The Unity Engine Incident.

 

    What you see here is a blog post made by Unity officially (LINK)! A blog post that has sparked a huge controversy due to the consequences that will drastically effect not just any developer using the Unity Engine, but will cause more of a dent on the gaming scene. This is the biggest summer blockbuster dookie show to close off the season. I would close this intro paragraph with saying how bad can it be. However, what would be the point if the spoiler was already out there in a mass?

What is Unity trying to do with this?

    Unity's latest post to spark buzz was based around an update to the pricing of plans. More perhaps a reminder of additional fees to take effect in the beginning of the new year, 2024. While the few extra stuff at no extra charge might be nice. There is an extra charge that is dire and controversial for a reason. The fact that unity is charging a monthly runtime fee...per install. Even though these fees will effect you if you meet the revenue and install thresholds. It is still a ridiculous to even implement this in the first place. Worse, you end up asking about how on earth are these installs tracked.

    I made up a scenario that you were an indie game developer and your game wins you awards for indie game of the year. You now have a monthly pay that might put you in the $100,000 or more range. There is MORE of a possibility the runtime fee totals will put a dent on that monthly expense. You would open up a merchandise shop and then pray for a miracle that would grant you gracing additional funds that erase out that install fee. This is a very draconian and detrimental implementation to ever consider.

Developers are really upset and rightfully so....

    This move has really shaken, distressed, and pissed off developers from left and right. 

   

    Garry Newman is the creator of popular games, Garry's Mod and Rust. He made a blog post that would recap what Unity is doing, provided his elaborations, discussed his frustration and disappointment and vowed that he would not bother with using the engine. The blog was announced at his official twitter/X (@garrynewman). You can check out the blog post here. That said, I can't even blame him.

    Garry isn't the only person call out this shenanigans. Other developers have pitched in. Massive Monster, creator of Cult of the Lamb, posted their issues and closed it off by telling Unity to stop being "stinky" (LINK). Rising horror game developer, Puppet Combo, decided to make a meme involving footage of one of their games (LINK).  Go to Twitter (now called X) and you will see more developers who used the Unity engine, come out with severe distrust and distress of the new policy.

Unity responds

        They responded and no, they didn't get rid of the whole thing. They instead added clarifications (LINK).  They are stating that they will not track installs that are re-installations, fraudulent, demos, browser titles, nor charity-related. They also started at the beginning about how this change will not effect 90% or more of their customer base. Also, they clarify that they would count per new install. This response was met with backlash. What the people really want, for Unity to get rid off this install fee shenanigans entirely. They are right, this fee should never be ever in the thought inside the company in the first place.  

Conclusion

    This idea is a seriously controversial one. This effects games that would use the Unity engine such as, Genshin Impact and other free-to-play titles, Doujin titles from all-ages to adult, smash hit indie titles that would the engine, and etc. Unity's plan can absolutely set a dangerous precedent that would hurt the entire gaming scene in a worse manner. Unity might as well want to reconsider this idea of install fees.