EGDF: UNITY’S INSTALL FEES ARE A SIGN OF LOOMING GAME ENGINE MARKET FAILURE
www.egdf.eu
EGDF: UNITY’S INSTALL FEES ARE A SIGN OF LOOMING GAME ENGINE MARKET FAILURE  In Brussels, 14.9.2023 – Step by step, video game engines are becoming key gatekeepers of European cultural and cre…

Context: EGDF is the European Games Developer Federation. The article suggests that Unity’s actions create an anti-competitive environment and that the EU should step in.

Unity’s install fees demonstrate why the EU needs a new regulatory framework for unfair, non-negotiable B2B contract terms. Contract terms Unity has with game developers are non-negotiable. With the new non-negotiable install fee, European game developers have to either withdraw their games from markets, increase consumer prices or renegotiate their contracts with third parties. For example, if a game memory institution makes games available for download on their website, a game developer studio must now ask for a fee for it or ban making European digital cultural heritage available to European citizens. The three-month time frame Unity is providing for all this is not enough.

  • simple@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I think the article makes a good case. According to them, 63% of games are made in Unity and many studios are built to be entirely dependent on it, especially mobile ones. Unity knows that switching to another engine is a huge task a huge chunk of devs won’t be able to afford or have the time to, so if Unity decides to kill companies using it the market could crash, at least temporarily.