Oof
If you are not already aware, there has been an announcement over at Unity describing a new monetization strategy where they intend to charge developers for every install of their game. You can see that here:
https://twitter.com/unity/status/1701650081403842851
To put things mildly, this has caused a bit of consternation in the indie game developer community. Once you dig into the details, you quickly find that this scheme is completely untenable. It's an evolving situation at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a full reversal in the near future, but I'd like to take a minute to address how this affects Winter Court Studios and Forgotten Faiths.
First of all, yes, we are currently developing Forgotten Faiths with the Unity engine. So this does affect us. We do not plan to take any immediate action in response to the announced plan by Unity, however, Winter Court Studios will not accept the changes to terms of service as they are currently structured. It's a bad deal. It's an impractical deal. And we even have concerns about the legality of this deal.
A Bad Deal
Any terms that include a per-install fee are a bad deal. Doesn't really matter how you do the math.
The developing studio does not receive money per install, only per purchase. Once under the control of the end user, the product can be installed as many times as that user wants. The developer has no control over this. Many people have posted scenarios where they end up owing Unity more than they make in revenue under this model. And while this is more likely for studios that employ a free-to-play model, it could ultimately be a problem for anyone. Sales happen. Value bundles happen. Piracy happens.
And yes, Unity has said they will not count pirated installs, but that bring us to...
An Impractical Deal
An accurate number of legal, legitimate installs can not be counted. Period. There is no A-to-B here. I don't care how many tracking systems you try to stuff into the product. You will not get a precise number out of this across multiple platforms, multiple countries, and multiple distribution methods. You certainly won't be able to differentiate per-device numbers (legally), or eliminate all counts from pirated sources, or prevent every possible exploit available to hostile users who want to employ an install-bombing strategy.
Unity says they can account for all of these scenarios, but the tech-savvy consumers of their product can only respond with "prove it." This gets us to hand waving statements about proprietary algorithms. In other words, they don't have an answer.
We know it can't work. They know it can't work. They know we know it can't work.
Ethics and Law
So we have an install number produced by a black-box algorithm that no one trusts. There is a dispute process if we think the number might be wrong, but good luck trying to prove that. The number can not actually be tracked, so how can you possibly give them a better one?
As a billing metric, I suspect this will burn up like a vampire in the sun if it ever goes to court. And if they don't reverse course, it probably will go to court. This is part of the reason our team is not running for the hills yet.
But there is another problem here, and that's the terms of service. Earlier versions of the TOS for using the unity engine had this clause:
Unity may update these Unity Software Additional Terms at any time for any reason and without notice (the “Updated Terms”) and those Updated Terms will apply to the most recent current-year version of the Unity Software, provided that, if the Updated Terms adversely impact your rights, you may elect to continue to use any current-year versions of the Unity Software (e.g., 2018.x and 2018.y and any Long Term Supported (LTS) versions for that current-year release) according to the terms that applied just prior to the Updated Terms (the “Prior Terms”). The Updated Terms will then not apply to your use of those current-year versions unless and until you update to a subsequent year version of the Unity Software (e.g. from 2019.4 to 2020.1). If material modifications are made to these Terms, Unity will endeavor to notify you of the modification. If a modification is required to comply with applicable law, the modification will apply notwithstanding this section. Except as explicitly set forth in this paragraph, your use of any new version or release of the Unity Software will be subject to the Updated Terms applicable to that release or version. You understand that it is your responsibility to maintain complete records establishing your entitlement to Prior Terms.
- 2020 Unity TOS
In other words, since we are using an earlier version of Unity (2018 at the moment), the current changes to include per-install fees should not apply to us at all. But the current regime at Unity has taken steps to strike this language from the latest TOS. And they have stated that they expect existing games on the market using older versions of the engine to pay them for installs starting in January.
I'm not a legal expert, but this seems... uh... what's the word? Actionable?
Certainly questionable.
Definitely unethical.
And if the company is willing to make changes this big with three-months notice, that certainly reduces ones long-term confidence in the toolset.
Next Steps
Until our core content is complete, we won't do anything differently, since that specific kind of work (writing, story scripting, art, etc) is highly portable. This should be finished somewhere around Q1 in 2024. At that point, we will have a more complete picture about what is happening here. If the per-install billing has not been negated by that time, then we are likely to begin migrating to a new engine.
It sucks. It will cause big delays in a project that has already run very long. But we can not accept the deal. No business owner in their right mind would ever sign a deal like this. It goes, or we go.
