Unity's oops moment: from 'show us the money' to 'sorry, our bad!'
How to make developers you dislike lose money and go bankrupt? In mid-September, the game engine company Unity came up with a method: download their games, download them repeatedly.
Sounds absurd, right? The more installations and downloads you get, it should typically mean more players liking your game. But Unity, the leading game engine company, has turned this joyful occurrence into a potentially terrifying bill.
A game engine is a software tool that every game developer uses on a daily basis. This kind of software helps developers integrate various assets and make the game run as a whole, essentially serving as the cornerstone of game development. There are various engines available in the market, most of which are very open to developers providing suggestions to improve their tools for game creation. However, recently, Unity had angered everyone with one announcement.
On September 12th, Unity made an official announcement of a new policy: starting from January 2024, the usage fees for all versions of Unity will increase (a common practice), and they also introduced the threshold for revenue and installs. In summary, throughout the entire lifetime of a game, once the total number of installations for your game surpasses a certain threshold, Unity will begin to charge developers based on the number of installations, with the pricing determined by the total installation count and software version.
This "career record" number is not difficult to reach. In other words, as long as developers continue to work in the game industry, they will eventually reach it. Furthermore, this regulation will be retroactive. If you are a Unity developer and have already reached the "career record" on the day this regulation is implemented, any new installations after that point will be subject to charges immediately.
The ones most affected by this change are definitely not the top developers like HoYoverse. These top developers typically have exclusive licensing agreements with Unity. It's the small to mid-sized team developers who have become the primary victims of this new regulation. These developers have long development times and no other sources of income, relying solely on their published games as their income source. This income is not only used for investing in the development of the next generation of games but also to sustain their daily lives. Therefore, in the new regulation announced by Unity on September 12th, this revenue sharing essentially becomes a new tax, the "Unity fee," disproportionately affecting the vulnerable developers in the industry. These are the same developers who supported Unity's growth with an active developer community and daily hard work a decade ago.
Faced with controversy, president for Create solutions at Unity, Marc Whitten gave some interviews in an attempt to clarify what he referred to as "misunderstandings." For instance, he clarified that the installation tax for subscription-based games would be charged to the suppliers rather than the developers. He also mentioned that it would only be charged for the first installation on the same device and that it wouldn't apply to demos or games sold through charity bundles.
However, these explanations seemed to pour fuel on the already heated developer community discussion. Developers had initially hoped for some concessions from the official stance on the Unity fee, but this clarification only addressed some of the unclear rules and essentially confirmed their concerns: "Yes, we DO want to get some money from you."
Developers were further infuriated, and many strongly opposed this new policy. Some even announced that they would stop using the Unity engine. Among the notable developers taking this stance are:
The developers of "Among Us" announced that they would abandon the Unity platform, with all their future projects being ported to a new engine.
The development team behind "Slay the Spire" announced that they've been working on a new game for two years using the Unity engine. Due to the Unity fee policy, they've decided to immediately migrate their project, stating, "We have never made a public statement before. That is how badly you fucked up.”
The highly acclaimed "Hollow Knight: Silksong" development progress, which was previously developed using the Unity engine, might also be affected by this situation. Prior to this announcement, "Silksong" was being developed using the Unity engine. After the Unity fee policy was revealed, some players joked that "Silksong is delayed another 5 years to get ported off of Unity," and members of the development team even liked these comments. Can you believe it? Another delay? Unity, look at what you've done.
In addition to these games currently in development, the development team of "Terraria" has stated that while their game won't be affected by Unity's policies, they will allocate a portion of their game's revenue to donate to the free and open-source engine, Godot.
At this point, Unity officials continue to defend themselves, claiming that they didn't explain themselves clearly. However, online users have become increasingly agitated, stating that Unity's policies have been quite clear. When a game goes live and generates $200K in revenue, after paying all the necessary shares and taxes, developers would owe Unity $60K.
Public opinion is in an uproar, but Unity remains silent. Meanwhile, Unity's two offices in the United States received death threats, leading both offices to cancel all meetings and allow employees to work remotely for a period.
From a business perspective, we can understand the purpose behind Unity's policy. As a publicly traded company, its business model has been under scrutiny from investors. Game engines require significant maintenance costs each year, and their profitability has always been in question. Unless they have relationships like Unreal and Fortnite, Unity will continually face the challenge of balancing costs and profits.
It's worth mentioning Unity's current CEO, John Riccitiello. He played a crucial role in Unity's successful IPO but is often seen as a typical "managerial" figure. It's challenging to say whether he truly understands gamers and users. He made several controversial statements, such as entertaining the idea of charging $1 to reload an ammo clip in Battlefield.
On September 18th, Unity's official statement indicated that their previous rules had caused confusion among many developers. They are currently engaged in multiple discussions and communications to adjust their policy. It seems that changes are in progress.
On September 23rd, Unity's official announcement stated: "We were wrong." They will be canceling the download-based fee structure and will also make adjustments to subscription costs. Specific pricing policies can be viewed by clicking here.
It appears that the issue has come to an end.
However, the problem is far from resolved. With the announcement reversals and inconsistencies, how can trust within the developer community be rebuilt? Additionally, how can Unity ensure profitability and effective product maintenance in the competitive game engine market?
Only time will tell.
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