"I'm f**ked!" - Mizkif shocked after discovering how Unity's controversial pricing update would affect his game, Unrooted

On September 14, 2023, Twitch star Matthew "Mizkif" watched YouTuber "Ludwig" Ahgren's recently uploaded Mogul Mail video, in which he discussed the controversy surrounding Unity Engine. For context, on September 13, 2023, Unity announced that game developers and studios would be required to pay a fee each time a user installs their game or revenue is generated.

This feature was called the "Runtime Fee," and it would require game developers to pay $0.2 per unique install after the game meets the following criteria:

• $200,000 in profit over the past 12 months
• 200,000 total installs on user hardware

In the video titled, This Company is Scamming Game Devs, Ludwig mentioned a Twitter meme about game piracy. After seeing this, Mizkif burst out laughing, claiming that his community would not pirate his upcoming game, Unrooted. For those unaware, Unrooted is a 2D platformer title that the streamer announced back in July 2021.

Mizkif said:

"You wouldn't do this. You guys would not do this to someone that has made a game with their community for over three years and they're just about to publish it with Unity. You wouldn't do this, right? This is not what's going to happen to my game."

Ludwig then brought up a Unity Q&A in which they stated that developers would have to pay for "all future reinstalls" of games. Mizkif was shocked after hearing this and exclaimed:

"Yes? Oh, my god! I'm f**ked! I'm f**ked, dude! I have a game that's coming after three years. I'm actually f**ked! On Unity! And, I have trolls. There's no way! There's going to be some kind of a caveat in the next three minutes. There's no way the answer is yes."

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"This is really big for every game" - Mizkif explains how Unity's controversial pricing update would affect OTK's publishing company, Mad Mushroom

Later in the livestream, Mizkif claimed that Unity's pricing update was "really big" for indie game studios. He explained how it would affect One True King's (OTK) game-publishing initiative, Mad Mushroom, saying:

"Yeah, this is really bad. This is not really bad, but this is really big for every game. This is big for Mad Mushroom. I mean, like, if we have games in the pipeline that we're going to release and those games that run on this, that affects everything. I mean, that's a crazy amount of money that is going to be lost in Unity."

The Twitch streamer expressed concern about the situation because Unrooted was set to launch "soon":

"This affects everybody, but I'm more scared for Unrooted because we are literally going to release this game soon. And, the fact that we are going to release it on Unity very soon and... I just don't understand it. Can I get a f**king break, bro? Please! I just want to feel good about one of my investments."

Timestamp: 02:52:20

Mizkif described how some of his investments "turned to bulls**t," citing his $200,000 Audi R8 as an example:

"Let one of my investments give me a little, you know, a little joy in life. Every time I touch something, it turns to—my R8, my pool, my (vintage game) boxes, the game—everything turns to bulls**t! I cannot stand it! It's so annoying!"

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Fans react to Mizkif's clip

Mizkif's reaction to Unity's contentious pricing update was among the top posts on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Here's what netizens had to say about it:

Comment byu/Kurotabi from discussion inLivestreamFail

Comment byu/Kurotabi from discussion inLivestreamFail

Comment byu/Kurotabi from discussion inLivestreamFail

Comment byu/Kurotabi from discussion inLivestreamFail

Comment byu/Kurotabi from discussion inLivestreamFail

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Following the massive public backlash, Unity issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on September 14, 2023. The company claimed that the price increase was "very targeted" and that it would not affect "more than 90%" of its users.

Furthermore, Unity confirmed that beginning January 1, 2024, game developers will only be required to pay the runtime fee on new installs, which will not be perpetual.