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I don't understand, is this as absolutely insane as it seems? Am I reading this wrong? They're charging the game developer 20 cents every time a user installs t

I don't understand, is this as absolutely insane as it seems? Am I reading this wrong? They're charging the game developer 20 cents every time a user installs the game? I must be missing something here.

JoeOfTexas 3y ago
its bonkers, considering most games fail lol, no way some college student is going to pay that
- meheleventyone 3y ago
  You need to meet minimums in terms of revenue and installs so for college students it’d be a success problem. It’s still going to put a load of people off because who needs the added worry and reporting involved!
- no_wizard 3y ago
  They have thresholds based on revenue and install counts. You have to meet both before you pay anything. After reading the FAQ though I’m not sure it’s a good deal. It also seems like you 100% have to enable spyware
- cheeseomlit 3y ago
  You're telling me. I've been working on a Unity project for several years and now I'm on the verge of scrapping the whole thing and starting over in Godot because of these fucking MBA parasites. I should've known better than to trust a publicly traded company with anything ever.
  - cptcobalt 3y ago
    Godot is reasonably better than Unity, especially with Godot 4 and onward. A bit of a learning curve, but that's the same with any engine. You can certainly prototype and ship more quickly with Godot than Unreal.
    - KronisLV 3y ago
      > Godot is reasonably better than Unity, especially with Godot 4 and onward. I actually made a post explaining how the only terrain plugin available at the time didn't really work well in neither Godot 3, nor Godot 4: https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/terrains-in-godot-not-quite-ready-yet https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/terrains-in-godot-not-quite... Then, a while later, a new plugin came out that's made by the community, which seems to address some of my concerns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJEXOglBrQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJEXOglBrQ (video by Gamefromscratch) To me, it feels like Godot has a pretty nice future ahead of it. I'll probably stick with Unity for the time being, since I don't actually expect any of my small game projects to ever get big, so the change in pricing doesn't really affect me at the time. But in the future? Maybe I'll go back to Godot, even their C# support is getting much nicer now!
- jsharpe 3y ago
  College students don't have to, since they don't meet this criteria to be charged the monthly fee: "Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs." That said, wow. Charging a monthly fee on game installs is absolutely wild. The personal fee (for first world countries) is $0.20 / month. If you charged $10 for the game, you'd be losing money after only 50 months (around 4 years).
  - meheleventyone 3y ago
    You’re reading it wrong the monthly bit refers to the reporting/billing period and volume discounts. So each month you pay for the installs past the thresholds that month.
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    They managed to create a price that inviabilizes both ads-for-playing (and the more devious variants, like pay-for-win and lottery) and upfront paid games. That's just amazing, and will probably become a case study somewhere after the company fails.
- stuckinhell 3y ago
  a college student wouldn't pay anything until they are making money
ceeam 3y ago
20 cents MONTHLY
- berkle4455 3y ago
  Surely that’s not right… it’s gotta be first install is 20 cents. 20 cents per install is egregious but a recurring license is financially unsustainable.
- flutas 3y ago
  It's only once per install. I agree that it's worded very badly though. > What is the Unity Runtime Fee? > (...) Creators only pay once per download. https://unity.com/pricing-updates https://unity.com/pricing-updates
  - ceeam 3y ago
    https://unity.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NewFeeTable.png https://unity.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NewFeeTable.pn... Why does it say "monthly rate" if it's not a monthly rate?
    - semanticist 3y ago
      Because the pro and enterprise plans give you a price break based on the number of installs per month.
    - flutas 3y ago
      Maybe because it's paid monthly no matter what, as opposed to yearly plans? > You will be invoiced monthly based on the month’s install data. Invoicing will be the same method as for your Unity plan subscriptions, though it will be monthly regardless of your Unity plan payment cycle. I'm assuming that $0.20 is paid every time it's downloaded based on their wording, so that could introduce a new way to harm competitors. Buy their game and uninstall / reinstall on loop?
- r053bud 3y ago
  From the FAQ: “Creators only pay once per download.”
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
flutas 3y ago
> They're charging the game developer 20 cents every time a user installs the game? Yup, but don't worry. You can get a discount if you use Unity's ad network![0] This whole thing seems...short sighted. [0]: https://unity.com/pricing-updates https://unity.com/pricing-updates "Can I get a discount on the Unity Runtime Fee?"
- TeaDude 3y ago
  I can't believe that they're encouraging MORE Unity games to be riddled with ads. Isn't that the (admittedly unfair but true for the mobile market) stereotype?
  - pavlov 3y ago
    Unity merged with an ad network last year. The engine now exists as a vehicle to show more ads, since that’s the primary revenue source of the company.
    - hightrix 3y ago
      Ads are a technological cancer that seem to have no cure in sight. It is really frustrating how ads have ruined so many good products/platforms.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    Mobile users put up with even directly "pay to win" mechanics and blatant gacha bullshit. They seem unwilling or unable, for whatever reason, to even conceive of a different paradigm. "Mobile gaming", read mobile unregulated casinos where you can never withdraw, are the biggest and most profitable gaming sector. Don't worry, companies like EA are looking at that market, licking their chops, and continue to try and push such concepts as gacha into what used to be perfectly fine video games, and plenty of consumers eat up any excuse just so they don't have to go a year without the exact same videogame as last year but worse.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
wpietri 3y ago
Yes, but the developer has to have made $200k over the last 12 months and had 200k installs. So if you hit both minimums and have made $1/install, they'd like 20% of that. Unless you're in an emerging market, in which case it's 2%. Is that insane? I'm not a game developer, but it seems like it's in the ballpark of what the app stores are charging, and with a structure that's actually enforceable at reasonable cost from Unity's perspective.
- jsharpe 3y ago
  They want 20% of that, PER MONTH.
  - wpietri 3y ago
    Sorry, where does it say per month? I don't see that.
    - jsharpe 3y ago
      "Standard monthly rate" above that section of the fee table.
      - wpietri 3y ago
        Ah, I see what you're saying, but in the linked FAQ it says, "Creators only pay once per download."
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - semanticist 3y ago
        That just references that the fee is charged monthly and for pro/entprise plans based on monthly install numbers. But you're at least the second person just in this discussion to make that mistake, so they probably need to reword that table!
- 3y ago
stuckinhell 3y ago
Unity wants to get into the premium space and shake off the shovelware engine stigma.

