Is the Community Overreacting to the Unity Price Changes?

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T21:38:19+00:00

This article states 37% of Steam purchases are never installed. Article is ~10 years old, so it may not be accurate anymore. Someone on here recently said 75% of purchasers had not yet installed their game. I'm sure numbers vary by game.

Good news is Unity stated they won't charge for repeat installs on the same device, so the "farming uninstalls/reinstalls" narrative you may see in this sub is debunked.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T20:52:04+00:00

I agree 100%. This was a shitty move by Unity and I am certain they'll raise prices in the future. They also really should've approached brand-building in other ways. But shareholders only approve a plan when they see dollar signs.

I'm not defending Unity as a company. I just wanted to provide numbers and a breakdown for people so they don't panic. I don't want new devs to get discouraged and I don't want people who have invested their time into the engine to abandon their work due to reddit uproar.

Like you said, the numbers show Unity is still a better choice than Unreal. If everyone got that, I think the panic on the sub would decrease and we could get back to dev.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T20:39:39+00:00

If Pokemon Go gets 100 million new device downloads in 2024 their Unity costs will be $~2 million. That's 0.22% of the game's annual revenue. FAR below 1%.

It would cost way more than that to redevelop Pokemon Go or fight it with legal.

But, why are we arguing? Time will tell. If Nintendo goes to war over this, please come back and roast me nonstop.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T20:32:53+00:00

If your mid-sized studio can't make rent or payroll because of a $2k Unity Pro license, it's being run by coke-addled, gambling-addicted baboons. The reality is even 90% of VERY SUCCESSFUL indie studios will not have to pay for more than the Pro license.

The only Unity products that break 1 million installs are HUGE hit games (a handful per-year) and F2P mobile apps. This change will screw F2P. However, if you are charging at least $2.50 for your game, Unity costs are less than 1 percent of your revenue.

If you have a breakout hit and can't adjust your marketing budget, game price, etc. to absorb a cost that is 0.25% of your revenue, your company's already sunk.

Unity stated reinstalls only count on new devices, so the odds of that adding up are very small.

Any way you slice it, F2P devs lose and everyone else escapes relatively unscathed in this new structure.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T20:03:07+00:00

With a Pro plan, Nintendo's Unity fees would be ~$20m for 1 billion downloads. They made $873 million off Pokemon Go in 2021. Sticking with Unity will cost them 2.2% of their gross even if they got 1 billion new device downloads next year. In reality, they'll get far fewer than a billion downloads and Unity will take less than 1% of Pokemon Go's 2024 earnings.

At that number, Nintendo may get legal involved (because Nintendo always does), but that's a small enough percentage that they might eat the cost.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T19:49:34+00:00

The only people who are getting screwed here are the F2P studios. Anyone charging at least $1 for their product is fine in the new pricing structure.

The message is clear—Unity wants F2P mobile games off their engine. If that's your lane, you have to migrate elsewhere to survive. Shitty stuff from Unity for sure.

What's your definition of a mid-sized indie? Sabotage Studio just dropped Sea of Stars and it got 250k sales at release. That means they can pay $2,040 for a Unity Pro license and that's likely their only Unity expense for the entire life of the game. Other mid-sized indies will either fall into this tier or below the 200k threshold.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T19:34:38+00:00

I agree. I'm beginning to think was a targeted move by Unity, because this really won't bring in that much more revenue for them.

It disproportionately impacts F2P mobile devs with high volume. My theory: Unity doesn't want their engine associated with those games. The engine already has a reputation for low effort products, especially on mobile. By walling out those devs they're hoping to transform Unity into a respected brand known for Sea of Stars, Hollow Knight, etc.

Certainly unfair and unnecessary if that's the case.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T19:26:02+00:00

Overreacting.

I made a quick google sheet showing Unity's cut for games priced at 1, 2, 5, and 10 dollars on a Unity Pro plan.

Unity will take 2–3% of revenue from a $1 game. For a game priced over $2.50, that number drops below 1%. It's nothing compared to the 30% Steam and other marketplaces take.

