Unity pricing scandal
Unity is amongst the foremost game engines with the company providing a suite of industry leading development tools but, despite their prominence, they felt the need to squish game development’s already thin margins via a reformed pricing structure. Controversy was well-and-truly sparked in September 2023 as they road-mapped charges calculated on a per-install basis off the back of game downloads and revenue thresholds. Worse still is Unity announced these changes with little to no warning; developers had minimal time to prepare for wholesale changes to their bottom line, especially those who’ve seen sales success with their games running the risk of receiving hefty retroactive bills. Following protests, the pricing model was revamped, then reversed (almost) altogether, and although goodwill has been lost market share is largely unchanged with the software still being widely used.
