Exactly a year after it was first announced, Unity – the company behind the widely-used game engine of the same name – have today backed down over their plans to charge companies royalties (referred to as a “runtime fee”) for using their engine, stating that they are now canceling plans to charge said fees entirely, effective immediately. On top of this, Unity will also be making changes to pricing as well as the qualifying annual revenue thresholds, following the shift to a subscription-based model back in 2016.
Speaking on today’s reversal, Unity Technologies President and CEO Matt Bromberg, in a press release,explainedthe reasoning behind today’s reversal.
“After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers,“Bromberg begins.
“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.”
Unity CEO: Developers Not Implementing Monetization ‘Idiots’
How It All Started
Unity’s controversial move began in September of last year, when the company announced that starting January 1 of this year, Unity would begin charging companies whose Unity-built projects passed a given revenue threshold and lifetime install count, based on the subscription package they had signed up to. In the latter’s case – the number of installs – this royalty-based charge, wouldn’t factor in if said installations were on entirely new, seperate devices or merely someone, for example, reinstalling a previously-uninstalled game or piece of software. Meaning, as many quickly did the maths, this could potentially be exploited-come-weaponized to financially hurt certain developers, via repeated installing/uninstalling of Unity-created games.
Despite Unity immediately following this announcement by apologizing and clarifying the details as to how this would work, the perception around the company’s intentions was still largely negative, with many a bridge already figuratively burned. And while today’s news of an all-but-absolute U-turn on such a move is welcome, needless to say the damage, in so far as developer relations in certain parts goes, may have already been done.
As many quickly did the maths, this could potentially be exploited-come-weaponized to financially hurt certain developers, via repeated installing/uninstalling of Unity-created games.
As you might expect, the backlash online was quick and hefty. Hundreds of studios from those in the mobile gaming space, as well as even high-profile independent developers, claimed they would boycott the company and proceed to transition away from using Unity for any and all future projects. The likes of Innersloth, creators of Among Us and even Massive Monster – whose acclaimed cultish roguelike-simulation mash'-up Cult of the Lamb was created in Unity – being among the more notable voices airing their concerns and criticism.
