My statement on the Unity stuff (Patreon)

Hey!

Like so many game developers, I was dismayed to learn about the radical shift in Unity's pricing model.

In brief, the company has announced that as of January 2024, games that surpass a yearly threshold of revenue and installs will be forced to pay 20 cents per install.

Not per sale - but per install.

This opens up so many potential issues surrounding things like Game Pass, Epic Game Store freebies, piracy, demos, bundles, re-installing games, "install-bombing", and more. It even has some developers worried that they could potentially owe Unity more money than they actually make from the game! It's a baffling decision and the deal completely stinks for indie game makers.

And by springing this grim contract-change on developers with barely any notice, and applying it retroactively to games already on the market, Unity is showing a callous disregard for the talented people who use their software. The company has lost the trust and backing of its users and that broken relationship can't be healed so easily.

I've personally been using Unity to make my games - Platformer Toolkit and the still-in-progress (promise! truly! for real!) Untitled Magnet Game - and I plan to finish making Magnet Game in Unity. But I'll be investigating other engines going forward. I hope that Unity will reverse this call and make a different choice - but I'll still be considering my options.

If you've been inspired by my videos or tutorials to get into game making and are considering using Unity, you may wish to try other engines instead. I don't have any tutorials for Godot or Unreal (yet?) but there's plenty of great stuff on YouTube.

Basically: I've never been so embarrassed to use a piece of software and I have an Adobe CC license for god's sake.

Mark