<p><strong>[UPDATE2023-09-23]</strong>Thispolicyhaschangedsignificantlyforthebettersincethisarticlewaswritten,andIwantedtoupdatethispostforcompleteness,butI'm leaving the original article alone because I think it'simportantforpeopletoknoweverythingUnity<em>tried</em>togetawaywith,andnotjustwhatitendedupdoing.I'veaddedmythoughtsonthechangestotheendofthisarticle.</p>
<p>Forexample,AmongUshasover500milliondownloadsontheGooglePlayStorealone.Underthispricingscheme,thatwouldcostitsdeveloper,Innersloth,$100,000,000onthefreeplan,orapaltry$5,000,000ifthey're using the if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-itEnterpriseplan.Idon't have access to Innersloth'sfinancialdata,butthat's probably at least a year or two of pay for all of their employees at the absolute minimum, more if they'reonacheaperplan.Iseriouslydoubttheycanaffordthis.</p>
<p>That's an extreme example, but I think it gets the point across. If you don'tbelieveme,takeitfromdevelopersonTwitter(via<ahref="https://archive.ph/IQPjW">u/Sparky2199</a>):</p>
<ahref="devprotest.png"><imgsrc="devprotest.png"alt="Compilation of various twitter posts from indie game studios using Unity complaining about the change."/></a>
<p>AsangryasIamaboutthis,Idofeelkindofvindicated,becausehere's the thing: something like this was always going to happen. Not because Unity in particular is a <em>bad</em> company (although it is), but because it'sa<em>for-profit</em>company,andespeciallybecauseit'sonewithshareholderstoplease.</p>
<p>Andthat's the danger here. When you become reliant on something in order to do your work, you'reinherentlygamblingonitbeingstillaroundandusableuntilyou're done. In the case of proprietary software (and cloud services, but that'sadifferentrant),you're betting on the company not changing the software or the terms of the license on you, or going under, or just deciding the software isn'tworthittomaintainanymore.InUnity's case, we'reseeingwhathappenswhenyouplacealosingbet.Suddenlythecompanyhatesyouandyou've gotta migrate to something else, and if you can'tyou're SOL. Sure, an open-source project might die off as its developers lose interest or can'tworkonitanymore,butthensomebodymightforkit,oryouhavetherighttomaintainityourself,ifyoucan.Onlyproprietarysoftwarecansuddenlydecideyou'renot<em>allowed</em>touseitanymore.</p>
<p>Thisproblemisn't unique to Unity, or to game engines. We'vebeenwatchingthisplayoutacrosstheindustryforaslongasthere's been an industry, except normally companies boil the frog a lot more slowly and in ways that are a lot more subtle. Google didn'tgofromworld'sbestsearchenginetomega-monopolisticadwareproviderovernight.Toextendthemetaphor,Unityjusttossedagrenadeinthepot.</p>
<p>It's my opinion that all proprietary software will die this way in the end. The structure is fundamentally unsustainable. You can'thaveinfinitegrowth.Atsomepointalltheproprietarysoftwareandservicesthatarecommomplacenowadayswiththeirad-supportedbusinessmodelsandpredatorypricingschemesandsuspiciouslyhighmarketingbudgetswillwitheranddie,havingmadethemselvesintolerabletoeventheirmostloyalcustomers,andmostofthesurvivorswillbeopen-sourceprojects.Notassleekorsexyorwell-advertised,asthey'llhavehadlessincentivetoappealtonewusers,butfundamentallysustainable,havinghad<em>no</em>incentivetoappealtoshareholders.</p>
<p>Inthisparticularcase,Idon't think this is gonna stick. Unity'sruntimefeeisabsurd,andIthinktheyknowitjustaswellasalltheirmoderatelyhigh-profilecustomersonTwitterdo.Unityhasalreadystartedtowalkbacksomeofthemoreextremepartsoftheinitialplan,asyoucanseeonarchivedversionsoftheposts:<ahref="https://archive.ph/gEckm">Blogpost(Sep12)</a>,<ahref="https://archive.ph/gBpXw">Blogpost(Sep14)</a>,<ahref="https://archive.ph/HYTq5">Forumthread(Sep12)</a>,<ahref="https://archive.ph/eByMm">Forumthread(Sep14)</a>.Unityalsohassomecustomersthatarebiggerthanthemandnotoriouslylitigation-happy,namelyNintendo(withPokemonBD/SPandGo,plusacoupleMariomobilegames)andDisney(alsowithquiteafewmobileandconsolegames).Unity's CEO also sold a bunch of stock in the company in the lead-up to this announcement, which, since the company'sstockpricedropped<em>significantly</em>aftertheannouncement,mightactuallyconstitutefraud.Youknow,fromfederalcrimes!Basically,thisinitialannouncementwasprobablyanattempttoseehowmuchtheycouldgetawaywith,andUnity'sprobablyfuckediftheysticktotheirgunsonthis.</p>
<p>Onthetechnicalside,ifyou're a budding game developer, Unity isn'tyouronlyoption.Mytoprecommendationis<ahref="https://godotengine.org/">Godot</a>,afreeandopensourcegameenginethat's recently taken steps to increase its funding in a way that'sactuallysaneandnotcartoonvillainbehavior.ItalsosupportsC# by default, since you probably got used to that with Unity. There's also RPG Maker and Unreal Engine, the latter of which I imagine a lot of studios will be switching to soon.</p>
<p>Finally,ifyou've been eyeing a game that uses the Unity engine, you'vegotuntiltheendoftheyeartoinstallitwithoutincurringthatfeeforthedeveloperassumingthischangegoesthrough.SoI'd check for that. By my understanding you'llhavetorunitatleastoncebeforethen,too.</p>
<p>Good(?)news!Unity's responded to community feedback and it'sactually...betterthanIexpected.Youcanreadthefullpost<ahref="https://archive.ph/rLi8u">here</a>,butI'llsummarizethechanges:</p>
<p>Thatsaid,myoriginalpointstillstands.Unityisstillsqueezingmoremoneyoutofitsuserbaseinawayithadn't previously, and it could pull some shit like this again at any time. Just because it caved this time, doesn'tmeanthere's anything stopping Unity from making more horrible retroactive policy changes in future. Unity has destroyed a lot of the trust it'sbuiltwithitscommunity-alotofdeveloperswon't trust Unity not to screw them over in the future, and in my opinion they'dberightnotto.</p>
<p>It's my hope that a lot of game developers will take this opportunity to ditch Unity for something better. At the very least, I don'tthinkwe'll see many games de-listed like Cult of the Lamb <a href="https://archive.ph/4xyTO">threatened to do</a>, since existing games can just not update their Unity release. A lot of games may still be forced to move engines if they don'twanttodealwiththis,though.Forexample,supportfornewconsoles,OSversions,etc.probablywon't be backported to old Unity versions. Games that continually add new content or aren'tfinishedyetwillprobablyeventuallystartencounteringissuesresultingfromthis.</p>