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.
22.09.2023 - 18:25 / gamesindustry.biz / Marc Whitten / Unity Create / Runtime Fee
Unity has unveiled its planned changes to the controversial Runtime Fee policy that would charge developers fees on a per-install basis.
Unity Create president Marc Whitten detailed the changes in a blog post, starting with the removal of the Runtime Fee for any games built on a Unity Personal license.
Additionally, the company is changing some of the Unity Personal terms. Previously Personal accounts were only for developers who had less than $100,000 in revenue or funds raised in the previous year, but that's being upped to $200,000.
Also, Unity Personal developers will no longer need to feature the Made With Unity splash screen on their work.
Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise developers are being given the option of avoiding the Runtime Fee in favor of a 2.5% revenue share for the company, based on a developer's self-reported revenues.
Unity says if a developer takes that option and the revenue share works out to more than what the Runtime Fee would have been (based on the developer's self-reported new users), it will bill the lesser amount.
In another change to the plan, the Runtime Fee will no longer be retroactive; it will only apply to developers who ship their games using versions of Unity that ship in 2024 or later, so previously released titles and games that ship with the current version of the engine or earlier versions will be exempt.
"We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version," Whitten said.
Whitten also said he was sorry, and that Unity should have spoken with more developers and incorporated more feedback before announcing the Runtime Fee initially.
"Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can continue to support you today and tomorrow, and keep deeply investing in our game engine," he said.
"You are what makes Unity great, and we know we need to listen, and work hard to earn your trust. We have heard your concerns, and we are making changes in the policy we announced to address them."
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.
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.
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.
More companies and developers have joined a protest against Unity by switching off ads and monetisation.