NunuvYabizness
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Saucey-sauce: https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/16jeox6/i_made_a_comprehensive_visual_chart_showing_how/
This chart of lost revenue vs downloads shows best what might happen. That thin black area shows where devs can go bankrupt due to Unity's fee structure.
To make matters worse, Unity says they will implement "measures" to account for pirated downloads or installs on virtual machines. They don't mention what these measures would be, but Unity's acquisition of suspected malware distributor IronSource doesn't sit well with devs or users.
Upper Echelon has a video that can explain the chart and whole fiasco in further detail (https://youtu.be/ZOCTSp_U-KI?si=klmzQS7HWJA-Tj6A).
Sanzanna
Worst part is the whole "retroactive" thing. So a dev who has already spent money on...you know...food shelter, etc. still has to pay.
Intrspace
How can Unity take more than 100% of your revenue? lol
akspartankiiier
You put in $10,000 worth of work In The game and it made $15,000. They charge you $6,000 for the amount of downloads.
innagaddavidababy
Yeah, like I’ve bought a lot of $0.15 games. Draw the graph with an x axis that spans the actual range we see for game prices.
YouWillNeverFindMe
Who charges under $1 for their game though?
Goddesahpan
It's revenue per download, not per purchase.
gman003
Unity is extremely popular for mobile games.
Alfadorfox
A game that makes revenue off of microtransactions and charges nothing to simply install the game, and so might not make nearly as much revenue per user installation as a AAA title that every user pays a flat $60 for.
flavivsaetivs
It's not charging $1, it's making $1 of revenue off the cost of their game.
mythsnlore
Lots and lots of tiny or startup devs.
megodk
Not to mention the ridiculous amount of mobile games that you can buy for between 1 and 2$ where the app store also already takes a hefty chunk
ballsoutflyer
This graph is a bit confusing for me. It feels like there's missing information. Can someone expand?
Acmer77
I've been expanding for 20 years. You don't want to see it, trust me.
Alfadorfox
Unity changed the deal they made with game devs to start charging for every user installation of the game. Not a percentage of revenue. A flat fee per installation. Including for multiple installations per purchase--if a user uninstalls and reinstalls the same game they purchased once, Unity charges the dev twice. They are trying to make this retroactive for every game that uses Unity, which is illegal, but counting on the fact that the devs most impacted by this won't have the money to sue.
ArgentPaladin
Unity claims that there are measures in place to prevent multiple installations from being an issue, and tracking installations on a 'per device' basis. They have not been forthcoming on what those measures are, likely because it would be considered an invasion of privacy under EU law.
ballsoutflyer
Okay, I understand that. But one question still remains -- Is the revenue on the X axis the devs or is it Unity's?
ArgentPaladin
The X-Axis seems to represent the sale price of the product. The vast, VAST majority of games are mobile games, and a good chunk are made with unity. This graph shows what percentage of profit Unity's 20 cent per install charge would cost if your App Story sale price were less than a dollar.
ArgentPaladin
As an aside, there's a waiver on the fees offered if the ad-service used is the one partnered/owned to Ironsource, who was merger'd with Unity late last year, even though another, competing ad-service offered $20b, with the only difference being that the competing ad-service would get a controlling interest in Unity. It's fairly blatant that this is an attempt to freeze out said ad-service, and Unity's the sacrifice to make it happen.