I've installed Deus Ex probably 30+ times since I first played it at launch. Hell, sometimes I'll install it, decide not to play it, uninstall it, then reinstall it a week later. I've reinstalled it like three times this month because I can't decide whether I feel like replaying it or not. That would basically mean over 10% of the game's original full price going towards Unity with ongoing costs in perpetuity. That's without distribution (whether brick and mortar or Steam) and other costs, and without the developer further monetizing the game off of me.
Anybody who believes anything they say now is a fool. Every developer would have to go out of their way to track the same thing Unity is tracking to ensure that Unity isn't literally lying to them about how many installs and how much is owed. Again, in perpetuity. This is again additional cost and effort for every single developer on top of all other costs.
Quite simply, it's a completely unbounded cost for an indefinite amount of time.
> This is again additional cost and effort for every single developer on top of all other costs.
Presumably pretty much all developers already do that (F2P games are filled to the brim with analytics) and paid game developers can use the number of purchases as a proxy (and presumably also end up paying for every install of a pirated version..).
I still don't quite understand how is this legal in Europe for instance? Mandatory telemetry which neither the developer or end use can disable and which phones private user data to a third party (outside the EU presumably) which is not necessary for the product to function must surely be illegal?
If so Unity's management can't be that stupid to now know this?
That's absurd.