Warning All unity creators

[40C72]

Yeah this is pretty ridiculous.

It's also entirely possible. I haven't looked too much into it but unless they've somehow managed to hack up a deal with game distributors to notify them when their game is being installed or add a mandatory install script the game is going to have to phone home when it's run. Unity uses .NET, which is notorious for literally being one click away from decompilation. A game dev could probably build their game and chop that bit right out (of course, if Unity's smart they'll make it a little harder than that, but you get my point), then distribute that. That is probably illegal and I can see games being taken off of Steam for that, but it'd be great for piracy. Hell, having a firewall that blocks all unauthorised outgoing connections could also work

This is one of the stupidest decisions I've seen a company make this year

 

[F4C430]

Plus, I also saw with the new subscriptions you now have to pay to remove the splash screen, which hurts a lot of people trying to look professional without it.

View attachment 2925663

Hasn't it always been like that though? Granted, i haven't looked at Unity in maybe 5 years but the free license never included the ability to change the splash screen from the default Unity one.

 

[aura-dev]

When memes become reality.

 

[40C72]

View attachment 2927090

When memes become reality.

They recently backtracked on their previous statement: downloading, uninstalling, then reinstalling won't charge the developers multiple times. If you're really evil you can get around this with VMs, different Proton versions, etc.

After its announcement was met with an almost universally negative response, and the FAQ forum post did not seem to allay concerns, Unity “regrouped” in the evening of September 12 to discuss the terms of its Runtime Fee, Axios reports. Despite initially confirming that the fee would apply multiple times “if a player deletes a game and re-installs it,” Unity is now saying that it will “only charge for an initial installation.”

Unity executive Marc Whitten “hoped [that this policy clarification] would allay fears of ‘install-bombing,’” a concern many devs expressed not long after the initial Unity blog post announcing the new revenue scheme.

The company also reassured Axios that “games offered for charity or included in charities will be exempt from the fees” as there will be a way for devs to inform the company of their charity status. Whitten also said that, in regards to things like Xbox Game Pass, “developers like Aggro Crab would not be on the hook, as the fees are charged to distributors, which in the Game Pass example would be Microsoft.”

 

[AceStudio]

What about free games? I mean those games do not make money and can not overcome the revenue threshhold... and their patreon or other crowdfunding platforms do not actually count as a game purchase... it's such a weird update, that raises so many questions...

 

[Hagatagar]

What about free games? I mean those games do not make money and can not overcome the revenue threshhold... and their patreon or other crowdfunding platforms do not actually count as a game purchase... it's such a weird update, that raises so many questions...

It's not about purchase, but revenue. And this revenue is of course BEFORE all other deductions (taxes, Steam deductions).
As long as not a single cent is earned in any kind of way (ads, in game purchases, subscribing), a free game should stay free.
Patreon and crowdfunding count as subscription services and the fee goes to them. But these will pass on the fee to the dev.

 

[40C72]

What about free games? I mean those games do not make money and can not overcome the revenue threshhold... and their patreon or other crowdfunding platforms do not actually count as a game purchase... it's such a weird update, that raises so many questions...

Free games don't need to pay. One of the requirements to start paying Unity is $200k+ revenue from the game in the last 12 months. If a free game doesn't make money, how will it meet that requirement?

 

[Jac Rios (Studio 781)]

That is not good.
(In Mexican Pesos because I'm mexican lmao)

Although, Unity has military contracts, they could probably take the blow and keep living with that money until the outrage goes down... if ever goes down, because the only way it could go down it will be went almost all the devs go to another engine and don't care about Unity anymore.

 

[Shadesishere]

Free games don't need to pay. One of the requirements to start paying Unity is $200k+ revenue from the game in the last 12 months. If a free game doesn't make money, how will it meet that requirement?

better question : for certain games, how will Unity "estimate" (their words, not mine) how much revenue a dev makes? simple fact is, Unity will only see total installs, from which they have to guess which are : first time installs, reinstalls, pirated etc etc.

also, are they going to demand a dev's bank statements in order to see how much revenue is being generated?

some serious questions regarding privacy need to be asked regardless.

also : contract law... broken or not?

 

[Hagatagar]

That is not good.
(In Mexican Pesos because I'm mexican lmao)
View attachment 2927478
Although, Unity has military contracts, they could probably take the blow and keep living with that money until the outrage goes down... if ever goes down, because the only way it could go down it will be went almost all the devs go to another engine and don't care about Unity anymore.

This was expected by the people at Unity, the

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a week prior to the announcement.

 

[KuronekoVII]

oh god, unity just shot themselves in the dick. this can be easily exploited by users to screw devs...
and one thing, all other game engine companies are looking on how this is going to end, if unity survives, i bet others will start some kind of this shit.

 

[Bababuz]

So the ILLGAMES will begin to use Unreal 5 next game ?

 

[MrSancini]

It's always nice to see a guy truly dedicated to fucking people over.

He was EA's Top Guy, so the guy is at least consistent in fucking over consumers and devs

 

[rhaxe]

That is not good.
(In Mexican Pesos because I'm mexican lmao)
View attachment 2927478
Although, Unity has military contracts, they could probably take the blow and keep living with that money until the outrage goes down... if ever goes down, because the only way it could go down it will be went almost all the devs go to another engine and don't care about Unity anymore.

You are lucky I am from Venezuela and the minimum salary is 5$ and to get a passport is 350$ so imagine that is to be screwed on another level.

by the way I really like your work, you have a good art design and you know how to optimize the space on the screen and the fact that it is a reduced color palette gives it personality.

 

[nulnil]

Wouldn't this be disastrous for games that are free, but have paid elements? Non-paying players would cost the developers money just by downloading the game.

 

[rhaxe]

In the best of cases the smartest thing they could do is instead of charging per download charge 0.5% of each game sale which would be somewhat abusive if we compare it with unreal that charges 0% but would be less drastic and still win.

 

[rhaxe]

Wouldn't this be disastrous for games that are free, but have paid elements? Non-paying players would cost the developers money just by downloading the game.

the original plan included charging up to games that used adds and those that used the web service and I would not find it strange that they charge the creators of the assets now also for every time someone downloads their assets after the purchase.

 

[traplover19]

This is going to wreck smaller/mid-sized devs.

Unfortunately for us most eroge/adult game developers are small and mid size devs so basically rip half the unity eroges

 

[Count Morado]

Unfortunately for us most eroge/adult game developers are small and mid size devs so basically rip half the unity eroges

Incorrect.

It would currently effect, maybe, 6 Unity developers with titles found on this site - at most. Those 6 appear to make more than the $200k threshold on a game needed for the financial aspect. That said, they could then spend just $2000 per year for the UnityPro license and probably never have to worry about the $1 million annual sales for the game - even if they hit the thresholds for installations over the course of the lifetime of the game.

Less than a 1% investment for those 6 developers and nothing for other Unity developers on here as long as they don't pass that $200k mark.

 

[Gundamu0079]

this is gonna make unity unviable for H-game/porn games

as small dev you would get insane costs from not just your supporters but also any pirate.