UNITY NEWS - PRICE CHANGE, BACKLASH...

[DerVVulfman]

We have another Two-for-one here:

First... from UNITY itself!

An open letter to our community

To our community:

I’m Marc Whitten, and I lead Unity Create which includes the Unity engine and editor teams.

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.

Our Unity Personal plan will remain free and there will be no Runtime Fee for games built on Unity Personal. We will be increasing the cap from $100,000 to $200,000 and we will remove the requirement to use the Made with Unity splash screen.

No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee.

For those creators on Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, we are also making changes based on your feedback.

The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond. Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included – unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.

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.

For games that are subject to the runtime fee, we are giving you a choice of either a 2.5% revenue share or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month. Both of these numbers are self-reported from data you already have available. You will always be billed the lesser amount.

We want to continue to build the best engine for creators. We truly love this industry and you are the reason why.

I’d like to invite you to join me for a live fireside chat hosted by Jason Weimann today at 4:00 pm ET/1:00 pm PT, where I will do my best to answer your questions. In the meantime, here are some more details.*

Thank you for caring as deeply as you do, and thank you for giving us hard feedback.

Marc Whitten

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and... from a separate point of view...

From a separate point of view...

Unity revamps Runtime Fee,
allowing devs to choose
either 2.5% revenue share
or fees based on self-reported installs

Unity has finally shared an update to its controversial Runtime Fee model. Following massive backlash from game developers, the company has changed key aspects of the policy, exempting a large portion of customers from any fees and giving others options to choose from.

In a new blog post, Unity Create president Marc Whitten first apologized to the community, saying that “should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy.”

Here is how the new version of the pricing model will work:

• Runtime Fee will only apply to developers using Unity Pro or Enterprise plans;
  
• All games with less than $1 million in revenue in the past 12 months won’t be subject to fees;
  
• Runtime Fee will only apply starting with the next Long Term Support (LTS) release in 2024 — all existing projects made with previous versions of Unity won’t be subject to fees (unless they are upgraded to a new version;
  
• Developers of games that are subject to the Runtime Fee will be able to choose either additional fees based on the number of new installs each month or a 2.5% revenue share;
  
• Only new engagements will be counted, so the Runtime Fee won’t be charged for re-installs;
  
• All numbers will be self-reported by developers for more transparency, so Unity won’t track installs or any data using its own tools.
  

In addition, Unity Personal plan will not only be completely exempt from the Runtime Fee, it will also let developers remove the “Made with Unity” splash screen.

To help developers calculate the amount of the Runtime Fee types (revenue share or per-install fees), the company also launched a Runtime Fee Estimator.

The Runtime Fee will now only apply after a game hits $1 million in
12-month revenue and 1 million lifetime initial installs

“You are what makes Unity great, and we know we need to listen, and work hard to earn your trust,” Whitten wrote. “We have heard your concerns, and we are making changes in the policy we announced to address them.”

Unity also updated its FAQ to include the latest changes to the Runtime Fee. However, some aspects of the revamped pricing model remain unclear. That’s why the company will host a live chat today, where Whitten will be answering developers’ questions. So more details are expected later.

So to sum it all up, many developers won’t have to pay any fees at all, as the Runtime Fee will only apply to projects with over $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue. Plus, there is a choice between revenue share and per-install fees depending on what suits each developer best.

Another important change is that the Runtime Fee will now be forward-looking, not retroactive. This was one of the main points of criticism, apart from the controversial nature of per-install fees themselves and a serious breach of trust.

  Now for small-time beginning companies, this is fantastic.  If you don't need Havok systems, you just use Personal edition.  But I noticed that they made separate pay grades based on Country.  And the country that makes Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Honkai Third Impact need only pay HALF of what other developers at the very least.  For games as popular and "Gatcha Money Grab" as they are... why?

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Again... just in case, I did make a GODOT prefix if anyone transfers their game from Unity to Godot: