Several developers have pointed out logistical problems with the charge. Will developers be charged each time a player re-installs the game on a new piece of hardware? And how will this affect developers whose game ends up on a subscriptions service such as Xbox Game Pass or charity games collection such as Humble Bundle, where they will suddenly be liable for many thousands of downloads? As veteran game developer and consultant Rami Ismail put it on X, “If you’re a Unity developing studio, good luck if you ever piss off your userbase. Instead of tanking your Metacritic with a mass review campaign they can now straight-up tank you financially by organising a mass install campaign.”
For game developers, the ramifications of an ongoing per-install charge are profound and many have taken to social media to ask for more details on how the company will track downloads and protect studios whose games end up in bundles or on subscription services or adopt new business models such as free-to-play later in their lifecycle. Commenting on X, Ismail stated, “There is no way Unity talked to a single developer before launching this.”