Unit Announced significant price concessions from new game developers on Friday. After rolling out widely despised changes 10 days ago, including a setup fee that many developers said could disrupt their entire business, the company today launched a rollback that softens some of the sharper aspects of the policy.
Perhaps most notably, Unity Personal plan users will no longer be subject to the Unity Runtime fee. This widely disdained charge would have forced smaller developers to pay each time their game was installed (including reinstalls by the same user). Under the revised policy, Unity Personal users can earn up to $200,000 without changing plans, up from $100,000 previously. Additionally, the company is waiving the requirement to include the “Made with Unity” splash screen.
Meanwhile, developers on the Unity Pro and Enterprise plans won’t have to worry about the Unity Runtime fee until they upgrade to the next LTS (long-term support) version of the engine shipping in 2024. Any current games or projects on development based on Unity versions prior to that will not be charged the fee. It also only applies to those who upgrade to the next version. “We’ll make sure you can comply with the terms applicable to the version of the Unity editor you’re using, as long as you continue using that version,” Unity Create lead Marc Whitten wrote today.
Did you know? At first glance, I think this works. Is it effectively a 2.5% income share for those making over $1 million a year? No retroactivity left, LTS stability, no black box data, okay? I think that works for all use cases.
https://t.co/cW32fODedn-Rami Ismail (Rami) (@tha_rami) September 22, 2023
Developers with Unity Pro or Enterprise plans who qualify for the Unity Runtime rate will pay a 2.5% cut of their revenue or a “calculated amount based on the number of new people who interact with their game each month.” TO rate summary web page It clarifies these as “upfront commitments,” which appears to override the previous method that would have charged developers twice if the same person uninstalled and reinstalled their game (or downloaded it to a new device). Additionally, Unity clarified that developers will self-report the numbers that determine the fee and will always pay the lesser of the two amounts, quelling concerns about the potential for tracking and abuse.
Unity also said that any game with less than $1 million in revenue over the previous 12 months will pay the fee.
Whitten struck a conciliatory tone as the company controls the damage caused by its roundly condemned plans. “I want to simply start with this: I’m sorry,” he wrote. “We should have talked to more of you and incorporated more feedback before announcing our new runtime fee policy. Our goal with this policy is to ensure that we can continue to support you today and tomorrow, and continue to invest deeply in our game engine. You are what makes Unity great and we know we must listen to you and work hard to earn your trust. “We have heard your concerns and are making changes to the policy we announced to address them.”
