Games may be affected by controversial Unity policy

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Unity sparked a wave of backlash from game developers on social media yesterday following its announcement that it would begin charging for downloads of games created with the Unity engine. Although Unity has adjusted some aspects of the Unity runtime fee, this controversial policy is still scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024. This has many developers wondering about the future of games, including titles released and in development that use the Unity game engine.

So how can all of the above affect players? Some developers are seriously considering removing their games from online stores when Unity begins implementing tariffs next year, meaning some titles created in Unity may disappear temporarily or permanently. And the games that may be affected are all very familiar to many players.

Among us
Developer Innersloth has been very outspoken about its views on Unity fees. Innersloth programmer Forest Willard confirmed that the developers are thinking about “shutting down Among Us for a while” while they see what happens next.

Lamb Worship
Developer Cult of the Lamb decided to remove the game on January 1 of next year.

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The games are published by Devolver Digital.
Publisher Devolver Digital, which published games like Hotline Miami, The Talos Principal, Loop Hero and Fall Guy (before being acquired by Epic) and upcoming games like The Plucky Squire, Pepper Grinder, etc.

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Another crab’s treasure
Aggro Crab, developer of Another Crab’s Treasure, writes: “Guess who has a highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That’s right, it’s us and a bunch of other developers. That means Another Crab’s Treasure will be installable for free for 25 million Game Pass subscribers… This decision puts us and many other studios in a position where we may not be able to use Unity for my future games.”

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Kill the Spire sequel
Mega Crit, the studio behind the hugely popular Slay the Spire, is developing a new game. The studio’s unannounced project is currently being developed using Unity, but Mega Crit is now seriously considering switching to a new engine.

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Other major games that may be affected are:​

• Genshin Impact

• Honkai Star Lane

• Hollow Knight: Silk Song

• Marvel Snap

• Pokémon Shining Diamond and Shining Pearl

• Pokémon GO

• autumn boys

• cup head

• Outer Wilds

• tunic