Unity apologizes, makes controversial new game development fees optional
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After a backlash, Unity will no longer require game creators to pay retroactive fees tied to game installations.
Why it matters: The Unity drama had rocked the video game industry, sending smaller creators into a panic about whether their games becoming popular would result in ruinous fees.
Driving the news: Unity, the company behind one of the most-used game development technologies in the world, issued revised terms of its Runtime Fee plan in a blog post Friday, in an effort to quell two weeks of anger from its customers.
- The post started with senior executive Marc Whitten stating: "I am sorry."
Details: Unity's revised plan may still charge some teams with fees calculated off of installations of their games, but the company is making that fee structure optional and more easily avoidable for smaller developers.
- In the new plan smaller developers using Unity's fee "personal" plan won't be subject to the fee. Unity is allowing games that make up to $200,000 in revenue to stay in this group, up from a limit of $100,000.
- Larger developers using paid version of Unity can avoid the fee by not switching to a newer version of Unity. If they do, developers can choose between paying runtime fees tied to new user installations of their games or a 2.5% revenue share, figures that Unity says will be self-reported.
State of play: Earlier this month, Unity said it would start charging developers a fee every time a user installed their games beginning in 2024, if their games cleared certain revenue and popularity thresholds.
- Game developers loudly protested online, saying the fees were not what they agreed to when signing on with Unity. Many objected to their retroactive nature and said the fees could bankrupt their studios.
- Some developers vowed to drop Unity for future games, and one developer told Axios a class action lawsuit might be in the making.
Between the lines: Unity has been in the red for a while and has been trying to figure out ways to make more money off of its popular tech.
- Unity reported $533 million in revenue in the spring quarter, with a loss of $193 million.
- In May, it said it would cut 600 jobs, or 8% of its workforce.
The big picture: Unity is in perpetual competition with Epic's Unreal Engine to offer the tech used to make and operate games on mobile and console.
- Some developers have said last week that Unity had broken its trust and that such damage would be hard to repair. One top studio began making regular donations to open-source engines Godot and FNA in protest.
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