@KAutumnrain That 2.5% isn't directly comparable though, right? I mean, it's not like they're saying "yeah, nm all that stuff we said about runtime fees, we're just going to take a flat 2.5% now", is it?

Which I think is part of the problem - they seem wedded tyo an idea which most of the community seems against, rather than going with an easily understood % approach which would undercut their competitors

@KAutumnrain Actually, I'm looking at their licensing page: https://www.cryengine.com/support/view/licensing and it sounds like they have a flat 5% for $5k+. IIRC the fee is in line with Unreal, though I think Unreal's baseline is $1m?

@66ALW99

I think that's the main thing-- that financial baseline where the royalties either scale or begin which was the crux of the Unity suffering to begin with. That 5% is huge if you're a solo dev or a fairly small team.

@KAutumnrain I dunno, I'm not sure I agree. Though I'm no expert (I started it as a learning thing, basically to learn C# within a medium I enjoy).

But from what I've seen, the main issue hasn't really been the royalty rate or baseline, its been what's Unity enthusiasts seem to be overwhelmingly hobbyists and enthusiasts who aren't making games for profit.

(not to diminsh the importance of those who are!)

@66ALW99

We're in agreement; I was definitely applying it to smaller devs doing monetary releases because that's more in the realm that I'm familiar with and exposed to, but the general premise ends up being that anyone who'd want to start developing on Unity in this way gets hit pretty hard.

Ultimately, the damage has been done; interesting to see how it develops further.

@KAutumnrain Yeah, agreed, I think Unity has done major damage to their brand. There's been a fair bit of distrust for a while, but this latest stuff is providing a lot of fuel for that feeling. I don't think the CEO helps, a) because of his history and b) his reticence to come forward and address the recent stuff in a way that seems genuine to the users.

It's a whole-ass mess 😕

@66ALW99

Frankly I'm not too sure. I'm too unfamiliar with Cryengine's licensing model to give a reasonable answer.

The site mentions 5% on shipment then the first 5k US is royalty-free? But it means practically nothing unless you know (generally) how many units you'll be moving.