Following a large community backlash after the popular game engine creator Unity announced plans for it to charge a "per install" fee; the company has apologised for "confusion" surrounding the plans and have stated that they will be "making changes to the policy" going forward.

For those unfamiliar - a week ago, Unity announced plans for new fees based on game installs. In practice, the proposed changes would effectively cost game publishers up to $0.20 every single time a game is installed or even reinstalled by a user. But unsurprisingly these plans were met with controversy and disdain from those developers using the platform as well as the community at large, with many game creators speaking out on social media with some even going as far as to announce plans to move over to competing game engine platforms.

Today, Unity took to X/Twitter with an apology and said that there was a "confusion" surrounding the plans and that they would be making adjustments to the policy after feedback from the community.

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…

— Unity (@unity) September 17, 2023

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[eyeliner]

Exactly lol

What does Unity that is SO essential you can't use an alternative. Even if you don't like UE, there's Godot.

I guess only big studios that were already paying their fees would keep using it ?

Console support, I'd wager.

 

[LightBeam]

The biggest issue is that it applied to games you had already released. Potentially even games you had sold the rights to, which you would now be liable for the per install fee (at least according to claims I read, I haven't looked that closely).

Switching is fine, but you need to learn the new engine and convert everything. Though if godot has a unity to godot importer that does most of the work, then it's not so bad.

Unity has to stem the flow, or it will be irrelevant.

I can absolutely understand that it's not an easy task and that's very fair. I was more talking on a « beginner » perspective I guess ? I'm starting game designing too and Unity seemed like a good option, probably would have been my choice but now it's just not, there's no way I'm starting a whole portfolio and stuff with a tool that is willing to fuck me up that bad.

They just aren't trustworthy at all, and as a general rule I think it's good to not rely TOO much on specific tools in order to be future proof, to a certain extent since sometimes there aren't really alternatives .... But in this case there is, and Unity giving themselves the reasons to even consider switching engines as an option is like putting one step in the grave.

Console support, I'd wager.

That's a fair point agaisnt Godot I guess. Not really against UE, they just seem pretty similar. I just wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of people coming into UE after that. More beginners and indies than pros I guess, but that's the thing. Idk if it's sustainable to just rely on people who are just stuck with your software because of their carreers/habits, they don't seem really appealing anymore.

 

[eyeliner]

That's a fair point agaisnt Godot I guess. Not really against UE, they just seem pretty similar. I just wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of people coming into UE after that. More beginners and indies than pros I guess, but that's the thing. Idk if it's sustainable to just rely on people who are just stuck with your software because of their carreers/habits, they don't seem really appealing anymore.

It's been a long while, but there are substantial differences between Unity and Unreal in regards to system requirements.

Unity seemed more beginner friendly, whereas Unreal was more top of the line graphics.

Not sure how those situations are now, but Unreal was absolutely ridiculous in install size, and was extremely demanding to the dev machine. Unity was a little more tempered in that regard.

I'd say let them shoot themselves in the crotch.

 

[smf]

But in this case there is, and Unity giving themselves the reasons to even consider switching engines as an option is like putting one step in the grave.

I don't think it's an entirely forgone conclusion, as backtracking will certainly improve their short term prospects.

It depends on multiple factors whether developers will go through the pain of switching engines on new projects, we will see how things change over the next 5 years.

 

[DragonMals]

They better make these changes! They already ruined it from the start, and the confusion is definitely off. I can imagine it becoming even more terrible as time goes by

 

[dudeguy2022]

"thank you for your honest and critical feedback."
You are very welcome
As if our opinions actually mean anything to them

 

[Bladexdsl]

too late take your shitty buggy platform and fuck off. just downloaded yet another buggy pile of shit game the other day kept falling through the floor. deleted after 10 minutes! how do these morons even get their games on steam?!

 

[DragonMals]

do these morons even get their games on steam?!

I dunno man... Reminds me on all of the Shovel ware on the Switch. They be allowing straight up hentai games on there :/

Yeah this isn't really related to Unity, hit Unity has just enough bad games as much as theirs.

 

[Noctosphere]

Common tactic: Make the worst possible proposal, walk it back to see how much you can still get away with whilst doing the terrible thing.

More like, say you will do something very terrible, back away from it and do something just terrible that will look less terrible.
The public will think you are comprimising and if the other party (video game companies) dont agree with this "just terrible" offer, then they are the ones in the wrong. And sometime it actually work, and the public will take side with the one making the terrible offer (unity in the case)

 

[linuxares]

I cant wonder if some small companies like Valve, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo sent some well worded letters

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Imbeciles. There were no confusion or angst.

 

[Kioku]

“How can we charge more without people hating us?”

- Unity, probably…

 

[Kevbo]

"Sorry, we fucked up."

1.00 fee!

 

[DoctorBagPhD]

Too late, they've destroyed all the trust built up over a very long time. Fuck Unity and fuck the squashed testicle of a human in charge.

 

[Marc_LFD]

They knew exactly what they were doing, they're only sorry because people got pissed.

It's like whomever chose this annoying hold music

 

[Ondrashek06]

What's up with all these incredibly anti-consumer stunts these past years?
For example...
- PayPal: announces $5000 fine for saying things that they don't like, backtracks only to silently re-implement it
- Reddit: locks up the Reddit API, doubles down on it by threatening to ban users that go against ot
- Twitter: just see this entire shitshow
- Onlyfans: announced a ban on PORNOGRAPHIC CONTENT, the sole thing that kept it alive. Literally no one talks about Onlyfans when not talking about selling nudes to people, they backtracked on it.

 

[tabzer]

They got their foot in the door. That was the goal.

Time for a Unity competitor. Shouldn't be so impossible as it was years ago. Hopefully something better comes along.

“How can we charge more without people hating us?”

- Unity, probably…

"We can keep our customers even if they hate us."

Ftfy.

 

[DTApple]

What's up with all these incredibly anti-consumer stunts these past years?
For example...
- PayPal: announces $5000 fine for saying things that they don't like, backtracks only to silently re-implement it
- Reddit: locks up the Reddit API, doubles down on it by threatening to ban users that go against ot
- Twitter: just see this entire shitshow
- Onlyfans: announced a ban on PORNOGRAPHIC CONTENT, the sole thing that kept it alive. Literally no one talks about Onlyfans when not talking about selling nudes to people, they backtracked on it.

We're going backwards

 

[Snintendog]

What's up with all these incredibly anti-consumer stunts these past years?
For example...
- PayPal: announces $5000 fine for saying things that they don't like, backtracks only to silently re-implement it
- Reddit: locks up the Reddit API, doubles down on it by threatening to ban users that go against ot
- Twitter: just see this entire shitshow
- Onlyfans: announced a ban on PORNOGRAPHIC CONTENT, the sole thing that kept it alive. Literally no one talks about Onlyfans when not talking about selling nudes to people, they backtracked on it.

If you look at the backend there are some shared "companies" that they bought that forced Hold over CEOs that intentionally tank the company.

 

[AndorfRequissa]

people need to continue the revolt against corrupt game companies. games where never meant to cost thousands of dollars and suck the livelyhood out of u. game developers want to treat it like the health care industry and nickel and dime you for everything until the most basic of care is millions of dollars.

if people dont fight back with there wallets and make it known why they are not buying greedy morally unsound game companies pricing well be paying $200 a game soon and $70 a dlc.