Unity drops its free model for game developers, requiring a fee per installation. It could have a big negative impact on Xbox Game Pass, too.

[Windows Central]

Unity is a popular game and app development platform, and it has been undergoing changes in recent months that haven't been all too popular. This latest one is likely to fall into the unpopular category, too.

Unity drops its free model for game developers, requiring a fee per installation. It could have a big negative impact on Xbox Game Pass, too. : Read more

 

[naddy69]

"For 2022, its operating income was negative one billion dollars, which is less than ideal by most metrics. "

Less than ideal? They are going broke.

This is simple. At some point your company needs to actually make money. You can't lose a billion dollars a year forever.

Meanwhile, the whining game developers can feel free to write their own game engine, give it away for free (or charge very little) and then watch others make money by using it.

Eventually, they will come the same conclusion. If you are running a business then you need to make money. If you are running a hobby then you can do whatever you want.

 

[fjtorres5591]

The issue isn't them charging, but *how* they're charging. And who.

The way they're charging isn't predictable, it's not aligned with their customer base's business, and the charges aren't proportional to their net income but instead it "taxes" their visibility. Freemium and subscription services both rely on try-before-you-buy as *marketing* so not every install actually brings revenue. and without that marketting they wouldn't get enough attention to survive, even before the UNITY charges.

All charging platform holders only changrs *how* the money gets to them because, even if MS and Sony agree (doubtful), the money will stil come out of the developers' payout, and will be capped at whatever the developer contracted.

Trying to drag in the platform holders is not going to work.

Whatever fee they end up with needs to be predictable upfront and based on *net* without killing the geese.

This has no good outcome for UNITY.
If they can't survive without the surcharges, they certainly won't survive without the developers, and a good portion of the developers won't survive with them. After all, the main reason they got those developers was by being affordable.

They clearly didn't think any of this through.

 

[dirtyvu]

Unity undercharged which is one of the reasons why it became so popular. Developing a platform for bottom feeders is not a good business model. That said, Unity getting John Riccitiello as the CEO was a major mistake. This was the guy that wanted to charge real money for virtual bullets in shooter games when he was at EA (luckily the EA management convinced him how stupid that would be).