Unreal vs Unity - Which Costs More Now?

Now that Unity have finalized the new "Unity Runtime Fee", the cost comparison between Unreal Engine and Unity game engine are completely different.
In this video we run down 5 different scenarios, to figure out which engine costs more. It may surprise you to find out which developers will be hardest hit by the Unity runtime price changes.

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About The Unity Price Change Saga(in order):
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[gamefromscratch]

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About The Unity Price Change Saga(in order):

[..]

Unity's problem is not a price problem now. Games take years to develop. Trust is essential. Firing top management would be a first step.

[itemboy]

Note that Unity can (and probably will) increase the prices once they see that they can apparently get away with their bs.

[learnMax]

Epic doesn't reduce the store costs from 12% down to 7% if you use the Unreal engine. It just waives the 5% revenue fee on top of that, so that their cut is "only" 12% total, not 17% (12% from store 5% from engine)

[nicehead]

In scenario 4 and 5, you are overestimating Unreal cost by 50K$ because of the first 1M$ revenue rule. Does not make much of a difference for scenario 5 and does not affect the conclusion but it is still a significant amount in the case of scenario 4.

[elhazthorn]

The fact Riccitiello is still there is a massive liability. So, Unity is more costly.

[fieryscorpion]

You missed something with Unity here.
The developers have the option of paying either 2.5 % of revenue OR the "initial engagement fee" whichever is lower.

[mauree]

If you’re anywhere near scenario 4 and 5 you’d be crazy not to negotiate a custom license.

[rpamungkas]

Unreal cost more money
while Unity cost more trust.

[jeffmccloud]

Most YouTubers are missing the fact that Unity's revenue requirement (200k or 1m) is not lifetime earnings. It's only over the previous 12 months. That makes a huge difference (i.e. it's not easy or even likely to meet the requirement)

[zinetx]

For scenario #5, almost no AAA company would use the normal licensing fee. They negotiate a 5 million license fee for a single project which is the enterprise license which was 5 million per project in 2020 (average)

[kankles]

Just wanted to say I really appreciate your YT/discord/website content. You're an essential part of my game dev journey that I would recommend to anyone. Because of your content I don't have to check Humble Bundle and asset stores for deals daily and I'm always up to speed on game dev current events. Thank you sir

[zirconiumdiamond]

The thresholds need to be subtracted before plugging them into the price calculator. Scenario 3 is $25K too high because the calculator is showing the royalty being paid on the full $1.5M instead of only $500K. In scenario 4, no royalty would apply at all, because 1M units were sold, and the threshold is 1M units.

Incidentally, I think developers should consider a "scenario 1.5" most significant: revenue between $200K and $1M. For that entire range, Unity Pro seat fee applies, while Unreal is completely free. In addition, that $200K threshold is based on total studio revenue, so even if no individual game exceeds $200K, but you either release two games within 12 months or you have a back catalog that pushes you over $200K, then Pro is still required.

Other than the weird corner case, like scenario 3, where the revenue per initial engagement is small and the revenue per developer is small (I'm assuming in that scenario that the studio must be outside the US/Western Europe or else the project would have lost a ton of money), Unity will be cheaper than Unreal once you start owning Unreal money. Unfortunately, the most common case is scenario 1, followed by scenario 1.5. It is only a tiny portion of games where Unity is cheaper, because it is only for a tiny portion of games where Unreal costs anything at all.

[tracy]

I think the runtime fee has been rolled out lower just to get us used to it. It will go up in a few years. If you're starting a new title, you have to consider what Unity just did and that the runtime fee is still in there in one form or another. It may be a better idea just to go with a different game engine company that you can trust. As long as they have a runtime fee in any of their plans, it reveals their character and future plans.

[theohallenius]

Unity - Prancing model changes almost every year, can make you broke and shutter your trust.
Unreal - 5% fee hasn't changed in a decade and EULA can be trusted. + Source available.

[obsoleteobsession]

For me, it's more about Unity leadership demonstrating that they will not hesitate to bastardize countless studios, devs, and all of game development as an art form the moment they think they can get away with it. At this point, Unity could pay me to use them and I wouldn't. They will eat the industry alive the second no one is watching.

Really informative video - thanks for digging through all this!

[AdamKiraly_d]

A really important point imo is that unity Dev will be more front loaded in terms of cost. Unreal not having a fee for the editor itself can be a massive thing when a delay slips in

[zeon]

Well, another thing to consider is that with Unity you begin paying before your game gets released. If you've got a tight budget (most small studios?) or you are located in a country with a lower purchasing power parity (Asia, south America, etc) that can also be really detrimental

[vendolis]

There is another scenario that you forgot ... unity's fee is based on the last 12 month. Unreal is life time revenue. So if you ear about 800k$ in the first year and 700k$ in the second year. you owe 25k$ to Unreal. But you only pay the Pro license you are keeping up for maintenance of the game. Even when you have a more normal start where you earn a lot in the first year and then drastically reduce the income after you will stop paying fees after you fall below the 1mil in 12 month. It gives you more on the long tail of the game. The question is if you need to keep the Pro license when youa re under 200k income in 12 month. and how many Pro licenses you need to keep up for maintenance.

[dave-]

Unreal Engine just makes it easier, and that’s important. Unity are making it harder than it should be.