial or interesting for you to know.
Knowing which company or industry is about to be heavily regulated by Congress might help you pick investments. Knowing who is about to sue some random company for billions and if their claims are legitimate. It would be interesting to know who actually shot JFK and if they were working for someone.
Interesting take. Unfortunately there's zero information in there that proves various systems aren't being manipulated or controlled by one or more "elite" groups of people.
You must live an interesting life if you can't look at any given situation and come up with a suspicion or hypothesis about how things work and then come up with a definitive answer.
I mean...I'm really curious about how honeybees and ants works. Their societal structure is pretty interesting and unique. I have a few strongly-held suspicions, but I've never been able to talk to a honeybee or any to get a definitive answer. For some reason their behavior is private and therefore unknowable.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 17 2023, @09:20PM (1 child)
Is my knowledge of your bank account legitimate and needed to know? Frankly, I decided some time ago, that such knowledge isn't legitimate to you precisely because I decided you didn't have a need to know.
One of those isn't the same as the others.
So in the absence of such "proof" what should we do? Spin elaborate conspiracy theories?
When will this become relevant to nosy people claiming to want to know more about the overclass?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday September 18 2023, @01:43PM
Got to have some kind of hobby.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2023, @03:24AM (3 children)
Blaming everything on capitalism is getting old.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday September 17 2023, @11:59AM (2 children)
Human greed and resource depletion then. Capitalism's just currently the best vehicle around for those things.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2023, @02:39PM (1 child)
Which is more likely? That you'll wave a magic wand and basic change human behavior? Or a system where people are able to work for each other and exchange things on a voluntary basis with a legal system that allows for judging and settling abuses?
Capitalism enables that. Unfortunately that's not what we have in the United States. We have a system of government that partially picks winners and losers. In some cases, government forces you to buy services from companies either directly or indirectly.
A good example would be vehicle insurance. I pay about $90/mo to insure my car. If government wasn't there to cage me like a dog for not buying their product, do you think they would be in business at those rates? I personally think insurance is a good thing to have, but over the course of a lifetime of driving (~60 years) you'll pay them around $70,000. I've been driving for ~30 years so far and I have *NEVER* been in an accident. I'd rather be forced to put that money into an investment account instead of throwing it down a rathole of an insurance company to profit their CEO and shareholders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2023, @04:01PM
> ... I've been driving for ~30 years so far and I have *NEVER* been in an accident. ...
Good for you, you made it through the "raging hormone" teens. But now you're close to facing a slow degradation with age. I've been driving since age 5 (that was off-road) and have 60+ years since then with only a few little fender benders...but I'm still happy having insurance, if nothing else than to make sure that anyone I might injure will get compensated.
Two notes:
I pay about half what you do on an older car (~ USD $600/year), for "comprehensive" with higher-than-required liability limits and also collision coverage w/$500 deductable. The latter covers my car, NY is a "no fault" state for property damage. It includes a small premium (like $5/year) to cover me in the event I'm injured by an uninsured motorist (most likely from another state). I'm in the western half of NY State in the suburbs (with no commute and no tickets/points/recent_claims).
Haven't looked recently, but NY has a self-insurance provision for the mandatory liability insurance (covers anyone that you injure). You have to post a large bond but if you have the cash and trust your driving NY allows you to play your odds. I assume this is mostly for use by large companies that self-insure over their large user base and thus avoid profits going to the insurance companies. But it's available to anyone. Assuming you don't drive impaired/distracted, these odds are pretty darn good.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday September 16 2023, @05:26PM (1 child)
Approximately 100% of the time something is offered to developers as a platform, the purpose of doing so is to get as many developers dependent on it as possible, and then jack up the price to continue using it.
If you're going to develop applications, you need to think carefully about whether what you're doing has one of these commercial traps in it, because however cheap, reasonable, or easy it is to get started using a platform, either the price will go up or the company making and maintaining it will go out of business. At the very least, try to compartmentalize those dependencies as much as possible, because in the honeymoon phase the platform maker's goal is to maximize your cost of switching away from it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Informative) by stormreaver on Saturday September 16 2023, @11:06PM
A long time ago, I was making a game engine to use as a platform for my games. Then I became a dad, and the time for extracurricular programming went away for many years. When my kids became more self sufficient, I decided it was time to try game making again. The choices for game engines had increased significantly since I started making my own, so I decided I didn't want to continue with my own.
Unity had always had a lot of press, so I checked it out. The licensing turned me off of Unity because I knew that "I'm altering the bargain" was always a possibility. Having had the rug pulled out from under me one time to many in the 80's, I had become highly sensitive to that common eventuality. Then I looked at Unreal Engine, and was turned off by both the complexity and the licensing. Again, "Pray I don't alter it further" crossed my mind, so I kept looking.
Then I noticed Godot, and found the licensing to be as good as it gets. It wasn't as powerful or as feature rich as the others, but I had noticed its rapid pace of improvement and thought that it could very well grow quickly enough that the current disparity didn't matter much. That indeed has been the case, and Unity has proven that I made the right choice.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday September 16 2023, @08:10PM (1 child)
I guess they are now passed the nickel-and-diming stage then and have instead just gone for the the jugular and profit maximization stage.
The Free part is more or less Googles Don't be evil bit. It lasted a while and then with each pass of their COC they sort of just erased it a bit here and there and then all gone. Since it clearly was in the way of the $.
This is how they hooked a lot of students, indie-devs and developers in general then. Offer Free. Then when the base is large enough it's time to get paid. It's the drug dealer special -- the first taste is free and then ...
So considering how prevalent Unity have become over the years the reaction, or shitstorm, was not hard to fathom. Or should have been. Guess they didn't learn anything from the somewhat recent Reddit debacle.
Depending on how exactly it works, and if they have to pay per unique install, you could fuck over small or indie developers -- just automate the install process on virtual machines and loop that.
It's almost as bad as when EA tried to incorporate something similar into a DRM, for Spore, and limit the amount of times you were allowed to install the game before you had to repurchase it, 3 times then it was void.
https://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/ [torrentfreak.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2023, @09:01AM
FWIW the Unity CEO used to be an EA CEO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Riccitiello [wikipedia.org]