Unity plan pricing and packaging updates

[the-pi-guy]

sorry, what? 

the lawyer says the new ToS only apply to the latest version.  so if you don't want the new ToS stay on the older version.

there must be a new version even if the only thing in it is the new ToS.  so when you say:


it sounds like you are saying the exact opposite of what you posted from that unity lawyer.

2019 Unity:

"When you obtain a version of Unity, and don't upgrade your project, we think you should be able to stick to that version of the TOS."

2023 Unity saying F U 2019 Unity

"Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer. "

Legend's perspective:

Boils my blood. If this only applied to new games or games that upgraded Unity versions, it'd be whatever. Instead it shows that using Unity is a liability.

The contract is made up and the rules don't matter in their mind.

[kitler53]

I reread and...

And now today by a Unity lawyer "Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer. "

....i misread that bit.  

i read it more along the lines of "the only version [of unity for which these ToS apply to] is the most current version [of unity].    


i don't know what is or is not legal here but i know my software changes terms from time to time but we ONLY apply them to a new version of the software.   customers that choose to sit on an older version comply with the terms as they were when they took the software.   them choosing to upgrade is them choosing to accept the new terms.   

maybe that's not a legal requirement but just us not wanting to make our customer irate?    doesn't seem legal to me.

[Legend]

I reread and...

And now today by a Unity lawyer "Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer. "

....i misread that bit.  

i read it more along the lines of "the only version [of unity for which these ToS apply to] is the most current version [of unity].    


i don't know what is or is not legal here but i know my software changes terms from time to time but we ONLY apply them to a new version of the software.   customers that choose to sit on an older version comply with the terms as they were when they took the software.   them choosing to upgrade is them choosing to accept the new terms.  

maybe that's not a legal requirement but just us not wanting to make our customer irate?    doesn't seem legal to me.

Exactly.

Twisty Puzzle Simulator released 5 years ago yet they believe they can do whatever they want with it. There is zero risk of TPS hitting their threshold and 20 cents would only be like a 3% revenue cut, but I don't have a choice. My only options are to agree with whatever Unity wants or go full P.T. and delete the game.

Makes it really scary to release Hapax on Unity. At any point their financials could worsen and they could demand something worse.

[the-pi-guy]

Spoke with a publisher today which has added a "What engine is your game on" box to their pitch form.

Was not actually Devolver! This was a bigger company that happens to also publish games.

Devolver tweeted about putting what game engine you're using in your pitch, after the Unity changes were announced.

[Legend]

???? @unity pic.twitter.com/mBCfb8li3z

— Mega Crit (@MegaCrit) September 13, 2023

Unity can get iced

Buy Cult of the Lamb now, cause we're deleting it on Jan 1st. ???? https://t.co/nSWg9DP0sh

— Cult of the Lamb ???? ???? (@cultofthelamb) September 12, 2023

https://t.co/qg6yjZzL1d pic.twitter.com/5IJG9Hzgoc

— Innersloth ???? (@InnerslothDevs) September 12, 2023

Definitely include what engine you’re using in game pitches.

It’s important information!

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) September 12, 2023

Some hard decisions have come up today???? pic.twitter.com/ghN2oVjtxa

— Reigns (@reignsgame) September 13, 2023

Our thoughts on the Unity Runtime Fee pic.twitter.com/Z0zrXsiHAc

— Landfall (@LandfallGames) September 13, 2023

Is this the death of Unity? If all this is being said publicly, just imagine what is happening behind the scenes.

[the-pi-guy]

I think this is the start of the end.

Even if they reverse course, they will have lost a lot of trust.

[Legend]

Perfect time for Decima to go public. Not great for most Unity devs but could get a lot of people.

[Legend]

We want to acknowledge the confusion and frustration we heard after we announced our new runtime fee policy. We’d like to clarify some of your top questions and concerns:

Who is impacted by this price increase: The price increase is very targeted. In fact, more than 90% of our…

— Unity (@unity) September 13, 2023

So nothing new, just more contradicting clarifications.

[the-pi-guy]

"The growth hey-day of the games industry is over, and consolidation in the developer and publisher landscape is inevitable" https://t.co/7aonWJ7qwB

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) September 14, 2023

The interesting bits in the article for me:

To be clear, this is not to say that the approx. $200 billion games industry is going away. But, the growth hey-day of the games industry is over, and consolidation in the developer and publisher landscape is inevitable.

Hence Unity's per-download pricing decision. It is recognising tougher times ahead and de-risking against the coming consolidation of the games industry's landscape - which is, strategically speaking, sound thinking for a company that spent a lot of time and money to move towards profitability and is looking to maintain it in the current landscape.

Increasing pricing makes sense, but they really need to figure out how to do this properly.

When it comes to 'fair', it usually depends on who you ask. From Unity's (and likely its shareholders') point of view, it has technically been subsidising developers' work (i.e., operating at a substantial GAAP-basis loss) every year since inception (despite posting a profitable Q4 2022). In the current macroeconomic climate, money is expensive, and investors are increasingly looking for returns rather than non-profitable revenue growth. Unity was able to rely on the growth narrative of the overall games industry propelling it to a sweeter future, but of course, the games industry declined in 2022, so that 'brighter future' argument became a lot tougher to buy into.

[the-pi-guy]

BREAKING: Unity canceled a town hall this morning and closed two offices due to what CEO John Riccitiello said was a credible death threat, according to people familiar. This comes in the wake of a controversial price hike from the video game tech maker https://t.co/Xldfu5q9A4

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 14, 2023

Yikes....

[Legend]

BREAKING: Unity canceled a town hall this morning and closed two offices due to what CEO John Riccitiello said was a credible death threat, according to people familiar. This comes in the wake of a controversial price hike from the video game tech maker https://t.co/Xldfu5q9A4

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 14, 2023

Yikes....

Reddit - Dive into anything

Absolutely not good.

There have been so many unhinged takes. People have a right to be mad even if it won't impact them personally but a lot of people can't do math/read and are just going crazy.

[Legend]

Developers issue collective ultimatum to Unity - "No more ironSource or Unity Ad | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

The devs behind this ultimatum seem to be kinda scummy mobile devs, aka the biggest mobile devs in the world. Will be interesting to see how Unity responds since their new policy would earn them literally billions of dollars from these devs.

[the-pi-guy]

Developers issue collective ultimatum to Unity - "No more ironSource or Unity Ad | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

The devs behind this ultimatum seem to be kinda scummy mobile devs, aka the biggest mobile devs in the world. Will be interesting to see how Unity responds since their new policy would earn them literally billions of dollars from these devs.

>SayGames
>4 billion downloads

What?

[Legend]

>SayGames
>4 billion downloads

What?

Voodoo 6 billion downloads.

Never heard of any of them.

[the-pi-guy]

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…

— Unity (@unity) September 17, 2023