This week we talk about Unity, Unreal, and Godot. We also discuss fee structures, user revolts, and indie game-makers. Recommended Book: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner Show Notes * https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/video-games/worldwide * https://www.billboard.com/pro/ifpi-global-report-2023-music-business-revenue-market-share/ * https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/07/video-game-industry-not-recession-proof-sales-set-to-fall-in-2022.html * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry * https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/22/are-video-games-recession-proof-sort-experts-say/ * https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/unity-s-pricing-changes-are-trying-to-solve-too-many-problems-at-once * https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/unity-apologizes-to-devs-reveals-updated-runtime-fee-policy * https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/22/23882768/unity-new-pricing-model-update * https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/15/23875396/unity-mobile-developers-ad-monetization-tos-changes * https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/12/23870547/unit-price-change-game-development * https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/22/are-video-games-recession-proof-sort-experts-say/ * https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022216/how-microtransactions-are-evolving-economics-gaming.asp * https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/902/ * https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/053115/how-video-game-industry-changing.asp * https://finmodelslab.com/blogs/operating-costs/video-game-company-operating-costs * https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-the-rising-costs-of-games-affect-the-industry/ * https://codeswholesale.com/blog/5-ways-to-make-money-in-the-gaming-industry/ * https://gamemaker.io/en/blog/cost-of-making-a-game * https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/video-game-cost/ * https://www.reuters.com/technology/video-gaming-revenue-grow-26-2023-console-sales-strength-report-2023-08-08/ * https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/video-games/worldwide Transcript Depending on how inclusive you are with your measurements and the specific numbers you're tallying, the global video game market is expected to pull in somewhere between $187.7 and $334 billion in revenue in 2023. That's somewhere between 2.6% and 13.4% above 2022 numbers—and again, those figures are pretty far apart because different entities keeping tabs on this industry measure different things, some only looking at direct sales of video games and in-game items, while others look at connected sub-industries, like e-gaming events and service jobs that do customer support for game companies. Whichever end of that spectrum you look at, though, the global video game industry is a behemoth that's growing every year, and its income surpassed that of the music and film industries, combined, years ago, the global film industry expected to bring in around $92.5 billion in 2023, while the global music industry pulls a paltry $26.2 billion. The video game market is continuing to grow at a fairly stellar pace, compared to other entertainment categories, as well. And while it was shown not to be entirely recession proof, as had been claimed since the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, when it remained one of the few industries still growing steadily, that growth balking a bit in 2022, when the industry contracted by 1.2%, it grew substantially at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has largely maintained that growth since, which has allowed entities operating in this space to claim more and more entertainment-related marketshare, which in turn has shifted the center of gravity in the media world toward video games and away from other leisure options, including things like travel, vacations, and other things you wouldn't typically think of as being competitors of the video game market. Since video games really took off, hitting the mainstream in the 1980s, and becoming a big deal in the 1990s with the emergence of user-friendly consoles and 3D grap