Unity announced a price increase a couple days ago which has rightly enraged the developer community. While the seat price remains the same for all Unity licenses, the engine will now charge for unique installs of the Unity runtime once developers pass a certain revenue and install threshold. This unconscionable change strikes at the very heart of what made Unity an appealing platform: its flat fee. Unity is now punishing success with extra fees while letting everyone else benefit from our work. If the poors want to make a video game, they should pay the same price as the rest of us.
Back when I started making games we didn’t have free hand outs in the form of video game engines. We needed to build everything from scratch and it made us appreciate our craft. We took the risk and collected the full reward. Then came Unity and it trivialized all that work. It arrived with a business model calibrated to reap the maximum reward by creating the largest number of developers and put those tools in the hands of anyone with a few bucks and a desire to make games. But I could at least reconcile the greater competition with the fact the market was functioning and that the best developers would survive.
The recent announcement changed all that. Now John Riccitiello, who donated to Barack Obama’s campaign by the way, has decided that any developer making more than $1,000,000 USD has to pay extra to “support development of the engine.” What possible incentive do I have now to make more than $1 million after January 1st if it’s going to subsidize the kinds of developers who make visual novels about romance between fridges? It’s almost like they saw Valve’s incentive to succeed through reduced revenue share and decided to put that money straight in their pocket.
And I know this article is going to provoke a bunch of whiners: “Oh it’s really hard out there. I need all the help I can get.” “What if people hate my game and install bomb me?” “What if I put it in a charity bundle?” It’s almost like these people don’t understand that the idea of giving to charity involves a cost. If you don’t incur a cost, how can you claim the tax write-off? People worried about install bombs should just take a page from Gearbox, a model of corporate stewardship, when the Epic Games Store crybabies sent them 3000 negative reviews. Ignore them. At least they’re buying your game. Heck, raise the prices!
But I am being unfair. Unity is absolutely guilty of putting us on the road to serfdom, but developers can’t choose the environment they’re born in. Unity’s decision doesn’t just affect the incentives to succeed, it promotes certain types of games and monetization strategies over others. What does an aspiring developer who isn’t looking for a handout but simply trying to navigate the shifting marketplace do? A new or small developer needs to consider what is incentivized in the market and align with those strengths in order to reach a level where they might be able to dictate their own terms.
Those incentives are clearly articulated in Unity’s blog and the answer is simple. Become a pornographer.
Pornographic games are often web based in order to avoid the restrictions placed by certain storefronts. Web games do not count towards the Unity runtime fee. In addition, so many developers today complain about discoverability problems and this problem is solved too. Imagine you could use the Warhammer 40,000 license to make a game. Warhammer 40,000 has a large and rabid fan base who will buy just about anything with shouty men on the cover. Many developers don’t license this property because they don’t have the money. Pornography also has a rabid fan base who will seemingly buy just about anything, demand even less on the covers, and have none of the licensing costs. Porn is the Warhammer 40,000 of web-based games. With this one move not only have you circumvented the Unity Runtime Fee, but you have opened up an entirely new revenue source with which to build your tech and maybe even put some into personal projects that don’t have to sell well.
I have seen a lot of talk about switching over to engines like Unreal, but this isn’t really a solution for a new developer. I can understand the appeal. The flat 5% rate is as appealing as flat taxes are in the real world, but you can’t just go for the more expensive option right away. When I started out, I had a simple watch. I didn’t buy the NOMOS Glashütte right away. I earned that watch after my success. Sometimes we have to deny ourselves the things we want and we learn to appreciate them more as a result. Cutting your teeth as a Unity pornographer will let you build the experience and financial wherewithal to make luxury choices like Unreal, or even the more conspicuous consumption of the big leagues like changing engines in production.
Unity may have broken the trust that our work would not be used to subsidize the work of our unprofitable peers, but there will always be demand for savvy developers willing to take a sober look at the market. Unity’s guidelines are clear and are practically screaming to take advantage of this new opportunity. If John Riccitiello wants to make a claim on your success, jump in the porn sector and dare him to follow you.
SystemTalk 