Following a significant backlash from the games development community, Unity has backtracked on changes to its Runtime Fee policy.
In a blog post by Unity Create Lead Marc Whitten, Unity announced that:
- Its Unity Personal plan will now remain free.
- It will increase the cap from $100,000 to $200,000, and will drop the requirement to use the ‘Made with Unity’ splash screen.
- Games with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will not be subject to the fee.
- The Runtime Fee policy will only apply from the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond, and games that are currently shipped, or projects currently being worked on, will not be included – unless studios choose to upgrade to the new version.
- With games that are subject to the Runtime fee, studios will be given the option of either a 2.5% revenue share, or an amount based on the number of new people engaging with the game.
Dr Richard Wilson OBE, CEO of TIGA, said:
“It’s good to see that Unity now plan to partially reverse a policy that could have been very damaging to the future of many games studios. The UK Government and the Competition and Markets Authority should consider how greater competition can be promoted in the engines sector, as detailed in our recent letter to the DCMS.”