Unity has been forced to close down its offices over threats relating to the changes.
Unity has announced a controversial new pricing model for its Unity Engine, and the internet has caught alight.
The facts
From 1 January 2024, Unity has announced that developers will need to pay an additional, monthly Unity Runtime Fee that is calculated by new game installs from that time. The fees include re-installations and installations by the same user across multiple devices.
The fees, which are on top of regular license subscriptions, apply to titles that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last year, and have at least 200,000 lifetime game installations. Developers using Unity Personal will be responsible for $0.20 USD per month for new installations above the 200,000 download threshold; those with 1,000,000 or more downloads will pay between $0.15 (Unity Pro) and $0.125 (Unity Enterprise).
The Unity Engine powers blockbusters such as Genshin Impact, Ori and the Blind Forest, Cities Skylines, Tunic, Outer Wilds, Fall Guys and even locally made titles Cuphead and Cult of the Lamb.
In a statement, Unity has said that the changes are “not retroactive or perpetual”.
“Yes, this is a price increase and it will only affect a small subset of current Unity Editor users,” it announced in a statement. “Today, a large majority of Unity Editor users are currently not paying anything and will not be affected by this change. The Unity Runtime fee will not impact the majority of our developers.
“The developers who will be impacted are generally those who have successful games and are generating revenue way above the thresholds we outlined in our blog. This means that developers who are still building their business and growing the audience of their games will not pay a fee. The program was designed specifically this way to ensure developers could find success before the install fee takes effect.”
Unity also advised that charity games and demos are exempt for the fees, though demos that encourage players to download a full game are not.
The rumours
Since the price changes were announced, a new report from MobileGamer alleges that Unity will waive all fees if developers using the Unity Engine switch over to its LevelPlay ad platform.
The outlet’s report cites industry consultants who suggest the strategy is meant to directly compete against a rival platform: AppLovin.
“This puts the whole Runtime Fee announcement in the ‘mediation war’ spotlight,” said consultant Matej Lancaric. “Unity is saying ‘migrate to LevelPlay or you will need to pay shit-ton of money’.
“For those smaller developers, there is no other option but to migrate to LevelPlay mediation to save their companies. The rest are already thinking about [other game development engines] Godot or Cocos2D.”
The fallout
Developers have already expressed their disappointment in the new pricing model.
“Unity is introducing a runtime fee that’s based on game installs,” developer Massive Monster said. “Our team specializes in Unity games. We have future projects in the pipeline that were initially planned to be developed in Unity. This change would result in significant delays since our team would need to acquire an entirely new skill set.
“At Massive Monster, our mission has been to support and promote new and emerging indie games. The introduction of these fees by Unity could pose significant challenges for aspiring developers.”
The developer has also taken to Twitter, saying players should “Buy Cult of the Lamb now, cause we’re deleting it on Jan 1st.”
“Stop it,” added Among Us developer Innersloth. “This would harm not only us, but fellow game studios of all budgets and sizes.”
Unity itself has advised that it has been forced to close down its offices due to what it calls a “potential threat”.
“Hey y’all, just a reminder to think before you target Unity employees,” Senior XR Product Designer Javier Busto wrote on Twitter. “This morning we learned that law enforcement notified several Unity offices of credible threats.”
We’ll keep you informed as the situation progresses.
Update [18 September]: Unity has issued a statement in the wake of its initial announcement.
“We have heard you,” the company wrote.
“We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy.
“We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback.”
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