Unity, the company that owns the development tool of the same name, is in the eye of the hurricane after announcing this week a new monetization policy (called term fee) valid from January 1, 2024, which will charge game developers a commission depending on the number of installs and profits generated from their titles.
Whereas Unity is (or was) the favorite tool of many independent developers The criticism didn’t take long to arrive, and it came with force. Massive monster responsible for Cult of the Lamb threatened Remove your title from stores from January 1st next year, and fans are particularly worried about projects like Hollow Knight: Silksong. Other companies are considering delays in moving their projects to Unreal Engine 5.
“Buy Cult of the Lamb now because we’re deleting it on January 1st.”
This is how the Unity runtime rate works
As we said before, The new fee policy will quantify the instances where a game has been installed by the end user. “We believe that a fee based on initial installation allows developers to generate ongoing financial returns from player engagement, as opposed to a revenue share.” Unity believes this business model is less invasive than one based on detailed revenue share reports.
The term fee is based on a tab The commission varies depending on which Unity product the customer uses, how many copies of your game have been installed, and the annual revenue you have generated.
Users of the basic Unity Personal and Unity Plus categories pay 20 cents per installation once their product meets both categories. the limit of 200,000 dollars in sales and 200,000 downloads. For those using the Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise enterprise suites, the thresholds will rise and fall.
If your game exceeds both thresholds, category fees will apply, charged once per install.
What worries developers
It all sounds relatively normal until you think about the impact of such “optimizations” on platforms like Xbox Game Pass, demos, charity packs, or even the revanchism of consumers who intentionally install and uninstall games as a way to “punish” it. Studies. Not to mention that retroactive nature these measures.
“Unity should not have the ability to retroactively change the terms and conditions of products or sales you have already made. The fact that they are taking this action shows that they are willing to do this and that should be scary.”
To defuse the situation, Unity issued a number of clarifications, including:
- Unity only charges for the first installation of a game.
- Unity charges extra to install the same game on multiple devices.
- Unity does not charge to install demos unless the demo includes the full game.
- Unity charges fees to install games in early access format.
- Games included in charity packages are excluded from commission.
- For subscription services, Unity charges commission to the distributor, for example Microsoft in the case of Xbox Game Pass.
Despite everything, studios are still upset, and the latest to express their dissatisfaction was Mega Crit, whose statement well illustrates the mood across the indie development scene:
The retroactive term fee pricing structure is not only detrimental but harmful in many ways for developers, especially independent developers a breach of trust. (…) Despite the immense amount of time and effort that our team has already invested in the development of our new title, We will be switching to a new engine unless the changes are fully reverted and safeguards are implemented in the Terms of Use.
The problem with the “solution” offered by Unity is that the bill doesn’t disappear, but is delegated to someone else and that third party has to find a way to recover the money, either by deducting it from the benefits offered to the game developer, by putting it on the digital platform or simply giving preferential treatment to titles created with a different engine.
