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Game devs with 2B installs say they will boycott Unity ads until its price increase is reversed
15.09.2023 - 11:03 / venturebeat.com / Marc Whitten / Unity Pro / Unity Create / Will
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Nine mobile game companies with a total of at least two billion downloads wrote a letter to Unity saying its download-based price increase will destabilize the mobile game ecosystem.
Azur Games, Voodoo, Homa, Century Games, Say Games, Original Games, Ducky, Burny Games and Inspired Square signed the “collective letter” saying they would turn off Unity Ads — both Unity ads and IronSource ads — unless Unity rolls back the price increase that will impact a portion of its user base. That amounts to cutting off monetization for Unity’s game services that is a big part of the game engine maker’s revenue. They also asked others to join.
The letter from the nine game companies is a sign of an unprecedented backlash again Unity’s move, which is meant to balance the “value exchange” between Unity and its customers, a Unity executive said earlier this week in an interview with GamesBeat.
The companies in question are hypercasual game makers, which means they make games where the gameplay is simple but addictive and a round of the game can be played in less than a minute. These games have been extremely popular, producing billions of downloads. Many of them are free, and they monetize through ads.
A year after Unity raised prices for enterprise and professional versions of its game engine, Unity on Tuesday added a new charge for smaller developers who meet thresholds for revenue and installs.
Starting on January 1, 2024, Unity will charge a Unity Runtime Fee for any game that surpasses a revenue and lifetime install in the preceding 12 months. Normally, Unity Personal usage is free, and subscribers for Unity Pro pay $399 per seat.
But under the changes announced today, Unity Personal and Unity Pro users will pay fees if they hit $200,000 in revenue in a year and 200,000 lifetime installs. For anywhere from one to a million installs, those users will pay 20 cents per install.
“It’s a price increase. It’s a business model change,” acknowledged Marc Whitten, Unity Create president, in an interview with GamesBeat. “From our perspective, we’re working on ensuring that there’s an accurate exchange of value between Unity and its customers. But with that said, this price increase doesn’t impact the significant majority of our customers.”
Unity left some doors open, saying that devs could forego the fees if they chose to monetize using Unity’s ad services.
As you might expect, this did not go over well
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