Last week, Unity rolled out a new look version of its controversial Runtime Fee in the wake of a seismic backlash from developers who felt the original policy represented an egregious act of betrayal for a myriad of reasons.
25.09.2023 - 09:49 / techradar.com / Runtime Fee
On Friday (September 22), game engine Unity announced that it was making changes to its controversial upcoming Runtime Fee, and developers have been sharing their thoughts on the amended policy.
The original policy, which was announced on September 12, stated that all developers whose games hit certain thresholds (based on their lifetime installs and revenue) would be subject to a monthly fee calculated using the number of additional installs they’d accumulated. However, the revised version of the policy has changed things so that Unity Personal and Unity Plus users will be totally exempt from the fee.
Additionally, the Runtime Fee will only apply to games created using the next Long Term Support (LTS) service releasing in 2024, meaning that games that have already been released will be unaffected by these changes unless they’re upgraded (the same goes for projects currently in the works, too). The fee itself can be paid via a 2.5% revenue share or a “calculated amount based on unique initial engagements”, and users will stay on the terms outlined on the version of Unity they’re currently using, for as long as they continue using it.
Some developers have reacted positively to these changes: “The new fees seem reasonable and well thought out, at least from my perspective,” Stellar Conquest developer Shaun Tonstad tweeted. “Of course, I can’t speak for others who might have different licensing expectations. Nice pivot, Unity. Now you’ll need to address [Terms of Service] changes to rebuild that trust.”
‘Trust’ has been a recurring theme in many developers’ responses: “This has the important element I wanted, which is that Gloomwood won’t be affected by the new fees as it’s on a previous Unity version. However, nothing they could have written would repair the damage to my trust,” Gloomwood developer Dillon Rogers wrote.
“[From] what I read, the new policy seems more reasonable. No retroactivity, and other details I encourage you to read. However, trust is broken. It will be a long-term operation to earn it again. Proud of the dev community, everyone, also people inside Unity, [who] voiced their concerns!” Devteam Life responded.
The Unity Runtime Fee is set to come into effect next year.
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Last week, Unity rolled out a new look version of its controversial Runtime Fee in the wake of a seismic backlash from developers who felt the original policy represented an egregious act of betrayal for a myriad of reasons.
A Unity representative claims the company pulled its terms of service (ToS) from Github because "views were so low."
Unity have announced that they're making changes to their "runtime fee" in response to overwhelming negative feedback. The key changes are that the fees no longer apply to developers using Unity Personal, and will only apply to developers using Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise who upgrade the next version of Unity which ships in 2024.
Next Up: Read Game Developer's interview with Unity Create President Marc Whitten , discussing the road to the changes below and what Unity has learned from the backlash surrounding the original Runtime Fee policy.
Unity has done a 180 on a controversial new pricing scheme that users of its cross-platform game engine almost unanimously disparaged. A new pricing policy is still incoming, but it’s far less fraught for independent developers, many of whom threatened to leave the engine and platform behind rather than pay.
In an open letter to its community, Unity has revealed its reworked free structure and controversial runtime fee changes. Under the new structure, the Unity Personal edition will remain free and incur no runtime fee. The new cap before the fee starts has been increased from $100,000 to $200,000, and no game with under $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee. Interestingly, the new Runtime Fee will only apply to the next version of Unity that is shipping in 2024. Already shipped and current in-development projects will not be subject to the fee unless they upgrade to the 2024 version of Unity. In the post, Marc Whitten, leader of the Unity Create team apologized for what has transpired in recent weeks.
Unity has unveiled its planned changes to the controversial Runtime Fee policy that would charge developers fees on a per-install basis.
The president of Unity Create, Marc Whitten, has published an open letter responding to the backlash over the recent Unity Runtime Fee announcement, and has outlined a number of changes that are going to be made to the policy before it’s enforced in 2024.
Re-Logic, the indie game developer and publisher behind the 2D sandbox title Terraria, has condemned the newly announced Unity Runtime Fee, and has announced that it is donating a substantial sum of money to two different open-source game engines, to help keep them “powerful and approachable for developers everywhere”.
Controversy at Unity seems to be the story that never ends at the moment. Though today it appears that the owners of the popular game engine may be about to concede, at least a little, on the Unity Runtime Fee announcement that set the developer world on fire last week.
More than 500 developers have joined the protest against Unity's Runtime Fee policy by switching off monetization.
Ever since Unity first announced its plans for a new runtime install fee, it’s been trying to put flex tape over it with clarifications and responses. Now, it looks like there may be some backpedaling on the horizon. To some extent, at least.