The news isn’t a surprise as Unity angered a lot of its loyal game developers a few weeks ago after pushing through a price increase based on numbers of downloads — and then retracted it after an uproar.
The news isn’t a surprise as Unity angered a lot of its loyal game developers a few weeks ago after pushing through a price increase based on numbers of downloads — and then retracted it after an uproar.
The problem is that this hurts developers more than it hurts Unity. And many developers just can’t afford switching engines mid-development.
They can finish up those projects and then move on to another engine. We shouldn’t encourage a hostage situation where we have to stay with an untrustworthy platform just because they have a metaphorical gun to some developers’ heads.
So you’re saying for them to finish their current unity projects, then for nobody to buy those games so they go out of business before they can start using a different engine for their next game?
While unfortunate, as a consumer it’s the only recourse we have. We don’t buy unity, we buy games. I won’t buy a game that might just suddenly disappear from a store where I bought it, cause the developer can’t or won’t carry install fees that may or may not come at any point.
Yes, it hurts developers. Yes, he shouldn’t have to suddenly have to pay that fee, but that is out of my control. But I’m still not taking the risk with my money. Unity clearly wants to do this, eventually they probably will.
Let’s stop buying games with unity so they have no customers left that can slam with install fees after-the-fact. All we can do.
This right here.
The only way to hurt Untiy is for devs to stop using it. And the only way to force devs to stop using it is to stop buying the games they make with it. I’m sorry it hurts the devs, but there’s no way around it. And if you keep giving money to it, then you’re supporting what Unity is doing.
So all the effort and money they spent in developing their games, before knowing about this movement from Unity, should be punished?
I understand your intentions, but indie devs don’t have the capacity to switch engines, let alone redevelop everything when it’s already or almost finished. I’d understand if you do it at the start of 2024.
Also, this is speculation, but I’ve seen devs provide alternatives to get their games. A lot of developers have already declared their intentions to switch engines from now on and they can’t do that if they don’t have a budget.