Unity Rushes to Clarify Price Increase Plan, as Game Developers Angry

2023-09-15 07:30:01

Unity, the technology company behind one of the most popular engines for creating video games, is struggling to clarify how There will be a price increase for its services, after its Tuesday morning announcement widely angered the game developer community. From a report: The fees, which Unity said are essential to funding the development of its technology, left many game creators wondering whether having a successful game through Unity would cost them more money than they could earn. Developers talked all day about delaying their games to switch to rival Epic Games’ Unreal Engine or other services on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. But in the evening, Unity executive Marc Whitten was updating Axios on the policies, which could allay some concerns raised by game makers.

The new “Runtime Fee” announced Tuesday morning is tied to a player installing a game, an action that previously cost developers nothing. Under Unity’s new plan, developers using the free tier of Unity development services would owe Unity $0.20 per install once their game reaches the 200,000 download thresholds and they earn $200,000 in revenue. Developers paying more than $2,000 a year for a Unity Pro plan would have to meet higher thresholds and be charged lower fees. The new fare system will begin in early 2024. […] After initially telling Axios earlier Tuesday that a player installing a game, deleting it, and reinstalling it would result in multiple fees, Unity’s Whitten told Axios that the company actually only charges for an initial installation.