There is turmoil in the gaming world. Developers are not satisfied with the Unity platform. This large software company announced on Wednesday that it will use a different pricing method starting next year. Game studios can develop new games on the platform, they can use the technical tools there and so they don’t have to do everything themselves.

Currently, developers only pay for the subscription they get. For a Pro subscription, this is around $1,900 per year. From January 1, an additional amount will be added: they will have to pay every time the game is downloaded. This does not apply to all users; Only additional costs will be charged certain threshold.

With a Unity Pro subscription (which many developers use), you reach this threshold when your game has been downloaded 1 million times and has generated $1 million. From that point on, you’ll have to pay an additional 2 to 15 cents per install.

Used according to the unit itself 61 percent For all platform developers. For example, the popular games Pokemon Go, Genshin Impact, and corona-hype Among Us were created using the platform.

Following the criticism, Unity confirmed yesterday that not all platform users will pay per download. The company wrote in a blog post that 90 percent of developers will not be affected.

However, it’s bad news, according to the game’s developers. “There is a lot of turmoil within our company now,” says Matthijs van de Laar of developer Twirlbound, which has relied entirely on Unity for the past 10 years. Twirlbound games don’t often reach the point where they’ll pay extra, but their trust in Unity is still very damaged.

Thomas Huster of Total Mayhem Games also began to doubt the software’s platform. He added: “We are now forced to think about whether we want to deal with such a party that changes the rules of the game out of nowhere.” The platform is very important to the game maker. “All of our games run on Unity and everything we release is made with it. We were really shocked.”

Hoster says switching to another platform is not easy. “A lot of time and money is being spent on retraining and upskilling on this engine. It will take at least six months.”

The company had released a new game a few days ago. “It’s free for the first month, but after that it’s paid. The launch was a success, but now it seems that success can also have negative consequences. This is a big risk for a small studio.”

Dirk De Geus fears that this announcement of unity heralds a new development and that the amounts may increase in the long term. One game he developed for his company Paladin Studios has been downloaded nearly twenty million times.

“With Unity’s new arrangement, we may have to pay 4,000 euros per month,” says the game developer. “You have to realize that some games sell very little, but are installed millions of times. This is bad for developers.”

However, he realizes that something needs to be done on the platform. “The unit is making a lot of losses, which I find problematic. If the tools it uses don’t make a profit, it may not have a future.” Other platforms choose different payment methods.

For example, competitor Unreal charges 5 percent of game revenue, instead of the amount per install. This is better, De Geus thinks. “However, it’s less bad than most people think,” he says, putting the unit’s move into perspective. “Because of the threshold, it will only apply to a small group.”