The Unity game engine has been one of the most popular pieces of software for many years, especially for smaller independent video game developers. Its low costs and relatively low learning curve compared to its contemporaries has long made it an appealing option for folks looking to dive into the world of video game development.
Unfortunately, Unity has ushered an unashamed update that could upend users’ plans and kill many lower-end studios’ attempts at success. Starting at the beginning of next year, Unity has announced its intentions to overhaul its entire monetization structure and begin charging developers per install once certain thresholds have been broken. At first, this seemed to include installs even on subscription services such as GamePass, but now Unity has announced they plan to move these costs to the company running the subscription if the install is obtained through there, rather than the developer.
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Essentially, Unity intends to charge developers 20 cents per install of a game past certain thresholds, and payout the full fee monthly. Once 200,000-lifetime installs of the game are made, and $200,000 in revenue in a year is surpassed, the fees kick in. While you can mitigate the fee and increase the thresholds to a degree by purchasing a higher-tier plan from Unity, you can never erase it entirely.
Users United Against Unity
Many developers have already expressed ire with the decisions made regarding the once-beloved game engine, and for good reason. It has been noted that it will not just be legitimate copies of the game that affect these fees, but even pirated copies count against the studios’ backend. Some have expressed concerns that a group can now organize mass-install campaigns against developers to force them to take a major financial hit, essentially a far more extreme form of review bombing that could potentially bankrupt smaller studios.
Free-to-play games are especially at risk because of this change. Since it is based on the number of installs of the game rather than just revenue, a free-to-play game developed on Unity could feasibly be downloaded millions of times and incur a fee larger than the studio makes back on in-game purchases.
Many developers have also expressed anger at the fact that these changes are being forced on all Unity users, both old and new, rather than being implemented for future studios choosing to license the engine. As a result, developers who chose to use the engine under its original terms of use–and likely because of them–and are now close to the finish line, as well as games that have been on the market for years prior to this will all have to incur a sudden and drastic change to their studios’ financial structures.
There are many hugely popular games developed on Unity, from Genshin Impact to Pokemon GO and Among Us. InnerSloth, developers behind the massive Among Us title (which has a television series in development from Owen Dennis, creator of Infinity Train) have already announced that, due to these new terms, it may pull the game from sale temporarily and transition the game to a different engine.
Related: Is Unity about to do a 180 on their Charge-Per-Install Plan, after Serious Backlash?
This decision comes at a baffling time for the engine maker, Unity has announced a slew of massive layoffs in an attempt to make the company more profitable. However, with rumors abound that even the next Nintendo console (always hugely popular with indie devs) may even be powerful enough to support engines such as Unreal Engine 5, it seems that Unity is content to rapidly annihilate the appeal of its product.
How do you feel about the upcoming changes to the Unity engine? Do you think they are unfair to developers, or do you think they are just purely stupid? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and on our social media feeds!
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