Moments ago Unity announced their new plans for a revised set of terms, replacing those that were aired on September 12. These updates were aimed at appeasing the community and addressing the concerns raised by developers.
However, the United Game Devs community, currently 1052 strong, who have been withholding Unity Ads and ironSource payment streams from their apps in protest, are not satisfied with the new terms.
The released commentary on behalf of United Game Devs reads:
The main problem is that an update to the runtime fee doesn’t solve its fundamental issue: its existential impact on the game dev community. Building a games business while paying runtime fees, even with its proposed revenue cap, is not an option, and many developers will use the old version of Unity Engine to avoid that fee.
The latest announcement shows again that the game developer community has no choice but to explore and focus on other engines.
Sadly, Unity is also unwilling to openly communicate with its community in a true dialogue to find common ground and a workable solution. Instead, it chose again to inform its community of its changes as a fact. The market rules are simple – everyone prefers to do business with partners whose changes in terms and conditions are transparent and consider developers’ interests.
That is why the community will not rely on Unity in the long run and already started migrating to other engines. As United Game Devs, we will focus on fostering and investing in open-sourced engines.
Further comment and opinion to follow.