Game developers aren't happy with a new policy from Unity that will cost developers a small fee every time someone installs a game built on Unity's game engine.

The Unity Runtime Fee is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024, and it’s been universally panned by developers on social media since its announcement earlier today.

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For instance, if a free-to-play game has made $200,0000 in the last 12 months but has millions of people installing it, the developer could end up owing Unity more than the profit earned from in-game purchases.

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Others are worried this could lead some smaller developers who built their games on Unity to pull titles from digital storefronts to prevent more people from racking up downloads.

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“I bet Steam, Epic, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft will love having waves of developers pulling their games,” writes Forest from Among Us developer Innersloth Games. “Innersloth has always paid Unity appropriately for licenses and services we use. I’m not a discourse guy, but this is undue and will force my hand.”

Other developers are actually asking people online to not install their game built in Unity, with Paper Trail developer Huenry Hueffman writing, “if you buy our Unity game, please don’t install it… demos also count, dont install this demo, you’ll literally bankrupt me”.

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Unity also clarified that the fee will not apply to charity games or charity bundles. Unity defended the pricing model, saying it’s designed to only charge developers who have already found financial success.

We only succeed when you succeed. Our 5% royalty model only kicks in after your first $1M in gross revenue, meaning that if you make $1,000,001 you owe us 5 cents. And this is per title!
Also, revenue generated from the Epic Games Store will be excluded from that 5% royalty.

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Unity has been under pressure lately, laying off hundreds of employees in the first half of 2023. Riccitiello also came under fire in 2022 for referring to developers who don’t focus on microtransactions as the “biggest f*cking idiots” before apologizing. Featured in everything from Cuphead to Beat Saber to Pokemon Go, it has been lauded for ease of use. However, trust in the platform has been declining over the years, leading many developers to look to alternatives.

  • Luci@lemmy.caEnglish
    531·
    1 year ago

    Just a reminder that other game engines exist. Some are even free and just as powerful, if not more.

      • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
        41·
        1 year ago

        I know nothing about game dev.

        Is godot really just as powerful? I’ve heard of it, but I always thought it was for 2d stuff.

        • EnglishMobster@kbin.social
          12·
          1 year ago

          Godot is a passable engine. It doesn’t have a massive pile of money behind it, but it’ll generally do most things adequately.

          Honestly - and I may be biased as I’m a AAA dev who works with the engine - Unreal is really the way to go. Reasonable pricing on a powerful engine. The main issue is that it’s bloated as hell and there’s a learning curve… but if you’re an indie, it’s just as usable as Unity. Plus if you wanted to get into AAA development someday, Unreal is super popular and used everywhere.

        • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          1 year ago

          It shines in 2D where Unity falters, yes. But it’s perfectly capable of doing 3D competently. It’s shaders and lightning pipelines that are a bit rough on the edges, but that can be overcome with time with more brainpower coming in to contribute. The scripting is also far more robust than the hodgepodge that Unity tries to pass off as C#. The great advantage is that Godot is a non-profit foundation with a transparent governance model. Not a predatory venture capitalist behemoth like Unity.

        • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          It’s been really great for 2d, 4.0 made it really good for 3d, and it’s even decent for general GUI applications, as an engine it feels ready for wider adoption to me.

          I think it’s not up to Unreal quality, but for the vast majority of indie games I believe it’s enough.

    • LetMeEatCakeEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      Unity is Unreal’s biggest marketer now, it seems…

      Curious if some of the many internal AAA engines out there might start to get shopped around as a new alternate to UE. Sony, Ubisoft, and Microsoft all have a few in house engines that at least on paper seem viable for branching out — the biggest obstacle would be support, I suspect. Which isn’t a trivial obstacle, to be clear.

      idTech is due for a resurgence. Maybe Valve could even get a revival in usage of Source.

    • fsxylo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      13·
      1 year ago

      This doesn’t help people who were already knee deep in a project.

      I might invest in some cheap liquor instead.