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.
20.09.2023 - 10:11 / techradar.com / Runtime Fee
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”.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Re-Logic wrote: «The team at Re-Logic has been watching the recent events surrounding Unity with both interest and sadness. The loss of a formerly leading and user-friendly game engine to the darker forces that negatively impact so much of the gaming industry has left us dismayed, to put it mildly.»
The studio explained that while it doesn’t use Unity outside of some elements on mobile and console platforms, it feels that it «cannot sit idly by as these predatory moves are made against studios everywhere».
«We unequivocally condemn and reject the recent TOS/fee changes proposed by Unity and the underhanded way they were rolled out,» Re-Logic stated. «The flippant manner with which years of trust cultivated by Unity were cast aside for yet another way to squeeze publishers, studios, and gamers is the saddest part. That this wholly unnecessary move pushes things into the tragedy category — a cautionary tale the industry will not soon forget.»
pic.twitter.com/ZqzGMTui0fSeptember 19, 2023
Continuing, the studio confirmed that it is donating $100,000 to both FNA and Godot, and will continue to sponsor them with monthly donations of $1,000. Explaining the decision, it wrote: «All we ask in return is that they remain good people and keep doing all that they can to make these engines powerful and approachable for developers everywhere.»
In case you missed it, the Unity Runtime Fee is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2024 — it will charge developers a monthly fee based on the number of installs their games have, assuming that they pass a specified threshold. For developers using Unity Personal or Unity Plus, for example, the threshold (per game) is 200,000 lifetime installs and a total of $200,000 in revenue.
Unity’s announcement has caused an enormous amount of backlash, with hundreds of developers joining a protest against the changes. While Unity recently apologized for the “confusion and angst”, it’s unclear if it plans to readjust or reverse the policy. In Re-Logic’s statement, however, the studio wrote that even if Unity decided to do a U-turn, “the destruction of trust is not so easily repaired”.
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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."
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.
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.
Unity might be facing the ire that comes with a near-universal condemnation of a new policy change, but at least things are looking up for two open-source game engines.
Developers received a nasty surprise when Unity announced that those who use its game engine will be subject to a runtime fee, beginning next year. This runtime fee will be charged monthly on a per-installation basis.
Terraria developer Re-Logic has responded to Unity's install-fee debacle by condemning the move and donating $100,000 to both Godot and FNA.