Just days before launch, Unity fee forces Sims-like house sim to cut free-to-play plans and start charging $20

gamesradar.com:

The developer of an upcoming Sims-like has had to scrap its free-to-play release plans and instead charge players due to Unity's recently announced fee changes.

Hometopia, a co-op home renovation sim that takes the best part of The Sims 4 and turns it into its own game, will no longer be free-to-play when it releases at the end of this month. On September 18, developer Hometopia Inc. released a statement on Twitter telling fans about how Unity's changes - which could charge developers a fee each time someone installs their game - have affected the game's release. 

Originally, the building sim was supposed to be released on PC on September 27 via Early Access and wouldn't cost players a thing unless they wanted to upgrade the game by purchasing DLC. Now players will have to pay $19.99 to play Hometopia.

"Last week, Unity unexpectedly changed their pricing model to a pay-per-install basis, essentially making all but the biggest free-to-play games unsustainable," a statement reads on the game's Twitter account. "This announcement completely blindsided us and all other indie developers using Unity. With Hometopia's Early Access launch planned for next week, the timing is particularly difficult, but we don't want to delay our planned September 27th release." 

"We had planned for Hometopia to be a free-to-play game with optional DLCs that players could choose to purchase to upgrade their experience," the statement continues, "Unity's new pricing model means we have to charge for the game, and we deeply regret that. This has been an impossibly difficult decision for us." 

An important announcement from the Hometopia Dev Team: pic.twitter.com/CVYk7BGQ31September 18, 2023

There is a silver lining to this situation though.