6 ms·

> Unity . . . does not have additional revenue streams outside its engine licensing business and other related software products I don't believe this is true,

> Unity . . . does not have additional revenue streams outside its engine licensing business and other related software products I don't believe this is true, AFAIK the majority of their revenue comes from their in-game advertising business, not from licensing the engine.

christkv 4y ago
And cut on assets from their store I imagine ?
- Gaessaki 4y ago
  Not to mention their hosting services from the Multiplay division. Though I guess that could be swept under “related software products.”
oneoff786 4y ago
Are those ever used for games not using their engine?
- daxaxelrod 4y ago
  Duolingo uses it for their in app ads.
- starburst 4y ago
  Absolutely it’s a populars ads network for mobile games and can be used without the unity engine
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    Is it common though? I’m wondering if maybe they just consider it to be a “related product” because 99.9% of the customers are Unity engine users. I don’t know any actual numbers
    - starburst 4y ago
      Yes any mobile games (be it made by unity or other engine) that display ads most probably have unity ads in their waterfall it is very popular
nvrspyx 4y ago
Wouldn't that along with marketplace assets (as mentioned by another comment) fall under "other related software products" since those are used within the game engine?
60654 4y ago
That is correct, about 2/3rds comes from "operations" (mostly ads, also some hosting services, etc) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1270474/unity-software-revenue-by-source/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1270474/unity-software-r...
amitmathew 4y ago
Slightly dated, but from their 2020 annual report: https://s26.q4cdn.com/977690160/files/doc_financials/2020/q4/Shareholder-Letter-Q420.pdf https://s26.q4cdn.com/977690160/files/doc_financials/2020/q4... - 30% of revenue from Create Solutions (ie engine licensing) - 61% of revenue from Operate Solutions (ad platform, IAP, multiplayer, build server, VOIP, CDN, analytics) - 9% from strategic partnerships Although they are known for catering to the indie developer crowd, a bulk of their revenue is from a relatively small number of companies (~120).
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  Apples tracking rules probably cut 50% off that revenue since then.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
marcodiego 4y ago
> the majority of their revenue comes from their in-game advertising business So, they can open still open source it? I mean, open sourcing it would allow competitor to use the same code, but given it is not the same brand and not possible to release to consoles or stores, they could still keep most of their revenue, right?
- cyber_kinetist 4y ago
  They don’t even need to go full FOSS, they can just opt for source-availability to be a bit more competitive with Unreal Engine. One of the things devs like about Unreal is that the entire codebase is just there to look at, so you can debug any bugs yourself and even add features to the engine that you specifically need for your game. Meanwhile Unity is a black-box blob that you can’t neither debug or extend, and all you can do is yelp in the bug tracker or the forums to get unnoticed.
  - danschuller 4y ago
    The C# code is open for read access here: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference
    - DonHopkins 4y ago
      It's interesting for some stuff, but it's not the good stuff, mainly just a lot of wrappers for C++ code you really need to know more about.

christkv 4y ago

And cut on assets from their store I imagine ?

Gaessaki 4y ago
Not to mention their hosting services from the Multiplay division. Though I guess that could be swept under “related software products.”

oneoff786 4y ago

Are those ever used for games not using their engine?

daxaxelrod 4y ago
Duolingo uses it for their in app ads.
starburst 4y ago
Absolutely it’s a populars ads network for mobile games and can be used without the unity engine
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Is it common though? I’m wondering if maybe they just consider it to be a “related product” because 99.9% of the customers are Unity engine users. I don’t know any actual numbers
  - starburst 4y ago
    Yes any mobile games (be it made by unity or other engine) that display ads most probably have unity ads in their waterfall it is very popular

nvrspyx 4y ago

Wouldn't that along with marketplace assets (as mentioned by another comment) fall under "other related software products" since those are used within the game engine?

60654 4y ago

That is correct, about 2/3rds comes from "operations" (mostly ads, also some hosting services, etc) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1270474/unity-software-revenue-by-source/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1270474/unity-software-r...

amitmathew 4y ago

Slightly dated, but from their 2020 annual report: https://s26.q4cdn.com/977690160/files/doc_financials/2020/q4/Shareholder-Letter-Q420.pdf https://s26.q4cdn.com/977690160/files/doc_financials/2020/q4... - 30% of revenue from Create Solutions (ie engine licensing) - 61% of revenue from Operate Solutions (ad platform, IAP, multiplayer, build server, VOIP, CDN, analytics) - 9% from strategic partnerships Although they are known for catering to the indie developer crowd, a bulk of their revenue is from a relatively small number of companies (~120).

disgruntledphd2 4y ago
Apples tracking rules probably cut 50% off that revenue since then.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

marcodiego 4y ago

> the majority of their revenue comes from their in-game advertising business So, they can open still open source it? I mean, open sourcing it would allow competitor to use the same code, but given it is not the same brand and not possible to release to consoles or stores, they could still keep most of their revenue, right?

cyber_kinetist 4y ago
They don’t even need to go full FOSS, they can just opt for source-availability to be a bit more competitive with Unreal Engine. One of the things devs like about Unreal is that the entire codebase is just there to look at, so you can debug any bugs yourself and even add features to the engine that you specifically need for your game. Meanwhile Unity is a black-box blob that you can’t neither debug or extend, and all you can do is yelp in the bug tracker or the forums to get unnoticed.
- danschuller 4y ago
  The C# code is open for read access here: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/UnityCsReference
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    It's interesting for some stuff, but it's not the good stuff, mainly just a lot of wrappers for C++ code you really need to know more about.