The recent events of Unity in which they have decided to prioritize their short term income versus the long term income creates a dangerous expectation where Unity can continue to increase their prices without needing to check into the community and taking its feedback properly. After the introduction of their install fees many game developers have been complaining about not only the extra fee (which punishes those who run on a free to play model, or who works with a subscription service) but also violates the trust of the community.

Here’s a quick look at the policy:

Some have mentioned that the install cost may go over their estimated revenue for their game.

The Risks

Many may be thinking why it would matter to make a small addition to the pricing change of games but you may remember that this system is based off installs of a game.

This means that game developers are at risk for:

• Piracy: Pirated copies are likely to still count as an install.
• Subscription Services: Joining a subscription service means letting people install your game for free and getting contract money instead, this might cause a deficit.
• Charity Bundles: Collaborative charity efforts might become less appealing due to increased expenses.
• Being Free to Play: Developers who offer free-to-play games may see their margins squeezed.
• Retaliation from Players: Gamers might react negatively to gameplay changes and maliciously try to punish developers.
• Giveaways: Developers running promotional giveaways may find them less financially viable.

Unity claims that they will work with developers on insuring that some of these wont affect them (malicious installs and subscriptions) but it seems unlikely that Unity would be incentivized to help because it is just money in their pocket.

Small Developers

Since Unity has stated in a blog post that:

Most small developers will not directly have to worry right away. That is only the surface though, as many find irk with Unity it is likely that new developers will choose other game engines that have more support especially if they plan on joining a company one day or perhaps forming a big group in the future. So overtime Unity is practically sacrificing its future user-base to milk its current one for cash.

Unity also stated in a Twitter post that, “Who is impacted by this price increase: The price increase is very targeted. In fact, more than 90% of our customers will not be affected by this change. Customers who will be impacted are generally those who have found a substantial scale in downloads and revenue and have reached both our install and revenue thresholds. This means a low (or no) fee for creators who have not found scale success yet and a modest one-time fee for those who have.” But as the fact checkers mentioned on the bottom of the post, 10% of Unity’s user-base is 23,000 developers as of last year.

Alternatives and Silver-lining

The repercussions of Unity’s pricing changes are felt across the industry, and trust in the platform has waned.  Some of their competitors have received support from big developers. Even if Unity backs off which it seems to be slowly doing that have effectively lost the trust of their users.

If you are considering switching from Unity two great options are Godot and Unreal Engine. These two provide similar features and have somewhat similar UIs to Unity. Godot is probably my recommendation for most as it is opensource and provides a more balanced and lightweight setup. While Unreal Engine would probably be the one I recommend to people who are less programmatically inclined and just want to put their art into games as simply as possible. It is important to consider the fact that Godot is completely free with no caveats while Unreal Engine still has some fees attached.

Overall, Unity’s recent pricing changes have stirred significant unrest within the game development community. The impact is far-reaching, affecting developers of all sizes. As Unity grapples with the fallout, alternatives like Godot and Unreal Engine are emerging as strong contenders. The future of game development may see a more diversified landscape as developers seek platforms that align with their long-term goals and values.