JoeOfTexas 3y ago

its bonkers, considering most games fail lol, no way some college student is going to pay that

meheleventyone 3y ago
You need to meet minimums in terms of revenue and installs so for college students it’d be a success problem. It’s still going to put a load of people off because who needs the added worry and reporting involved!
no_wizard 3y ago
They have thresholds based on revenue and install counts. You have to meet both before you pay anything. After reading the FAQ though I’m not sure it’s a good deal. It also seems like you 100% have to enable spyware
cheeseomlit 3y ago
You're telling me. I've been working on a Unity project for several years and now I'm on the verge of scrapping the whole thing and starting over in Godot because of these fucking MBA parasites. I should've known better than to trust a publicly traded company with anything ever.
- cptcobalt 3y ago
  Godot is reasonably better than Unity, especially with Godot 4 and onward. A bit of a learning curve, but that's the same with any engine. You can certainly prototype and ship more quickly with Godot than Unreal.
  - KronisLV 3y ago
    > Godot is reasonably better than Unity, especially with Godot 4 and onward. I actually made a post explaining how the only terrain plugin available at the time didn't really work well in neither Godot 3, nor Godot 4: https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/terrains-in-godot-not-quite-ready-yet https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/terrains-in-godot-not-quite... Then, a while later, a new plugin came out that's made by the community, which seems to address some of my concerns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJEXOglBrQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJEXOglBrQ (video by Gamefromscratch) To me, it feels like Godot has a pretty nice future ahead of it. I'll probably stick with Unity for the time being, since I don't actually expect any of my small game projects to ever get big, so the change in pricing doesn't really affect me at the time. But in the future? Maybe I'll go back to Godot, even their C# support is getting much nicer now!
jsharpe 3y ago
College students don't have to, since they don't meet this criteria to be charged the monthly fee: "Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs." That said, wow. Charging a monthly fee on game installs is absolutely wild. The personal fee (for first world countries) is $0.20 / month. If you charged $10 for the game, you'd be losing money after only 50 months (around 4 years).
- meheleventyone 3y ago
  You’re reading it wrong the monthly bit refers to the reporting/billing period and volume discounts. So each month you pay for the installs past the thresholds that month.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  They managed to create a price that inviabilizes both ads-for-playing (and the more devious variants, like pay-for-win and lottery) and upfront paid games. That's just amazing, and will probably become a case study somewhere after the company fails.
stuckinhell 3y ago
a college student wouldn't pay anything until they are making money

