Unity wants to charge for each installation of a game created with its engine and developers threaten to boycott them

Unity updates its plans and introduces a charge for the installation of games that use its engine. Apparently, video game studios will have to pay a fee, which has caused a negative reaction from developers, who have expressed the possibility of stopping using the engine.

This new Unity fee will be effective starting January 2024 and will apply to titles that have met a minimum revenue threshold, starting at $200,000, and a minimum install threshold, starting at 200,000 installs. That said, if a game meets these requirements, $0.02 will be charged for each new installation, according to the same Unity blog.

However, this has generated discontent among developers, and they assure that starting January 1, the date on which this new rate would come into effect, they will withdraw their games from the platforms. For example, the Massive Monster studio, creators of ‘Cult of the Lamb’, states that “you should take the opportunity to buy the title now, because we will eliminate it”

On the other hand, there are studios like the creators of ‘Among Us’, Innersloth, who claim that this fee “not only affects us, but also other game developers of all budgets and sizes.”

While some decide to eliminate their titles due to the implementation of the new rate, others plan to migrate to a new graphics engine, as in the case of Size Five Games, creators of the acclaimed ‘Lair of the Clockwork God’, who assure that “they will jump to the Unreal Engine as soon as they can.”

However, this means more development time and delay in future deliveries because they are working on a new architecture and must adapt their projects to this tool. Dan Marshall, developer of the aforementioned study, comments the following:

“I have a couple of projects going on in Unity right now and they’re far enough along that changing the engine isn’t an option, and I have a sick feeling in my stomach just thinking about this. Horrendous policy, presumably devised by money men. I’m legitimately pretty pissed. I’ve been using Unity for over 10 years, that’s a huge investment in a system I’m about to drop like a hot stone.”
It is worth mentioning that the company that created ‘Genshin Impact’, miHoYo, has not mentioned this, nor is there any position on their part regarding this fee imposed by Unity, considering that the delivery uses this graphics engine.