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.
I want to start with this: I am sorry.
We should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy. 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.
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.
Marc Whitten, Unity Create Lead
Haggling? In this market?!
Developers using Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise that are subject to the runtime fee will also have the option of opting for a revenue share instead. Under that plan, a 2.5% revenue share or a “calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month” would apply. Whichever amount is less will be the amount that is billed. You can view all the new pricing changes here.
Obviously, these are good changes, but I have to wonder if this was the plan from the start. Announce an absolutely ludicrous fee, then walk it back for a less drastic one. If so, you have to wonder if it was worth it in the long run. Even with these changes, some developers are already claiming they just can’t trust Unity anymore. Some developers say they won’t update to the 2024 version so they don’t have to deal with the new fees.
Marc Whitten is doing a live fireside chat today via YouTube at 4 p.m. ET to answer questions about the new pricing.
