The Unity debacle continues to rage on, with the company attempting to defend this really scummy move of paid game installations. However, some developers have gotten their lawyers involved and it seems that Unity won’t be able to enforce this stupid new policy.
A huge post from the Sheridans Games Team said that Unity demanding payment per game installment won’t stick since it breaks several laws already in place. Sheridans pointed out how these changes can be seen as “abuse of a dominant position,” breaking various anti-trust and unfair competition rules in the US and UK.
If Unity attempts to enforce these changes retroactively, they can also break laws regarding unfair contract terms and business regulation. Furthermore, companies should be able to give their employees a reasonable notice period to make these changes happen. Since this is happening next year and numerous developers have complained about it, we think it’s fair to say that the notice is far from fair.
Unity announced its RunTime Fee policy not too long ago, which charges developers every time a game is installed. Developers would have to pay the company per game install, even if, hypothetically, a customer deletes a game to save space on their console and downloads it again.
On Twitter, Unity has attempted to save face and try to explain this RunTime Fee policy properly. Apparently, only “successful” games made with Unity have to pay this fee, with 90% of develops not affected by this move. The company also claims that developers only have to pay a one-time fee after meeting the two install and revenue threshold.
Needless to say, this is still incredibly disgusting behavior by Unity and developers have every right to be angry by the move. Since the policy is unlikely to take place, all we can do is hope that the company drops this altogether and gives devs a lengthy apology.
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Then again, Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello once tried to charge players to reload their guns in multiplayer shooters. Riccitiello even said all games should add microtransactions of some sort, showing that he’s out of touch with gamers and the industry