A recent investigation has shed more light on Unity’s controversial decision to implement fees for game downloads. According to MobileGamer sources, Unity has offered certain studios a 100% fee waiver if they switch to using Unity’s LevelPlay ad platform. This move is seen as an attempt by Unity to undermine its main competitor, AppLovin.

The LevelPlay suite of tools allows developers to have control over their monetization strategy by incorporating in-game ads in Unity smartphone games. It offers various types of ads, ad testing, and analytics to help generate revenue.

Consultant Matej Lancaric states that Unity’s announcement puts a spotlight on the “mediation war.” By encouraging developers to migrate to LevelPlay, Unity is essentially telling them that they will need to pay a significant amount of money if they choose not to. Lancaric suggests that smaller developers have no option but to switch to LevelPlay in order to protect their companies, while others are considering alternative game development engines like Godot or Cocos2D.

Unity vaguely mentions this plan in its blog post about the fees, mentioning that qualifying customers may be eligible for credits towards the Unity Runtime Fee if they adopt Unity services beyond the Editor, such as Unity Gaming Services or Unity LevelPlay mediation for mobile ad-supported games. Developers are encouraged to reach out to their account managers for more information.

This move highlights Unity’s focus on smartphone gaming as opposed to PC and console gaming. Unity has yet to respond to the report.

In a separate development, the studio behind Slay the Spire, Mega Crit, has announced that it will sever ties with Unity and start its next game project on a different engine if Unity does not fully reverse its plans.