Unity boss shares updates to Runtime Fee amid controversy: “I am sorry”
UnityUnity boss Marc Whitten has issued a statement regarding the recent Runtime Fee controversy, apologizing in the process.
On September 12, 2023, Unity sparked backlash throughout the game development community by revealing an update that would see devs facing fees for every install of their game.
Just days later, the company pledged to make changes to the plan, stating that they had been listening to the community.
On September 22, Unity boss Marc Whitten issued a statement revealing the changes to the Runtime Fee policy.
Unity makes massive changes to Runtime Fee policy
In a blog post on the Unity website, Whitten apologized.
“We should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy,” he said. “Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can continue to support you today and tomorrow and keep deeply investing in our game engine.
“We have heard your concerns, and we are making changes in the policy we announced to address them.”
Whitten went on to note that the Unity Personal plan will remain free, and there will be no Runtime Fee for games built using that plan. He also shared that they will be increasing the earnings cap from $100k to $200k and will remove the requirement to use the “Made with Unity” splash screen.
Shedworks/UnityFinally, there will be no fee for any game that makes less than $1M in 12-month revenue and it will not affect currently shipped games at all unless they update to the next version of Unity.
With the announcement, plenty of devs took to social media to share their thoughts.
“Now this actually makes sense,” one user replied.
Another commented: “This all seems fair enough to be honest, and glad to see it, for the sake of the community.”
However, it appears the trust has been broken between Unity and some devs.
“You gotta regain the trust of devs after this mess. Steps in the right direction but I don’t see how you didn’t see this backlash coming in the first place,” another Twitter user replied.
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