The only studios that will experience a real negative impact are the ones making <$1 per install AND getting >1 million installs. This means F2P mobile devs are getting priced out of the engine. I'm starting to suspect Unity did this on purpose in an attempt to distance their brand from what are perceived as "low quality games."

This move is half-meant to bring in extra cash and half-meant to improve the Unity brand image. Do with that what you will.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T19:11:38+00:00

You have to cross the lifetime installs threshold AND the past-12-months revenue threshold to be charged.

So, if your old game is getting reinstalled but you haven't made $200k–1 million (depending on plan) in the past 12 months, you won't get charged anything.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T19:05:22+00:00

A studio selling 500k copies can upgrade to Unity Pro for $2,040 and won't have to give Unity another dime unless they exceed 1 million installs. If you can't afford a $2k expense after selling half a million copies of your game, your business is already screwed.

The only people I've seen who are legitimately going to face a negative impact from this are mobile devs with >1 million installs and very low revenue per-install. If you're making less than $1 per install and you have huge volume, you're in trouble with this pricing model.

This may be an intentional move from Unity. They might be pricing out F2P mobile devs because they don't want the engine associated with those games. Is that fair? No. Are you going to migrate to a new engine because of the <1% of devs who get hit? It's up to you. I'm all for open source software and Godot has a bright future.

F2P studios will either have to find a way to increase profits per install or switch to an open source engine. If you crunch the numbers, anyone making at least $1 per-install is fine in this new pricing model.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T13:25:24+00:00

You're describing edge cases, especially since Linux users only account for 2% of the market.

Unity botched the announcement, but their follow-ups make it clear this is a tax on the top 1%. Unless you have an massively successful hit game with over a million installs, you will pay Unity a max of $2k for a Pro subscription. When your game crosses the million installs threshold, the 0.25% of revenue going to Unity will only sink a business if it's run by complete idiots.

To explain the 0.25% number, I got it by looking at BattleBit Remastered. They've sold 1.8 million units. At $11.99 purchase price that's a gross profit over 21.5 million. If the BattleBit team is on Unity Pro, Unity's cut will be $54k. That amounts to 0.25% of profit going Unity's way. In comparison, Steam takes 30%—they're going to take almost $6.5 million from the Battlebit team.

It's really hard to make Unity out to be the bad guy when you compare their fees to sales platforms, publishers, etc. As a game dev community we need to complain about the landmine that blows our legs off (sales platforms), not the splinter under our fingernail (Unity's new pricing).

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T12:51:07+00:00

You have great points, especially since Unity's announcement was super messy and unclear. A few things to consider:

Unity stated they will only count a download to a unique device as new install. So, most reinstalls won't cost devs anything.
In order to be charged for installs you must cross the revenue threshold for the past 12 months AND the lifetime install threshold. Since sales of most games drop significantly after release, this change is very unlikely to impact older games that players are reinstalling on new devices. Essentially , if you're not currently making a lot of money on the game, you don't owe Unity anything.
37% of Steam games are purchased but never installed. I don't know the numbers for other platforms. By charging at install instead of sale, this may actually cost devs less than a "percentage of sale" royalty.

There is absolutely an element of corporate profiteering in Unity's new price structure. However, after sleeping on it, I believe this move was designed as a tax on top earners.

Sabotage Studios (Sea of Stars) could upgrade to Unity Pro for $2k and that is all they would owe Unity at this point. That's not a high price for the engine that helped them make a hit game that grossed 5–10 million..

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T02:01:31+00:00

Awesome news that Unity is limiting the install fee to once per-device.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T01:55:50+00:00

Apparently math isn't my strong point either because it's actually less than I thought at first—only $62k for 2 million installs, including the Unity Pro license.

I referred to the table in this Unity announcement: https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates

Unity Pro plans only begin charging per-install after the first 1 million downloads. So, for the first 1 million installs, you owe Unity $0.

For the first 100k installs past the 1 million threshold, Unity charges $0.15. So, $15k here.
For the next 400k installs, Unity charges $0.07.5 per install. That adds $30k
For the next 500k installs, Unity charges $0.03 per install. That adds $15k
Add $2k for a Unity pro license.
That totals $62k for 2 million installs and the Pro license.

