Unity to Cap Runtime Fee to 4% of Revenue Over $1M, Users Will Self-Report Figures
Unity to Cap Runtime Fee to 4% of Revenue Over $1M, Users Will Self-Report Figures
The overhauled Runtime Fee policy plan being considered by Unity Technologies will cap the fee to 4% of the game's revenues over $1 million.
The overhauled Runtime Fee policy plan being considered by Unity Technologies will cap the fee to 4% of the game's revenues over $1 million.
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While the changes aren't official yet, Bloomberg got hold of a meeting recording where Unity executives outlined the new plan, which reportedly caps the Runtime Fee at 4% of the game's revenues over one million dollars. Developers will also be asked to report the installation figures themselves instead of being forced to deal with Unity's proprietary technology. Lastly, the installation threshold won't be retroactive, so only new installations made after the policy's announcement will count toward reaching the Runtime Fee thresholds.
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- Company makes wildly negative changes
- Public outcry occurs
- Company walks back overwhelmingly negative parts of the deal to what they originally intended to happen
- The public is placated into thinking they won the fight
We're at step 3, y'all
Yeah and it won't work this time.
Unity is B2B, they tried to change the deal retrospectively. That's toxic to a business relationship, it's not viable to do business with such a company because they may try to do it again.
The only thing they can do now is fire the CEO.
Which is exactly the plan. Short term cash boost and loss of trust followed by a new CEO who builds that trust again. Rinse and repeat.
The current CEO gets a golden parachute and the investors get some quick cash and likely buy more stock when the value falls.
I hope you're right! Just drawing attention to this page of their playbook.
I mean you definitely got a point, but don't forget that there are long term consequences. The trust is completely gone (which is needed if you invest in this game engine and you will probably see the unity market share drop in the coming year.
But don't you think that pretty much this debacle resembles Reddit and by now most of the users are back to their platform, exactly what they wanted.
Only the nerds and some mods left their platform permanently but percentage wise the number is probably very low and now Reddit is probably earning even more than before. So it is a win win situation for them.
I agree- hopefully we can remember long enough for it to really matter in the long term. Just wanted to bring attention to this cycle because it's been happening a lot lately (Facebook, DnD, etc) and I think the companies are starting to copy eachother.
Pssh, long term consequences are for the next CEO. I got my bonus and stock options.
Lastly, the installation threshold won’t be retroactive, so only new installations made after the policy’s announcement will count toward reaching the Runtime Fee thresholds.
That's still retroactive though.
Yeah, this isn't a concession.
The only installations they could count would be those made after devs accepted the new terms and conditions.
Any installs before the announcement were already covered under a different TOS, whether unity wants to force a new TOS or not.
Plus, like you say, this is still retroactive. Any games made under the old TOS would be forced onto the new TOS for new installs or be kicked off the unity platform.
It also isn't any different than what was originally announced, no? It was always like that and still shit.
It's the same shit with a sightly different spin.
A turd is a turd no matter how much you polish it.
Unity in a few years when investors want money again
I don't know why, I burst out laughing seeing this comment.
You do know why.
Still trying to shoehorn in a "runtime fee". That's not going to work and with this model it's pointless anyway. Just make it a 4% revenue for sales after $1 million. Same end results (actually potentially more in fees) without all the runtime issues. Make it apply only to a specific version and later and after a certain date and then you also don't have the retroactive problem and the massive blowback.
You know whats better? Not reporting shit, I just published my game. I don't want to report a bunch of numbers to Unity each month. I want to push updates to fix issues my users are complaining about. How the fuck are the biggest chucklefucks in charge of every company? Give me the fucking reigns I can do better than this.
I saw a theory from another lemmy user a while back that made a lot of sense. Basically shareholders get to a point where the want cash now. So they make a deal with the current CEO to do something shitty for short term profits. The shareholders get paid in the short term and then once the share price takes a hit they buy more shares at a discount. They then fire the current CEO who takes a nice exit fee and install someone else to do damage control and grow the stock price again. This is the only thing that makes sense to me because the alternative is that the current CEO is just actually that dumb.
It's the infinite growth bullshit that every publicly traded company suffers from. They're making enough money, but with capitalism it's never enough...
For me the problem is that the shareholders are putting enormous pressure on publicly traded companies requiring ever lasting exponential growth.
Back then I posted a thread about why I think publicly traded companies are bad for our society, as an unpopular opinion and I got severely downvoted, but hey isn't this another example for the latter?
This SaaS model was born exactly out of this and it is the worst offender.
Back then we were able to own our own software/hardware, now everything is leasing and perpetual paying for things you need/use everyday. Thank God we have foss apps that in most cases are better alternatives.
Hopefully development studios can hold strong and continue their boycott anyway. Backing down now basically means Unity got away with it, in a sense. Plus, companies are learning from each other's shitty tactics lately ala Twitter, Reddit, and Recently Facebook coming out with payment schemes on things that used to be free.
So if Unity does this, other software companies will probably try some similar stuff.
This changes nothing, unity. Fuck off. Fire your CEO and put in some real leadership.
"It's the craziest thing Unity™, I know people have bought my game, but I shit you not, not one person has actually installed it."
The games making over a million are the ones who can afford the new rates. This is so regressive. It should get more expensive as your sales go up, not down. Small devs should be charged less than big studios
Can't put that "we have access to the data" toothpaste back in the tube I'm afraid.