For a bit of context:
I am not a developer, programmer or have any Real knowledge about Game Engines. I do follow a lot of news related to this stuff and I have one concern/question, someone might know the answer to in regards to Unity buying IronSource in 2022. I've played a game called Escape from Tarkov that's been developed on Unity since its Alpha in 2016, which is where most of my interest in Unity comes from.
A lot of developers were upset over this when it was announced, due to IronSource's creation of "InstallCore" [2011] that was used as a Cross-platform installer and advertisement platform.
This program was viewed as a PuP (Potentially Unwanted Program) from Sophos & Microsoft Essentials [2014], Malwarebytes labled it as a Bundler [2015]. The software was discontinued in 2020
[1]
When you read about IronSource - "ironSource Ltd. is an Israeli software company that focuses on developing technologies for app monetization and distribution, with its core products focused on the app economy"
[2]
So, if their focus is App Monetization, then I have a feeling that this is one of their ideas, even though Unity is the Parent company.
[Question/Concern] If the company was known for producing software that acts like malware, and it only recently stopped using it, then what is stopping them from utilizing their 'skills' to create a program that simply downloads and installs their software to 'generate income' for them.
After reading m4a4's responses, it seems that they may only be charging for the "First install" I do work on computers, but I have a hard time understanding how they are going to track first time installs. This seems like something that could either be easily manipulated or the skewed numbers that the Developer may not even have access to.
Interested to see others opinions on this.
[1] & [2] Taken from Wikipedia