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Unity to introduce runtime fee based on installs
(blog.unity.com)
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this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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Programming
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It's retroactive and it's not based on sales, it's based on installs. So for example, I purchase a game on steam and I own a PC, a steam deck, and I have a kid with a PC. That's 3x the fees for one sale even though I can only play it on one device at a time. Maybe I get bored of the game and uninstall it. A year later I want to play it again, there's a new fee for the same sale and PC that unity gets.
From what I understand there is also a risk that pirated copies could count. It's hard to see how Unity can effectively defend against it.
It's clear that they haven't bothered to actually think any of this through.
Or they have but the potential profit outweighs potential negative PR.
Now imagine someone makes a program that repeatedly installs and uninstalls the game. They let this program run all day every day. They also give the program to their friends or post it online.
Unity says they have measures against this, but that then smells of spyware. How would they know how many times a game has been installed without that?
Unity may say they have a solution to that too, but no matter the implementation, bad actors will find a way to exploit it.