Unity Technologies currently charges users annual fees for the various subscription plans it offers for the use of its game software development engine on a per-seat basis. These plans include Unity Personal, Unity Plus, Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise. Unity recently announced that, for games that reach certain thresholds (based on the customer’s annual Unity subscription plan, the revenue generated by the game in the last 12 months and the number of lifetime installs), it will also start to charge a “Unity Runtime Fee” each time a game is downloaded by a user. The Runtime Fee would be between $0.01-0.20 per install (i.e. download), determined by reference to the quantity of new monthly installs, the install’s country of origin and the developer’s annual subscription plan. The new fee would become payable from January 2024 applying only to installs after that but including those for existing games. For customers on certain subscription plans or who purchase certain other Unity services, volume discounts and credits would be available.  In its FAQs, Unity stated that it will be using its own proprietary data model to collect the install data.

Concerns from the games industry were reported in response to this announcement including calls for competition authorities to examine the games engine market.  Unity has now issued a statement apologising. It confirms that there will be no fee for developers under the Unity Personal plan at all, and the fee will only apply to those under the Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise plans who upgrade to the next long-term support (LTS) version of Unity which ships in 2024. Further, the number of installs can be based on developer self-reported data. Finally, developers will have a choice between the Runtime Fee and a 2.5% revenue share whichever is lower.

For the announcement, click here.