Summary
Unityis finally scrapping its highly controversial runtime policy fee, an ill-fated attempt to financially capitalise on the success of games built in Unity that ultimately resulted in the resignation of ex-chief executive officer John Riccitiello.
The original policy sought to charge developers for every separate installation of their game, but Unityreworked this changeafter overwhelming backlash from the developer community. The reworked policy was more lenient, offering applicable users the choice of giving Unity 2.5 per cent of their revenue or paying a fee calculated by Unity based on the number of people engaging with their game.
Unity Reverts To Subscription Model
However, one year and one CEO down the road from this change, Unity is scrapping the policy completely and reverting to its regular subscription model. Unity’s current CEO Matt Brombergreleased a statementoutlining the change.
“After deep consultation with our community, customers and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers, effective immediately. Non-gaming industry customers are not impacted by this modification,” Bromberg’s statement reads.
The traditional subscription model will continue to have three tiers, Unity Personal for developers with revenues under $200,000, Unity Enterprise for developers with revenues over $25 million and Unity Pro for those whose revenues fall between those two numbers.
“Cancelling the Runtime Fee for games and instituting these price changes will allow us to continue investing to improve game development for everyone while also being better partners. Thank you all for your trust and continued support. We look forward to many more years of making great games together,” the statement concludes.
This is certainly heartening news for developers who use the Unity engine, who now won’t have to worry about being gouged by Unity’s runtime fees.