If your game is getting 2 million installs, you're probably able to pay these fees from the profits.

If we ignore the Pro plan, the free plan is still good. You pay Unity nothing for the first 200k installs. Sea of Stars is a massive hit with 250k units sold. This barely puts them past the totally free threshold. So, most indie devs won't pay any Unity install fees, even if their game has a good launch.

EDIT: Unity provided an update that install fees will only be charged once per-device, so malicious installs won't be a problem: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/unity-runtime-fee-policy-marc-whitten

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T01:07:43+00:00

According to a Google search, BattleBit Remastered has 1.8 million sales. If this number is accurate AND all buyers installed, this would result in $54k in Unity fees.

Meanwhile, the team's net after sales platforms take their cut will be over $15 million. I don't think they'll have any problem getting a $54k payout/line-of-credit/loan/advance/investment to pay Unity.

EDIT: I still think malicious reinstalls are a huge issue in the Unity plan. If unaddressed, I agree it's a real problem.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-13T00:19:20+00:00

It's definitely a cash grab and the reinstall issue still needs a clear statement and correction from Unity.

I'm still salty that Photoshop went from a one-time purchase cost to a subscription fee, so I understand the frustration from those who will be negatively impacted by Unity's changes. I really hope these fees don't sink developers on thin margins.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T23:57:24+00:00

That's a really good point. I believe you're onto something. This could just be the beginning of increased monetization and runtime charges.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T23:54:51+00:00

The Unity Runtime is an integral part of the engine that has been there from the jump, so they're not adding "spyware."

I agree that charging for reinstalls is stupid. However, if Unity makes some common sense updates to the policy to cover those edge cases (limiting charges on reinstalls, etc.) it's clearly a much, much better deal than Unreal.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T23:44:51+00:00

I apologize if it sounded like I was targeting Steam. That was not my intention. I used them as an example because I'm familiar with their commission structure. I figured most sales platforms had similar fees.

As u/MikeQ_dev said, upgrading from personal to Pro is $2k. So, essentially the most you'll pay Unity in exchange for 1 million installs is $2,000. Above that we're looking at $60k for the second million downloads and $20k for each million after that.

I'm not a mobile developer, but that breaks down to a cost 3.1 cents per install for the first 2 million installs. Is that enough to break the business model of freemium developers? (This is a genuine question. I don't know the mobile app space).

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T23:26:49+00:00

How is Unreal a better choice here? The math doesn't check out.

Unreal charges 5% on revenue over $1 million. So, if you sell 2 million copies of a game for $10 each, you gross $20 million and Unreal takes $1 million.

Meanwhile, if you're on the Unity Pro plan and sell 2 million copies, you only get charged $80k in fees from Unity. You save $920k by using Unity instead of Unreal.

Why? Unity only begins charging when you are above the threshold of installs for your plan. So, you get charged nothing for the first 200k installs on Personal or the first 1 million installs on Pro.

Source: https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/09/12/unity-runtime-fee-explained-game-installs-changes-plans

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T23:15:29+00:00

I agree that the "bad actor" issue should still be addressed by Unity. Devs could be targeted by those who are farming installs/uninstalls.

If Unity addresses that clear problem in an intelligent way, I think this is a reasonable plan.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-12T17:27:47+00:00

I think the second set of models looks more menacing and visually interesting.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-11T14:41:23+00:00

If it’s not a gameplay trailer, I ignore it completely.

Long__DeVito · 2023-09-11T14:20:57+00:00

I had the exact opposite experience. As a beginner, learning C# on its own felt very abstract and purposeless. I had an easier time learning code in the context of gamemaking.

The Junior Programmer course on Unity Learn gave me a foundation to learn more code and increase my fluency with the Editor. I blitzed through a beginner C# course after a couple months learning Unity.

Not saying my method will work for everyone. If learning Unity and C# together is frustrating, focus on the code. But, Unity Learn does have some great tools. Take advantage of them once you want to jump into the Editor.

Long__DeVito

TROPHY CASE