Game devs announce plans to drop Unity, urge players to protest new per-install fees

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.

It was only a matter of time before Unity offered something in the way of a concession for the controversial install fee it recently unveiled to the horror of game developers. And while the company has offered an unambiguous apology for the way it initially planned to implement the runtime fee, it isn't backpedaling entirely.

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.

The Xbox Microsoft merger saga continues with a new set of leaks allegedly revealing the company's strategies for the future. In addition to unveiling plans for upcoming game titles and remasters, the leaks included information on refreshes of the Xbox current generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and S, and alleged intentions to acquire more gaming companies, including Nintendo. While not all the information revealed was up-to-date, it potentially gives the public a glimpse into Xbox and Microsoft's plans for the future.

A new trailer for the highly-anticipated Percy Jackson series is everything that fans have been waiting for.

After a week of intense criticism and backlash, Unity has apologised for the «confusion and angst» caused by the announcement of its unpopular Runtime fee policy. In a post to social media, the company has promised to make changes following the strong reaction from the development community.

Unity Technologies, developer of the cross-platform game engine Unity, today announced a policy that will sting developers with a fee based on truly wild things like how many times a game has been installed. This one's likely to develop quickly, but we'll catch you up on the story so far.

A week after Unity announced dramatic changes to its Unity Engine business model — drawing immediate and widespread condemnation from the development community — the company has reportedly told staff it'll be making adjustments to the controversial new pricing plan.

Unity executives have reportedly told staff how the company intends to backtrack on some elements of its controversial install fee policy.

According to documents filed as part of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case filed in the agency’s attempt to stop the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal, it looks like the next Elder Scrolls game is not expected until 2026 at least, and skipping PlayStation.

Messaging from Microsoft regarding whether or not The Elder Scrolls 6 will be skipping a PlayStation release (whenever it launches, that is) has been mixed at best, though given the fact that two major Bethesda releases in Redfall and Starfield have launches as Xbox console exclusives, many have assumed that the fantasy RPG will follow suit. More evidence has now emerged to support that notion.

Unity says it will be “making changes” to its controversial install fee plans, following huge backlash from game developers.