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Is Unity's New Pricing Model a Game Changer or Game Over?

Hey there, DEV members! We're diving deep into the heated discussion surrounding Unity's latest pricing changes. Join us as we explore the impact on developers, evaluate alternative options like Godot, and dissect the buzz in the industry.

This article from @axlfc provides a concise update on Unity's recent pricing policy changes. What's the buzz among developers, and how do you feel about these shifts in the Unity landscape?
Get the nitty-gritty details from @godot on Unity's pricing alterations in 2024. This article even links to a Reddit thread—what are fellow developers saying there? Share your take and join the discussion.
The title speaks volumes! This article from @svprdga delves into one of the open-source alternatives, Godot, in light of Unity's changes. What's your perspective on Godot and its potential to shape the future of game development?
In this article by @gamedevdigest, a deeper exploration is conducted into the perplexity surrounding the alterations in Unity's pricing policy. It sheds light on the possible issues and difficulties that could confront Unity developers due to these changes, while also considering alternative game engines as a potential solution.

Jump in and let's discuss! 🔥💬

Top comments (10)

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godot profile image
Godot

It is a hard decision and not everyone can just simply switch their environment that they've been pouring thousands of man hours into it for their projects. I can only wish for the best for the gamedev community and may this be a good experience for us to take everything into consideration before committing into a proprietary software.

It pains me to see that, one corporate decision, can affect the whole industry in this way.

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rolandixor profile image
Roland Taylor

It's game over for Unity. Even retroactive changes at this point are too late. The community has been hurt, irreparably so, and many finally see the "light" as to why Open Source Software is not just a matter of an enthusiast's ideology. It's a necessity.

How can you trust a company that you rely on for your very livelihood and the livelihood of your staff (if you are running a studio, for instance) when that company shows that it is willing to demand the impossible of you? Many developers would've been in debt for installs that never even generated revenue!

That's simply untenable. Unity has essentially written its own 'death certificate', and the 'cause of 'death'' in this case, is "We proved we can't be trusted."

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tandrieu profile image
Thibaut Andrieu • Edited

It depends on what is the long term strategy for them.
Unity's success is largely due to community and "small" games. Now they are well established in the industry, maybe they want to drop out "small fishes" to focus more on bigger ones.

For my case I don't feel concerned. I work in a large company developing industrial products. I don't even know their prices, but it is probably 5 or 6 figures. Just saying that this kind of customer is also part of their revenue.

Unity is a company, not a friendly association. If dropping 80% of their current customer may help them to have much higher revenue from the remaining one, then, unfortunately, they made the right decision.

Unity is probably dead for small indies game. But that doesn't mean Unity is dead for all.

Wait and see...

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ayyappa99 profile image
Ayyappa • Edited

I was actually thinking the reverse and finally affect the indies later (indirectly). This is because the pricing is fair for indies but has bigger impact based on what training
institutes and big companies decide now which affects the future job market for unity.

Check this discussion.

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tandrieu profile image
Thibaut Andrieu

Interesting. Thanks for poiting me this thread.

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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

I think the best thing about this is that it will probably spur more interest in Godot.

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vanessatelles profile image
Vanessa Telles

Ditch Unity for good or not is not a simple topic in the game dev community right now.

For projects in the early stages of development or for demos, it seems feasible to go for another engine, especially if you are an indie dev with no business strings attached to the project. On the other hand, for projects with years of work done or people who built their careers around Unity, it is a lifetime decision.

At the end of the day, it is sad and nerve-wracking to make a decision like this :(

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

Game over. I used to use Unity a lot. I haven’t much, but I used to. I cannot believe that a platform with so many users would do this, but at least there are other platforms, like Godot and cocos (which my favorite game, geometry dash, was made with), unreal engine, etc. that creators can go to. So game over for them but it’s great for other platforms.

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jstones1 profile image
Stones • Edited

Unity Technologies, one of the leading game development platforms, recently introduced a new pricing model that has sent ripples through the game development community. In this blog post, we'll explore whether Unity's new pricing model is a game changer or potentially a game over for developers. But first, let's take a brief detour and also discuss Cataclysm Private Servers for World of Warcraft enthusiasts.

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h4cd profile image
h4cd

a Unity Over