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Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

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Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#21

Post by TillE »

Pulcinella wrote: post #3

This really does seem like Unity is destroying their business for pennies. Mobile game display ads seem like a very, very low value business to be in and I would imagine rates are going down all the time. Unity may manage to wipe out AppLovin by burning down the rest of their business, but winning king-of-the-hill on top a pile of ashes does not seem to be a high value position. Edit: It's as if Unreal wants to be ki…

There's just no way this change is actually gonna happen. Many prominent indie developers have already announced they'll be switching away from Unity for future projects, and you have to think that larger studios are drawing the same conclusions. The ship is sinking.

Unity will retract this. Switch to revenue share or whatever. They'll eat a huge loss of trust because of this idiocy, but they'll remain a relevant game engine. I just can't see any other scenario.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#23

Post by willio58 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #4

What I'd like to see is that this fiasco encourages studios to produce their own engines rather than using the pre/existing selection. I'd happily wait another 5-7 years for a new game on a new engine then have a new game in two years that feels identical to others. And then open-source it and let the creativity roam free.

I think it will just more people into existing engines like Unreal and Godot.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#24

Post by TillE »

Robotbeat wrote: post #7

I feel like there ought to be a really good open source game engine competing with Unity and Unreal, but I’m unfamiliar with any.

Godot is already a great, viable option for many games, and it's only getting better with each point release. Official (paid) console ports are coming in the near future. An asset store is coming, probably next year.

It's not a drop-in replacement for Unity, but nothing is.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#25

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #4

What I'd like to see is that this fiasco encourages studios to produce their own engines rather than using the pre/existing selection. I'd happily wait another 5-7 years for a new game on a new engine then have a new game in two years that feels identical to others. And then open-source it and let the creativity roam free.

Building a custom engine costs a lot of money and adds risk to a project. Games already have a very high probability of not breaking even and so publishers are going to be extremely reluctant to take on any additional risks.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#26

Post by jsnell »

stuckinhell wrote: post #19
doublerabbit wrote: post #4

What I'd like to see is that this fiasco encourages studios to produce their own engines rather than using the pre/existing selection. I'd happily wait another 5-7 years for a new game on a new engine then have a new game in two years that feels identical to others. And then open-source it and let the creativity roam free.

Square enix spent millions on their in house engines (luminous engine). They have a good report on how and why it wasn't a great investment (10 year delays on projects). They've switched to unreal for everything now.

I'm not having any luck finding this. Do you happen to have a link?

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#27

Post by pjc50 »

linuxftw wrote: post #15

I had a feeling some detail like this was missing from previous reports (most of which I did not read entirely). This is the right move. It represents an opportunity to dethrone google in the ad display market, at least for gaming.

There really shouldn't be a gaming ad market. There are no good ad-supported games, it's more corrosive to the gameplay than even gatcha.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#28

Post by pjc50 »

Pulcinella wrote: post #3

This really does seem like Unity is destroying their business for pennies. Mobile game display ads seem like a very, very low value business to be in and I would imagine rates are going down all the time. Unity may manage to wipe out AppLovin by burning down the rest of their business, but winning king-of-the-hill on top a pile of ashes does not seem to be a high value position. Edit: It's as if Unreal wants to be ki…

Unity want a cut of Genshin Impact and see everyone else as a rounding error.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#29

Post by linuxftw »

pjc50 wrote: post #27
linuxftw wrote: post #15

I had a feeling some detail like this was missing from previous reports (most of which I did not read entirely). This is the right move. It represents an opportunity to dethrone google in the ad display market, at least for gaming.

There really shouldn't be a gaming ad market. There are no good ad-supported games, it's more corrosive to the gameplay than even gatcha.

There are plenty of free to play games supported by ads that are fun to play. It's also a great funnel for converting a non-paying user into a paying user to disable the ads.

Re: Unity is offering a runtime fee waiver if you switch to LevelPlay

#30

Post by belval »

Pulcinella wrote: post #3

This really does seem like Unity is destroying their business for pennies. Mobile game display ads seem like a very, very low value business to be in and I would imagine rates are going down all the time. Unity may manage to wipe out AppLovin by burning down the rest of their business, but winning king-of-the-hill on top a pile of ashes does not seem to be a high value position. Edit: It's as if Unreal wants to be ki…

> Mobile game display ads seem like a very, very low value business to be in

Might be much less prestigious than selling games that aren't predatory, but Unity does in fact make a lot more money from selling ads in mobile games than licensing and by a very wide margin.

The sad truth is that for every "real gamer", there are 10+ regular mom and pop playing candy crush and buying boosts every other day.

> Create Solutions (Game engine) second quarter revenue of $193 million was up 17% year-over-year.

> Grow Solutions (Ads) revenue of $340 million was up 157% year-over-year

And an even better exerpt:

> This quarter we partnered with one of the leading dating apps in the world, Tinder, to power their video ad monetization. Expanding beyond games is part of our goal of providing the most comprehensive platform for the App Economy, adding value to customers.

Customers are not players here, they are the companies using Unity.

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