By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
The game engine creator Unity has walked back its new licensing fee policy after a firestorm of criticism from developers.
“We should have spoken with more of you, and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing,” Unity president Marc Whitten wrote in a mea culpa published on the company’s blog.
The Unity is one of the two top game engines used in the world today, the other being Unreal Engine from Riot Games. Game engines typically are used under licensing fees, with developers paying fees from the revenue generated from their games, or on the number of downloads, for example.
Game engines are critical to developers because they offer reusable, already built components that allow designers to more easily build their games. For example, they include game physics, rendering code, collision detection and more, without the need for the developers to code those components from scratch, greatly reducing the time and cost to create a graphic heavy game.
Unity has long been one of the most popular game engines, and particularly for mobile games, but on Sept. 12 the company touched off a major rift with its consumer base when it announced a new pricing model. Starting Jan. 1, 2024, Unity planned to charge a ‘Runtime Fee,’ a new 20-cent charge to be levied every time a player installed a game. The fee would kick in after the game reached 200,000 downloads and $200,000 in revenue.
As well, the policy would not only impact games made after the changes, but “eligible games” that had already been released. The backlash from developers was swift and furioius, leading Unity to apologize and rethink its pricing policy.
“It’s just a betrayal,” Rami Ismail, a game developer and renowned industry spokesperson, said in a post on X. “The whole Unity thing betrays every dev that tried out Unity and stuck with it.”
Essentially, Unity would be taking a small cut every single time a game running its engine is installed, rather than sticking with the accepted practice of charging an upfront licensing fee.
While 20 cents per download doesn’t sound like a lot, the policy would create a burden for small, indie developers who release a free-to-play game that doesn’t generate revenue right away. As most games today rely on the sale of digital, in-game merchandise, that actually covers the majority of games. An indie developer whose game generated 500,000 downloads, for example, would have to pay Unity $100,000 in licensing fees at a time when they may have generated little, if any, revenue.
“It hurts because we didn’t agree to this,” wrote Garry Newman, founder of Facepunch Studios, in a blog post. “We used the engine because you pay up front and then ship your product. We weren’t told this was going to happen,” he added. “We have spent 10 years making ‘Rust’ on Unity’s engine. We’ve paid them every year. And now they changed the rules.”
The backlash prompted Unity to quickly rethink its licensing fee concept, and last week Unity Create president Marc Whitten, who runs the Unity game engine division.
“You are what makes Unity great, and we know we need to listen, and work hard to earn your trust. We have heard your concerns, and we are making changes in the policy we announced to address them,” Whitten said.
“Our Unity Personal plan will remain free and there will be no Runtime Fee for games built on Unity Personal,” Whitten announced. “We will be increasing the cap from $100,000 to $200,000 and we will remove the requirement to use the Made with Unity splash screen. No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee.”
Whitten also said the Runtime Fee policy will no longer apply retroactively.
“The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS (Long-Term Support) version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond,” Whitten said. “Your games that are currently shipped and the projects you are currently working on will not be included—unless you choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.”
As well, Unity says the fee will only be applied when a game has reached $1 million in gross revenue for the trailing 12 months and 1 million initial engagements. From there, devs can pay the fee “either based on monthly initial engagements or 2.5 percent of your game’s monthly gross revenue. Ultimately, you will be charged the lesser of the two.”
Unity Personal, the version of the game engine generally used by smaller indie devs, will remain free of this fee, and developers will no longer have to add a Unity splash screen.
Several developers went online showing support for the changes, but others said the move had damaged their long-term trust in Unity.
“The demonstrated willingness, eagerness to change an agreement, even going so far as to delete their GitHub [repository] that stated developers would only be beholden to the agreement under which they signed up, erodes trust,” said developer Brandon Sheffield, who was privy to the new fee before it was introduced, and warned Unity it would be very negative for developers. “We knew the reaction would be resoundingly negative, but we weren’t listened to,” Sheffield said.
As a result, his studio Necrosoft Games has dropped the Unity engine for its next project. “We simply don’t trust them to stick to their word,” he says. “We don’t trust them to update their engine in ways that affect us, as PC/console developers, in a positive way. I think they have done irreparable damage to their brand for game developers in general, and the walkback isn’t going to fix it.”
That said, switching a game engine is a major investment for a studio, requiring development teams to learn all new tools and procedures. It’s not something studios do lightly, and Unity is known as one of the best game engines in the business.
As well, Whitten says Unity is taking the experience as a valuable lesson, and vows the company will continue to work to earn the trust of its clientele.
“The most fundamental thing that we’re trying to do is we’re building a sustainable business for Unity,” Whitten said in an interview with YouTube gaming expert Jason Weimann. When asked about how Unity plans to regain trust, Whitten said he’s committed to regaining trust by demonstrating change through action.
“I can’t tell you that you should trust me,” he said. “You have to decide that on your own.”
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