New Unity Charges

[J4MES OX4D 10,057]

Because making tens of millions just wasn't enough it seems

Unity Bosses Sold Stock Ahead Of Scummy Dev Fees Announcement

KOTAKU.COM

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CEO John Riccitiello sold 2,000 shares a week before Unity revealed its Runtime Fee

 

It's gonna hit indie developers hardest and even some may end up pulling their games from sale.  Unity is not small fry either - 37,000 games on Steam are made with the engine compared to 10,000 using Unreal. There's almost 750,000 products using Unity too so it's not like they need extra dosh for RnD or to compete with rivals. With Steam and other DRM holders taking 30%, it's really adds up. 

 

Lots of feedback here 

'An astonishing scumbag move': Indie developers react to surprise Unity engine pricing changes | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Unity's new Runtime Fee will charge developers on a per-install basis.

 

And this is hilarious 

[J4MES OX4D 10,057]

Looks like a u-turn or dramatic change of policy could be on the cards

Unity apologizes for controversial new pricing scheme, 'will be making changes to the policy' | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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"Thank you for your honest and critical feedback."

 

If this was pushed thorough, it would literally kill about 80% of the indie industry as well as the majority of ground-up developers. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,066]

They had to reverse this insane change eventually. Literally would've killed so many indie devs and they've now probably hurt themselves in the long term with many devs already coming out to say they are switching engines. Certainly don't blame them. What a load of planks they are.

[Riff Machine 2,106]

I read yesterday that they are backtracking now.  We talked about it a bit on the podcast this past week too.  I'd expect nothing less from a guy who worked at EA.

[GazzaGarratt 11,066]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:01 PM, Riff Machine said:

I read yesterday that they are backtracking now.  We talked about it a bit on the podcast this past week too.  I'd expect nothing less from a guy who worked at EA.

 

Damage is done now though. I saw Terraria plough 100k donations into new developer engines as an act to get behind other smaller engines. Trust is so vital these days and can really grab more sales than these big corporate companies realise.

[J4MES OX4D 10,057]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:01 PM, Riff Machine said:

I read yesterday that they are backtracking now.  We talked about it a bit on the podcast this past week too.  I'd expect nothing less from a guy who worked at EA.

I'm pretty sure it's the same guy who around a decade ago, once proposed that players PAY to reload their weapon in Battlefield i.e buy ammo on the go at the press of a button when in a match. One of the greediest and disgusting ideas imaginable. Surprised Activision didn't hire him but I guess he was too scummy even for them.  

[J4MES OX4D 10,057]

Unity CEO John Riccitiello to Step Down in Wake of Installment Fee Controversy - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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In the wake of a massive controversy regarding previously announced (and then walked-back) install fees, Unity's John Riccitiello is stepping down as president, CEO, chairman, and member of the board of the...

 

[Riff Machine 2,106]

I figured this would happen.  It'll be interesting to see how Unity attempts to rebound after this fiasco.

[GazzaGarratt 11,066]

On 10/11/2023 at 11:12 PM, Riff Machine said:

I figured this would happen.  It'll be interesting to see how Unity attempts to rebound after this fiasco.

 

Listening to your podcast and I think you were all right when you said that he's effectively resigned way too late, after Unity now losing any credibility of making a return. So many small companies were pulling away from the officially on Twitter so I'm really not sure how they can make it under the Unity name anymore.

[tronic44 3,642]

I’ve had a quick skim through this and I’m not sure if it’s come up but they were planning on charging for pirated games. So if you make a game and one person buys it but then pirates it to 100 other people, you then owe 101 copies worth even though you’ve only sold one.

 

Fucking. Genius 

 

Glad they back tracked, we need multiple game engines going strong so they keep pushing each other. Unity is so massive in the games industry, I’m surprised they haven’t tried to move more in virtual production like Unreal. Instead they decide to do this. 
 

Once again a load of wealthy people sat in a room without and idea about the real world and all came up with a stupid idea. They should work for the government 😄