Game engine company Unity may be u-turning away from its awful plans to charge game developers for every time their games are installed. In the coming days, the engine creators will reveal its new plans.
Declared in a post on Twitter, Unity apologised for its greedy proposition to charge game developers. With developers all around the world fighting back against the new rules, Unity might be turning away from its gross plans.
“We have heard you. We apologise for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused,” the company revealed on the social media platform.
"We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback."
The decision to charge game developers $0.20 for every game install, even for free games, has been universally despised by game developers. Unity’s decision has even caused many to look back at the history of the company’s CEO John Riccitiello, and they’re not happy.
In the past, Riccitiello aimed to charge gamers for every bullet they fired in multiplayer games such as Battlefield. During his time as the CEO of Electronic Arts, Riccitiello introduced many forms of microtransactions into games, and the games industry has never recovered.
Unity’s pricing changes have not only been criticised by game developers, but also legal experts. Due to the fact that Unity can’t reliably track official installations or determine what installs come from pirated games, many believe the pricing plans will not be able to be enforced without litigation.
Legal experts believe that the system also breaks antitrust and unfair competition laws across the United Kingdom and United States. Furthermore, it can be seen as an “abuse of power” over its users.
“It's clearly early days with Unity's changes to its pricing policies and it may be that the PR backlash will determine what happens next,” said Sheridans Game Team. “However, it is far from certain that Unity's plans will be able to progress even if it doesn't effect a U-Turn - at least not without significant legal risk.”
Unity’s pricing plans are a massive risk for game developers across the world. While it’s not known if Unity will u-turn its awful decision, most developers and gamers hope they do.