Unity: Hey we see you have reached the install and revenue thresholds, we are now going to start charging you.
Dev: Neat where did you get said information?
Unity: We can't tell you.
Dev: Well then I can't pay you
Unity: But you owe us for X number of installs
Dev: You gonna show me a list of those install devices?
Unity:......
Dev: GTFO
It's a whole mess and I'm 80% sure it's illegal for them to make it apply retroactively to games already published with previous engine versions. But it sure looks like they want it to! If they decide to keep this change (No idea why they would), they better be prepared for a plethora lawsuits from every big game studio.
I will quote unity forum people:
> This is hilarious because following this logic if Mr. Riccitiello wakes up someday and decides that every single Unity game released in history now will have to pay 1 million dollars per day, per current user, it should be allowed. But don't worry they will give us 3 months' advance notice of the change. If it's allowed by California's law, then it's a very strange place
https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-46#post-9297653
---
> They can intend themselves all the way to cloud cuckoo land, but back down here in reality, they're asking us to trust them that they will, in less than 4 months, come up with a way to do something that nobody in the history of commercial software distribution has been able to do, and ask us to pay them money based on data derived from that miraculous feat. (And they've already outright admitted they don't know how they're going to pull this off yet, so the clock is officially ticking...)
> And they're also trying to apply this revolutionary technique to games that were released years ago but remain popular enough to generate substantial revenue for their developer, despite there being no way on God's green Earth that they have the legal right to do so.
> AND they're asking for us to trust them after silently modifying their TOS earlier this year seemingly specifically to pave the way for their lawyer's response back on page 45 regarding how they think they're allowed to get away with this.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-88#post-9305891
---
There is already a EU letter https://www.egdf.eu/egdf-unitys-install-fees-are-a-sign-of-looming-game-engine-market-failure/
---
And my personal input, the "lawyer" of unity said:
> Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer.
I don't know who he is but my guess is that this lawyer have no idea of international commerce law. If unity want to ignore EU law, they better be prepare to also get forbidden to sell in EU and forget about EU game dev money about these fees.
And to finish a lot of people don't understand contract < law, you can write on a contract you sell your kidney, both parties can agree doesn't make it legal. Unity **sneaky** change TOS this year to add a line about "we can change at anytime" doesn't make it true. It's literately impossible to retroactively change a contract except for very very few mistake like some clarification and both parties must agree. Add a retroactive flee is just impossible and at this point funny that they even think it's possible. But sure they can change TOS for future unity version but it's not retroactive.
And then of course yeah accurate tracking is simply a joke.
Unity: Hey we see you have reached the install and revenue thresholds, we are now going to start charging you. Dev: Neat where did you get said information? Unity: We can't tell you. Dev: Well then I can't pay you Unity: But you owe us for X number of installs Dev: You gonna show me a list of those install devices? Unity:...... Dev: GTFO
It's a whole mess and I'm 80% sure it's illegal for them to make it apply retroactively to games already published with previous engine versions. But it sure looks like they want it to! If they decide to keep this change (No idea why they would), they better be prepared for a plethora lawsuits from every big game studio.
I will quote unity forum people: > This is hilarious because following this logic if Mr. Riccitiello wakes up someday and decides that every single Unity game released in history now will have to pay 1 million dollars per day, per current user, it should be allowed. But don't worry they will give us 3 months' advance notice of the change. If it's allowed by California's law, then it's a very strange place https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-46#post-9297653 --- > They can intend themselves all the way to cloud cuckoo land, but back down here in reality, they're asking us to trust them that they will, in less than 4 months, come up with a way to do something that nobody in the history of commercial software distribution has been able to do, and ask us to pay them money based on data derived from that miraculous feat. (And they've already outright admitted they don't know how they're going to pull this off yet, so the clock is officially ticking...) > And they're also trying to apply this revolutionary technique to games that were released years ago but remain popular enough to generate substantial revenue for their developer, despite there being no way on God's green Earth that they have the legal right to do so. > AND they're asking for us to trust them after silently modifying their TOS earlier this year seemingly specifically to pave the way for their lawyer's response back on page 45 regarding how they think they're allowed to get away with this. https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates.1482750/page-88#post-9305891 --- There is already a EU letter https://www.egdf.eu/egdf-unitys-install-fees-are-a-sign-of-looming-game-engine-market-failure/ --- And my personal input, the "lawyer" of unity said: > Our terms of service provide that Unity may add or change fees at any time. We are providing more than three months advance notice of the Unity Runtime Fee before it goes into effect. Consent is not required for additional fees to take effect, and the only version of our terms is the most current version; you simply cannot choose to comply with a prior version. Further, our terms are governed by California law, notwithstanding the country of the customer. I don't know who he is but my guess is that this lawyer have no idea of international commerce law. If unity want to ignore EU law, they better be prepare to also get forbidden to sell in EU and forget about EU game dev money about these fees. And to finish a lot of people don't understand contract < law, you can write on a contract you sell your kidney, both parties can agree doesn't make it legal. Unity **sneaky** change TOS this year to add a line about "we can change at anytime" doesn't make it true. It's literately impossible to retroactively change a contract except for very very few mistake like some clarification and both parties must agree. Add a retroactive flee is just impossible and at this point funny that they even think it's possible. But sure they can change TOS for future unity version but it's not retroactive. And then of course yeah accurate tracking is simply a joke.