ceeam 3y ago

20 cents MONTHLY

berkle4455 3y ago
Surely that’s not right… it’s gotta be first install is 20 cents. 20 cents per install is egregious but a recurring license is financially unsustainable.
flutas 3y ago
It's only once per install. I agree that it's worded very badly though. > What is the Unity Runtime Fee? > (...) Creators only pay once per download. https://unity.com/pricing-updates https://unity.com/pricing-updates
- ceeam 3y ago
  https://unity.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NewFeeTable.png https://unity.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/NewFeeTable.pn... Why does it say "monthly rate" if it's not a monthly rate?
  - semanticist 3y ago
    Because the pro and enterprise plans give you a price break based on the number of installs per month.
  - flutas 3y ago
    Maybe because it's paid monthly no matter what, as opposed to yearly plans? > You will be invoiced monthly based on the month’s install data. Invoicing will be the same method as for your Unity plan subscriptions, though it will be monthly regardless of your Unity plan payment cycle. I'm assuming that $0.20 is paid every time it's downloaded based on their wording, so that could introduce a new way to harm competitors. Buy their game and uninstall / reinstall on loop?
r053bud 3y ago
From the FAQ: “Creators only pay once per download.”

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

flutas 3y ago

> They're charging the game developer 20 cents every time a user installs the game? Yup, but don't worry. You can get a discount if you use Unity's ad network![0] This whole thing seems...short sighted. [0]: https://unity.com/pricing-updates https://unity.com/pricing-updates "Can I get a discount on the Unity Runtime Fee?"

TeaDude 3y ago
I can't believe that they're encouraging MORE Unity games to be riddled with ads. Isn't that the (admittedly unfair but true for the mobile market) stereotype?
- pavlov 3y ago
  Unity merged with an ad network last year. The engine now exists as a vehicle to show more ads, since that’s the primary revenue source of the company.
  - hightrix 3y ago
    Ads are a technological cancer that seem to have no cure in sight. It is really frustrating how ads have ruined so many good products/platforms.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  Mobile users put up with even directly "pay to win" mechanics and blatant gacha bullshit. They seem unwilling or unable, for whatever reason, to even conceive of a different paradigm. "Mobile gaming", read mobile unregulated casinos where you can never withdraw, are the biggest and most profitable gaming sector. Don't worry, companies like EA are looking at that market, licking their chops, and continue to try and push such concepts as gacha into what used to be perfectly fine video games, and plenty of consumers eat up any excuse just so they don't have to go a year without the exact same videogame as last year but worse.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

wpietri 3y ago

Yes, but the developer has to have made $200k over the last 12 months and had 200k installs. So if you hit both minimums and have made $1/install, they'd like 20% of that. Unless you're in an emerging market, in which case it's 2%. Is that insane? I'm not a game developer, but it seems like it's in the ballpark of what the app stores are charging, and with a structure that's actually enforceable at reasonable cost from Unity's perspective.

jsharpe 3y ago
They want 20% of that, PER MONTH.
- wpietri 3y ago
  Sorry, where does it say per month? I don't see that.
  - jsharpe 3y ago
    "Standard monthly rate" above that section of the fee table.
    - wpietri 3y ago
      Ah, I see what you're saying, but in the linked FAQ it says, "Creators only pay once per download."
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - semanticist 3y ago
      That just references that the fee is charged monthly and for pro/entprise plans based on monthly install numbers. But you're at least the second person just in this discussion to make that mistake, so they probably need to reword that table!
3y ago

stuckinhell 3y ago

Unity wants to get into the premium space and shake off the shovelware engine stigma.