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.
Unity apologizes to devs, reveals updated Runtime Fee policy
22.09.2023 - 20:17 / gamedeveloper.com / Unity Runtime / Marc Whitten / Unity Create / Runtime Fee
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's much-derided Runtime Fee is receiving a massive rework almost two weeks after its disastrous debut. In an open letter posted on the Unity blog, the company formally apologized for the chaos sowed since the announcement and revealed massive changes to the policy in response to a week of negative feedback from the game development community.
The Unity Runtime Fee will no longer apply to games built on Unity Personal. Developers on said plan will also be able to now earn up to $200,000 in revenue according to the terms of service. Those developers will also no longer be required to use the "Made with Unity" splash screen.
For developers on the Pro and Enterprise plans, the Runtime Fee will only take effect beginning with the next LTS version of Unity arriving in 2024. Games made on the current or prior versions of Unity will not be included, unless they are upgraded to the next version of Unity.
"We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using," the company wrote in its announcement.
Games subject to the Runtime Fee will have the option to either be subject to a 2.5 percent revenue share or a calculated fee based on "the number of new people engaging with your game each month." Unity says revenue and "new people" (phrased elsewhere as "initial engagements") can both be reported by developers, who will "always be billed for the lesser amount."
No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee.
This is a massive shift from the previous plan, which promised to charge developers anywhere from $.001 to $.20 each time their game was installed. Those rates would vary based on which Unity plan a developer subscribed to and how many installs over a certain threshold their game achieved, and would be charged for all games made in Unity, even ones made on prior versions of the terms of service (though the company would only start counting installations after January 1, 2024).
In a conversation with Game Developer last week, Unity Create president Marc Whitten said that this fee was being charged to help invest in the engine, particularly the Unity Runtime executable. "We want to make more money so that we can continue to invest in the engine," he said at the time.
Now Unity is striking a far more conciliatory tone. "We want to continue to build the best engine for creators," Whitten wrote in the latest announcement. "We truly love this industry and you are the reason why."
Though Unity said the fee
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