The decisions that made it
The Self-Inflicted Wound · Business Model
Unity Tried to Charge a Toll on Roads It Already Sold. It Never Collected a Cent.
In September 2023 Unity announced a fee of up to $0.20 per game install — on games already shipped under older terms. A year later it cancelled the fee entirely, having collected nothing. The damage was never financial. It was trust.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Unity Won the Game Count and Lost the Money. That's Not a Duopoly.
Everyone calls Unity and Unreal a balanced duopoly. By Steam game-release count Unity still leads 51% to 28% — but in 2024 Unreal passed it on revenue, 31% to 26%, for the first time since 2018. One engine has the games; the other has the dollars.
8 min
The Fall · Decision Forks
Unity Turned Down a 48% Premium to Buy a Falling Knife. On Purpose.
In August 2022 AppLovin offered to buy Unity at a ~48% premium. Unity's board said no — to keep buying ironSource, an ad business that had already fallen from ~$11B to ~$2.3B. The deal wasn't platform strategy. It was capital allocation at the worst possible moment.
8 min