On Reddit, we noticed that over the past year and a half, Unity has greatly changed the approach to working with the engine license. A user under the nickname Darkfrost wrote a post in which he talked about noticeable changes.
In short:
In June 2022, Unity deleted its repository on GitHub without warning, which tracked changes to the engine license;
On April 3, 2023, Unity updated the Terms of Use of the engine (Terms of service, TOS) to the current version. The company removed a clause from the license that allowed developers to use previous TOS on versions of the engine released during the last calendar year;
On September 12, Unity changed its monetization. In particular, she announced that from next year developers will have to pay an additional fee, even if their projects came out on previous versions of the engine.
According to Darkfrost, Unity’s actions have undermined the company’s credibility. Developers can no longer be sure that she will not decide to increase fees again or add other unprofitable innovations without the opportunity to opt out.