John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 09.14.2023 01:Sep AM EDT

Unity Won’t Retract Controversial New Policy Despite Public Outrage

Unity Technologies won't back down on its new controversial policy.

The company's latest statement is that while it acknowledges the confusion and frustration the gaming industry and community brought about its new runtime fee, it will continue to hold fast to it, saying it won't affect most of them.

Unity's runtime fee requires game developers using its platform to pay a certain amount every time gamers install their Unity-based game.

Unity's Response To Public Outrage

We want to acknowledge the confusion and frustration we heard after we announced our new runtime fee policy. We’d like to clarify some of your top questions and concerns:

Who is impacted by this price increase: The price increase is very targeted. In fact, more than 90% of our…
— Unity (@unity) September 13, 2023

Unity implied in its recent X.com post that the gaming industry and community are confused by its recent announcement about its runtime fee policy, leading it to clarify several facts about it in the post.

According to Unity, the price increase is targeted - it will not affect 90% of its customers with the change it plans to bring about. Additionally, those impacted generally those with an established following and revenue flow with their Unity-based gamers.

As such, the remaining 10% - game developers and creators who have not found scale success yet - are to pay a low fee or not at all. Those that do find scale success only need to pay a one-time fee.

Once a game developer meets the install and revenue thresholds, they must pay the runtime fee on new install after Jan. 1, 2024, but it won't be perpetual. Unity clarifies that a game developer only pays once for an install, not an ongoing perpetual license royalty like a revenue share model.

To better clarify that, Unity laid its definition of how it counts - and charges for - installs. According to Unity's clarifications, game developers won't be charged for re-installs of Unity-based games, nor would they be for fraudulent installs or those done with malicious intent.

Furthermore, Unity won't charge game developers for trials, partial play demos, and automation installs. Meanwhile, web and streaming game developers won't need to pay any install fee, and nor will charity-related installs.

Unity's Blog puts the installation and revenue thresholds at 200,000-lifetime game installs and $200,000 or more in the last 12 months, respectively, for Unity Personal and Unity Plus. Game developers using Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise have their thresholds placed at a million-lifetime game installs and $1,000,000 or more in the last 12 months, respectively.

Games Affectived By Unity's New Policy

Although all Unity-based games are affected by Unity's new policy, many game developers have announced they are pulling their games from online stores unless the company relents. Popular games like Among Us and Cult of the Lamb, which are both Unity-based games, are at risk of being pulled from online gaming stores, per IGN.

Other notable games include HoYoverse's Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, Niantic's Pokemon GO, Fall Guys, Cuphead, and Outer Wilds. However, their fates moving forward are now uncertain with Unity's new policy.

Many video game developers, indie and AAA, are also concerned about the policy - many of them opt to delay or cancel their Unity-based games to avoid paying the fees Unity wants them to pay with its new policy.