After months of controversy, Unity has scrapped its controversial plan to charge developers for every game install. In 2023, the company announced a new “runtime fee policy” which would have charged developers for every Unity-developed game install above a certain threshold. Once this threshold was hit, developers would have had to pay Unity, limiting the profitability of their games.
On announcement, Unity faced a veritable tidal wave of backlash, as developers expressed feelings of anger, frustration, and betrayal. Many felt the fee was unfair, and that it would make game development far less commercially viable.
Cult of the Lamb developer Massive Monster threatened to delete the game if the runtime fee policy was implemented. In the days following the announcement, a “credible” death threat believed to have originated inside Unity forced the evacuation of its main offices.
In response to criticism, Unity apologised, and went about reworking the terms of the Runtime Fee Policy. As of September 2023, the company was still set on implementing it, with new terms that only developers making more than US $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue would need to pay the fee.
Now, plans to implement it have been scrapped entirely.
Read: Unity announces new terms for runtime fee policy
In an open letter, new Unity CEO Matt Bromberg has explained that after “deep consultation” with the company’s community, customers and partners, it has decided not to pursue the runtime fee policy in any form – as partnerships must be built on trust, and a stable platform.
“I’ve been able to connect with many of you over the last three months, and I’ve heard time and time again that you want a strong Unity, and understand that price increases are a necessary part of what enables us to invest in moving gaming forward. But those increases needn’t come in a novel and controversial new form,” Bromberg said.
“We want to deliver value at a fair price in the right way so that you will continue to feel comfortable building your business over the long term with Unity as your partner. And we’re confident that if we’re good partners and deliver great software and services, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do together.”
Unity price increases, explained
Going forward, Unity will return to its “seat-based subscription model” for all game developers, although there will be some changes to pricing.
For those on Unity Personal, it will remain free, and the revenue and funding ceiling will be raised from USD $100,00 to USD $200,000 so “more of you can use Unity at no cost.” The “Made with Unity” splash screen will also become optional for those using Unity Personal.
For Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise users, significant subscription price increases kick in on 1 January 2025. Unity Pro users will pay 8% more from this date, paying USD $2,200 annually per seat. Anyone who has more than USD $200,000 worth of total annual revenue and funding will need to pay for a Unity Pro subscription.
Unity Enterprise will have a 25% price increase, and will be required for customers with more than USD $25 million of total annual revenue and funding. Those in this boat will be contacted in the days ahead.
“Canceling the Runtime Fee for games and instituting these pricing changes will allow us to continue investing to improve game development for everyone while also being better partners,” Blomberg said of these changes. “We look forward to many more years of making great games together.”
