Unity, the makers of the most popular indie game engine, decided to implement a per-install pricing. Devs (or possibly distributors, depending on which communication of theirs you read) will have to pay 0.20$ every time a player installs the game. This would come into effect in January.
There are thresholds, and based on the license I use (as a one-person company), Shadows would probably not need to pay anything on top of the existing licenses.
Regardless, this is still a critical risk for the future of the game for the following reasons:
- Malicious 'install bombing' would become possible, where a single person could write a script to install the game repeatedly, costing a potentially infinite amount of money. While Unity assure us this will not occur, because they will use some nebulous 'AI' solution, they are not open to sharing any details of how this protection will occur. With the very short time before the system comes online, and the extreme difficulty in totally protecting a computer system from hackers, my personal estimation is that there will be a number of malicious install bombs over the next few months.
- Unknown costs, even for legitimate use would occur. I have no idea how many times a player on average installs the game, nor do I seek that information. Once the game is in your library, I'd personally consider it your right to install it on any machine you feel like. I simply have no idea how many times to expect, and so cannot estimate costs.
- Unity has changed a contract retroactively which is threatening and concerning. Once Unity have decided they have the risk to unilaterally raise the price of the services, including for already released games, there is no guarantee they won't do so again. At any moment going forward they could levy additional fees or alter the thresholds on these new per-install prices. This means that Shadows now represents an unlimited liability for Forbidden Oak Games Limited. At any moment Unity could invoice the company for more than it has ever earnt.
I'll admit to not knowing what the implications of this are. This is nearly unprecedented, and far larger and better companies than mine are voicing their concerns, anger and confusion over these developments.
For others' perspectives, here are:
Unity Official Forums
The Twitter (X) announcement by Unity
The reddit Unity3D thread
As I've said, I don't know the impact of this. I can't tell you what will happen on Monday, I can't tell you what will happen in January. I'm not a lawyer, nor a seasoned industry veteran. Development on Shadows, even including bugfixes, is currently on hold to avoid being seen to agree with Unity's new Terms of Service. We will wait and see how things develop.
