The hottest topic in recent days has been changes in the terms of use of the Unity engine, according to which its manufacturer would charge developers fees for installing their titles. In response to partners’ anger, the company softened its proposals a bit, but not enough to satisfy game developers. Now some of them have found an interesting way to show their dissatisfaction.

From January 1, 2024, Unity plans to introduce fees based on the number of installations. Yeah a decision that threatens both small and large game developers, was undertaken without any consultation with the industry. Unity’s claim that this new fee will affect 10% of the industry is not only misleading, but downright false.

We were surprised by this decision. Unity put hundreds of studios at risk of bankruptcy with the stroke of a pen (…). What if car manufacturers suddenly decided to charge you for every mile you drive in the car you bought a year ago? The impact on consumers and the industry as a whole would be catastrophic. (…)

The rules have changed and the stakes are simply too high. The installation fee is an unacceptable change to our partnership with Unity and must be canceled immediately.

Initially, Unity intended to charge developers a fee for each installation of a given production, even on the same hardware. Then, in response to developer fury, it relaxed its terms by introducing a payment plan for the first installation only. However, this did not end the matter, because the very idea of ​​this solution was unacceptable to game developers.

In addition, there are many doubts, e.g. about how these installations will be counted, because Unity does not have a clear system that would exclude pirated copies from this count, as well as prevent malicious players from repeatedly installing the production in order to harm developers. There were also legal concerns, as earlier versions of the terms (which Unity hastily removed from its website) stated that developers could use old versions of the engine if they were not ready to accept the new terms.

The above paragraph is only a very abbreviated summary of the whole matter. For more information, please see our articles on this topic: