[gambiting]

They will most likely use hardware ID to track installs. So if you reinstall the game on the same machine it won't count, if you install it on a different one it will. Unless they let you bind it to some internal ID and track it that way.

[duped]

Unless you get crafty, machine identifiers aren't stable on Windows and will change with updates. So if you update windows and reinstall an app, a lot of naive software will detect that as a fresh install on a fresh machine.

That would really suck for a small Unity dev to get screwed by a Windows update that forces reinstall of their users' game libraries - which isn't that uncommon.

[nullifidian]

>if you install it on a different one it will.

Making the developer pay for user's hardware upgrades is still insane.

[gambiting]

On PC the only upgrade that would generate a new hardware ID would be a complete mobo replacement and that's somewhat rare. Upgrading your CPU/GPU/RAM does not regenerate the hardware ID.

[nullifidian]

>Upgrading your CPU

On the recent Intel platforms upgrading your CPU required upgrading your mobo too, and there are many people who upgrade almost every generation, i.e. 1-2 years. Burdening game developers with this is unjust. The engine fee should be tied to the game's purchase, or game related purchases(DLC, other paid content).

AMD also promised (iirc) that the AM5 will only be good for 2 generations.

[gambiting]

I'm aware. Yet I am prepared to wager that the number of people who upgrade their own mobo(instead of buying a whole new pc/laptop) is absolutely insignificant on the scale of the market.

[anonymousab]

> They will most likely use hardware ID to track installs. So if you reinstall the game on the same machine it won't count

Pretty trivial for a malicious user to spoof, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's something that calculates a new hardware id for trivial changes as we see so often with "don't install this on more than 1 computer" DRM implementations.

[optionalsquid]

That makes me wonder: How would they count legitimate vs pirate installs? Would the developer be on the hook for both?

[hightrix]

There was some clarification on twitter, I couldn't find the direct link to the tweet without a login.

https://forum.unity.com/attachments/upload_2023-9-13_1-49-36...

[yalok]

Accessing those identifiers violates App Store and Play Store rules for some categories of apps (kids app eg)

[gambiting]

I was talking about PC specifically. Android and IOS don't have that problem because you'd use the app store/play store token to verify installation.