Unity is in a big mess. After the announcement of its controversial fees, a large portion of the internet criticized them, accusing them of wanting to implement “abusive” policies. The complaints have had an impact, and the company has backtracked, promising to make a series of significant changes.
After the public outcry, the first apologies were made through Unity’s official profile on X (formerly known as Twitter). The company promised to review the new fees and make necessary changes based on the feedback received from the community.
Following this, Unity published a blog post that provided greater detail on how the company plans to proceed regarding its new policies. And if that wasn’t enough, Marc Whitten also addressed the main concerns of developers and users of the engine in a YouTube livestream.
The President of Unity Create offered another apology right at the beginning, where he clarified that they did not gather enough feedback before launching the program of changes. Whitten also addressed one of the most frequently asked questions by the community: why have these changes been made?
Unity already had a subscription plan divided into various tiers, each targeted at a specific type of user: students, small teams, large companies, etc. So, what motivated the launch of these new fees? Essentially, it’s about the sustainability of Unity.
Whitten explains that they are currently trying to “build a sustainable business model for Unity.” According to him, the main goal is to provide a system “that is fair […] and that works for games that have already achieved a good degree of success.”
What will be the new Unity fees from now on?
For now, the retroactive measures are completely eliminated. The new fees will affect games created or updated to Unity’s 2024 version. Developers using Unity Personal or Unity Plus will not be charged.
However, the installation fee will still apply to users of Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise, but under two conditions: either the game developed with the engine has generated one million dollars in revenue in the last twelve months or it has been installed one million times. If these thresholds are exceeded, the developer can choose to pay either the fee based on the initial interactions the game generates each month or an equivalent of 2.5% of the monthly revenue generated. In any case, the cheaper option will be charged.
