4 ms·

I believe it when I see it. I would like to see it, but I doubt that a significant enough portion of developers are going to jump ship. For smaller indie studi

I believe it when I see it. I would like to see it, but I doubt that a significant enough portion of developers are going to jump ship. For smaller indie studios, there are definitely better alternatives, but when it comes to the big packages, there's really just Unity and Unreal.

TheRealPomax 3y ago
This change really only hits the small studios and especially solo game devs, game conglomerates can probably just go "k, that's another 100k on top of a several million budget, raise the unit price by another $5 and call it a day".
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Medium and big devs have much better rates... This actually really hits hardest the solo and tiny devs that make reasonably successful game. 200k revenue is not that much in over a few years or split between couple people.
  - hnthrowaway0328 3y ago
    The 200k is over last 12 months AFAIK, and there is an install wall you have to breakthrough to be eligible.
dgb23 3y ago
Many of my favorite games aren’t built on licensed engines.
- dingdong33 3y ago
  Yes, xbill and tuxracer are my favorite games too.
  - oneeyedpigeon 3y ago
    Or, just one single example: Tears of the Kingdom.
    - coffeebeqn 3y ago
      It’s possible to do but increasingly few companies can spend a few years building their own engine versus paying for something that’s already been proven to work
eestrada 3y ago
> For smaller indie studios, there are definitely better alternatives, but when it comes to the big packages, there's really just Unity and Unreal. Or big studios can just build their own engine. Lots of big studios still do this. Once they run the math on how much licensing will cost them, they realize they can pay several inhouse devs to just make a bespoke engine for the same cost. And then further amortize that NRE cost over several titles. Will this licensing change hurt big studios in the short run? Unlikely. Could it hurt Unity in the long run once big studios realize they can just build exactly what they want inhouse for the same (or less) cost? Much more likely. As for small studios: small studios eventually become big studios. If they burn the small studios now, they won't have big studios buying from them in 5-10 years.
ummonk 3y ago
The big studios are mostly developing on Unreal, or their own in-house engines. The exception is companies targeting F2P / mobile games, but they're the ones who're going to be impacted by the pricing changes the most.
- MenhirMike 3y ago
  "mostly", but there are notable examples. Intelligent Systems Fire Emblem Engage, Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei 3 HD port, or Bethesda Classic Doom re-release come to mind for bigger company Unity releases. It is less prominent in AAA, but not every company can afford to build their own RE Engine, and some companies chose Unity over Unreal, which in hindsight is stupid. Or might be related to them working on the Wii U before, where Unity was officially supported (you even got a free license as a Wii U developer), while Unreal Engine 4 wasn't supported (until it was?). Maybe not a big deal given that there's like ten Wii U games in total, and that Unreal is supported on the Switch (Yoshi's Crafted World and Octopath Traveler come to mind).

TheRealPomax 3y ago

This change really only hits the small studios and especially solo game devs, game conglomerates can probably just go "k, that's another 100k on top of a several million budget, raise the unit price by another $5 and call it a day".

Ekaros 3y ago
Medium and big devs have much better rates... This actually really hits hardest the solo and tiny devs that make reasonably successful game. 200k revenue is not that much in over a few years or split between couple people.
- hnthrowaway0328 3y ago
  The 200k is over last 12 months AFAIK, and there is an install wall you have to breakthrough to be eligible.

dgb23 3y ago

Many of my favorite games aren’t built on licensed engines.

dingdong33 3y ago
Yes, xbill and tuxracer are my favorite games too.
- oneeyedpigeon 3y ago
  Or, just one single example: Tears of the Kingdom.
  - coffeebeqn 3y ago
    It’s possible to do but increasingly few companies can spend a few years building their own engine versus paying for something that’s already been proven to work

eestrada 3y ago

> For smaller indie studios, there are definitely better alternatives, but when it comes to the big packages, there's really just Unity and Unreal. Or big studios can just build their own engine. Lots of big studios still do this. Once they run the math on how much licensing will cost them, they realize they can pay several inhouse devs to just make a bespoke engine for the same cost. And then further amortize that NRE cost over several titles. Will this licensing change hurt big studios in the short run? Unlikely. Could it hurt Unity in the long run once big studios realize they can just build exactly what they want inhouse for the same (or less) cost? Much more likely. As for small studios: small studios eventually become big studios. If they burn the small studios now, they won't have big studios buying from them in 5-10 years.

ummonk 3y ago

The big studios are mostly developing on Unreal, or their own in-house engines. The exception is companies targeting F2P / mobile games, but they're the ones who're going to be impacted by the pricing changes the most.

MenhirMike 3y ago
"mostly", but there are notable examples. Intelligent Systems Fire Emblem Engage, Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei 3 HD port, or Bethesda Classic Doom re-release come to mind for bigger company Unity releases. It is less prominent in AAA, but not every company can afford to build their own RE Engine, and some companies chose Unity over Unreal, which in hindsight is stupid. Or might be related to them working on the Wii U before, where Unity was officially supported (you even got a free license as a Wii U developer), while Unreal Engine 4 wasn't supported (until it was?). Maybe not a big deal given that there's like ten Wii U games in total, and that Unreal is supported on the Switch (Yoshi's Crafted World and Octopath Traveler come to mind).