Nearly a year after its implementation, Unity's controversial Runtime Fee is no more. The company behind the popular video game engine announced that it was going back to a more traditional subscription model. That said, it is also increasing the price of some subscription plans next year.
In September of 2023, Unity revealed its Runtime Fee, which greatly changed how it charged developers for the use of its engine. With the Runtime Fee, developers would be charged for every install of a game once it had been downloaded a certain number of times and had made a specific amount of money.
The immediate backlash to Unity's Runtime Fee eventually forced the company to make some changes to it, raising the threshold to trigger the fee. However, many devs still felt that this wasn't enough, while others criticized the company for refusing to engage in dialogue with its customers.
"Sadly, Unity is also unwilling to openly communicate with its community in a true dialogue to find common ground and a workable solution," said Nikita Guk, CEO of GIMZ and Hoopsly, who acted as an official representative for a group of developers, in an interview with Polygon. "Instead, it chose again to inform its community of its changes as a fact."
Other developers stated that Unity's Runtime Fee would force them to migrate their projects to other engines.
It seems that developer voices have finally been heard by Unity.
In a blog post on Thursday, Sept 12, Unity CEO Matthew Bromberg stated the company was removing the Runtime Fee "effective immediately."
"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," said Bromberg.
Return to a subscription model, but with higher prices
With Unity ditching the Runtime Fee, it will now return to its old subscription model. However, it comes with a catch as the company will be raising prices next year.
While Unity Personal licenses will remain free until a game brings in over $200,000 in revenue or funding, the Pro and Enterprise tiers will see increases starting January 2025.
Specifically, Unity Pro subscriptions will increase by 8 percent – raising the fee to $2,200 per seat – while Unity Enterprise will also see a price increase of 25 percent. The latter will also see new minimum subscription requirements for customers generating over $25 million in annual revenue.
The changes will apply to all new and existing subscriptions as of that date.
"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," Bromberg said. "Thank you all for your trust and continued support. We look forward to many more years of making great games together."
Bromberg also stated that Unity will continue to raise prices should the need arise, but that it would only do so annually via increases in subscription fees – it will not be charging per install, as was the case with the Runtime Fee.
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