Company attempts to clarify following dev backlash
After a couple of days offurious game developer reactions, game engine company Unity have backtracked a teensy bit on their plan to charge developers who meet certain revenue and copies-sold thresholds a “runtime fee” for every installation of their game.
The company will only make developers pay extra for the first installation of a game on a new device - so no fees for reinstallations, in theory, and no prospect of spiteful players “install bombing” games to drive up costs for their creators. However, the company haven’t stated how or indeed, if they can distinguish legitimate from illegitimate installations in advance, seemingly because their method for tracking installations is based on “estimates” using a proprietary data-gathering system, which they aren’t able to discuss in depth.
So how will Unity track and invoice developers for game installs? “We leverage our own proprietary data model and will provide estimates of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project,” the companystate on their much-updated FAQ page. “This estimate will cover an invoice for all platforms.” The company add ontheir forumsthat “We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project.”
As for fraudulent installations, such as people repeatedly reinstalling games out of malice towards their creators, “we are not going to charge a fee for fraudulent installs or ‘install bombing,'” reads the FAQ. “We will work directly with you on cases where fraud or botnets are suspected of malicious intent.” So in other words, there’s no way to stop people doing this at first? Developers have to ask for the money back after the fact?
Unity have further clarified that the runtime fee per install extends to early access versions of games, but not “trials, partial play demos, and automation installs (devops) charges”. It doesn’t apply to web and streaming games, either, or “charity-related installs” such as “charity bundles/initiatives”.
It’s all rather byzantine, isn’t it? Whatever your thoughts on the proposed pricing changes, this will surely go down as one of the worst-communicated policy rollouts in industry history, with each clarification generating fresh questions. Unity appear to have given very little thought to some of the more obvious implications of their shift to a per-install pricing structure. I haven’t seen a mess like this since the announcement of the Xbox One.
Amid the chaos, the company continue to defend their new policy, posting on Eggs that “the price increase is very targeted” and that over 90% of Unity customers don’t meet the criteria for the runtime fee, and won’t be affected by the charge. “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.”
Speaking toAxios, Unity exec Marc Whitten insisted that “our core point with this is simply to make sure that we have the right value exchange so that we can continue to invest in our fundamental mission to make sure that we can deliver the best tools for people to make great games.”
“It’s not fun to get a bunch of angry feedback on any particular day,” he added. “And I think that that is us needing to clarify some of these points. But we’re we’re listening and we will continue to make sure that we deliver the best that we can.”
