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How does this pricing scheme even make sense? Why do they think "installs" is a relevant metric? I could uninstall and reinstall a game 100,000 times. Would I s

How does this pricing scheme even make sense? Why do they think "installs" is a relevant metric? I could uninstall and reinstall a game 100,000 times. Would I single handedly cost the developers a ton of money?

Filligree 3y ago
They are apparently attempting to prevent that... but installs on 'separate devices' still count. So I'm sure someone will find a way to do precisely that.
- izzydata 3y ago
  But if they are attempting to prevent that then why not charge per game sold? If they think a single person installing it more than once shouldn't count then what do they believe the difference is? It seems like the only purpose of this pricing scheme is because they want to be able to charge for a single person installing it multiple times.
  - sarchertech 3y ago
    I think they plan on including spyware that calls home to Unity when a game is installed. Despite being terrible, this is much easier for them than relying on or forcing developers to accurately report sales.
    - seba_dos1 3y ago
      So people should run the games of developers they like in a network-less container, and for those they don't like they could keep launching the game in a fresh networked container instead of review bombing...
  - gmueckl 3y ago
    My first guess would be that this is by design to syphon off money from F2P game devs. They need to have large install bases because >90% of players never pay for anything.
  - XCSme 3y ago
    Because they can't really track games sold. But if they add a call-home script into their engine, they can track how many times it is installed/opened.
- senectus1 3y ago
  I bet every install will require a "sign in"... *edit: actually yeah, given that Unity is very heavily used in the walled gardens of mobile apps. this makes a lot of sense.
- polski-g 3y ago
  Malicious persons will spin up Windows in a VM with slightly different hardware, install the game, repeat.
SeanAnderson 3y ago
They claim to have developed proprietary code to handle this situation. They don't offer up a lot of details. https://x.com/unity/status/1701689241456021607 https://x.com/unity/status/1701689241456021607
- hightrix 3y ago
  "trust me, bro" I imagine there will be a lot of disputes around billing, as in, ever single bill from this system.
- teraflop 3y ago
  Based on this, it seems like Unity's real goal is to achieve perfect price discrimination. For each game that gets sufficiently popular, they can fiddle with their unreviewable "proprietary" metric until it matches whatever they think the developer is willing to pay, and then send them a bill for that amount. It's a clever plan if you assume your customers are too dumb to notice what you're doing.
  - tavavex 3y ago
    I can't imagine that a black box "you'll find out eventually I guess" pricing scheme would be acceptable for these same big whales of game development that they want to target.

Filligree 3y ago

They are apparently attempting to prevent that... but installs on 'separate devices' still count. So I'm sure someone will find a way to do precisely that.

izzydata 3y ago
But if they are attempting to prevent that then why not charge per game sold? If they think a single person installing it more than once shouldn't count then what do they believe the difference is? It seems like the only purpose of this pricing scheme is because they want to be able to charge for a single person installing it multiple times.
- sarchertech 3y ago
  I think they plan on including spyware that calls home to Unity when a game is installed. Despite being terrible, this is much easier for them than relying on or forcing developers to accurately report sales.
  - seba_dos1 3y ago
    So people should run the games of developers they like in a network-less container, and for those they don't like they could keep launching the game in a fresh networked container instead of review bombing...
- gmueckl 3y ago
  My first guess would be that this is by design to syphon off money from F2P game devs. They need to have large install bases because >90% of players never pay for anything.
- XCSme 3y ago
  Because they can't really track games sold. But if they add a call-home script into their engine, they can track how many times it is installed/opened.
senectus1 3y ago
I bet every install will require a "sign in"... *edit: actually yeah, given that Unity is very heavily used in the walled gardens of mobile apps. this makes a lot of sense.
polski-g 3y ago
Malicious persons will spin up Windows in a VM with slightly different hardware, install the game, repeat.

SeanAnderson 3y ago

They claim to have developed proprietary code to handle this situation. They don't offer up a lot of details. https://x.com/unity/status/1701689241456021607 https://x.com/unity/status/1701689241456021607

hightrix 3y ago
"trust me, bro" I imagine there will be a lot of disputes around billing, as in, ever single bill from this system.
teraflop 3y ago
Based on this, it seems like Unity's real goal is to achieve perfect price discrimination. For each game that gets sufficiently popular, they can fiddle with their unreviewable "proprietary" metric until it matches whatever they think the developer is willing to pay, and then send them a bill for that amount. It's a clever plan if you assume your customers are too dumb to notice what you're doing.
- tavavex 3y ago
  I can't imagine that a black box "you'll find out eventually I guess" pricing scheme would be acceptable for these same big whales of game development that they want to target.