Unity adding a fee for each time a game is installed
www.gamesindustry.biz
Unity is adding a new charge for every time a game using the Unity Engine is installed, the company announced today. St…
  • Murais@lemmy.oneEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Oh hey, look.

    The former CEO of EA made a greedy, short-sighted decision to fuck over his entire customer base.

    I am shocked, friends.

    SHOCKED.

  • Alpharius@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Unity’s CEO was EA’s CEO too. He is the guy who shaped EA into the greedy company that it is today. I’m literally not surprised

  • I Cast Fist@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    For Unity Personal and Unity Plus users, the thresholds are $200,000 in revenue a year and 200,000 lifetime installs.

    The fees also vary, with Unity Personal developers having to pay the most for every install above the threshold ($0.20)

    So, if you get 200k lifetime installs but don’t get the 200k revenue a year, you don’t have to pay it?

    Existing games built on Unity will also be hit with Runtime Fees if they meet the thresholds starting January 1.

    OOOHOOOOO BOY, now, that’s going to hurt a fair amount of people!

    Also, what about web play? I guess that’ll only count towards revenue, but not towards downloads?

    • wax@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      If their licencing agreement permits retroactive changes like this, that is reason enough to gtfo

      • FaeDrifter@midwest.socialEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer.

        Yup lol.

        What’s funny and sad is that about 3 years ago on r/godot, I had an argument with a Unity fanboy over this exact thing. He was demanding someone give him a reason that Godot should exist, when, in his humble opinion, Unity did everything and did it better.

        My take was that you don’t actually own your Unity-made game. You might own the assets and trademark, but as long as you’re licensing the engine, you are subject to the whims of Unity.

        Of course that was theoretical, until today.