After the absolute disaster that was their original Runtime Fee announcement, Unity have now put up another apology and announced what the new plan is going forward.
Their new plan will keep Unity Personal free and there's no Runtime Fee for games made with it. The revenue cap there is also moving up to $200,000 and they're removing the requirement to show the Made with Unity splash screen. Additionally, no game earning less than $1 million in a 12 month period will be subject to the Runtime Fee.
For developers on Unity pro and Enterprise, the Runtime Fee will now only apply with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024. So existing games and games with older Unity versions will not be included (unless developers choose to upgrade).
Unity said they will also "make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version", so they won't change the terms for existing users. Although, we've heard that before and they changed their mind as I noted in a previous article.
For games that are subject to their new Runtime Fee, they will offer a choice of either a 2.5% revenue share "or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month" and those numbers will be self-reported by developers and they will "always" be billed the lesser amount.
They're also inviting developers to a live fireside chat hosted by Jason Weimann today at 8 PM UTC.
Pictured Credit - Unity
As for how Unity will calculate the Runtime Fee from the FAQ it states: "While we always recommend you supply your own data, in the absence of that, we will use our own data from Unity services that you have agreed to integrate into your project, and readily available external data." and they also confirmed the Unity Runtime does not phone home by default unless developers have hardware stats enabled.
The new plan that has a fresh policy page here is a lot better that's for sure but is it enough? Their original announcement and the anger it caused for developers has broken a lot of trust.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I hope people continue to use open source solutions like Godot in the future
Very different, but same feel IMO, it’s just like the "greenwashing" from the big corpo. They don’t care at all, it’s just because it’s in tune with the times.
Philadelphus Sep 22, 2023
I don't say this lightly, but I think trust in the organisation has been badly breached, and unless and until the senior person responsible for this planned deception is fired, it's going to be difficult for the organisation to redeem itself.
I note from the most recent posting that it's not the CEO who is apologising, but one of their subordinates.
PublicNuisance Sep 22, 2023
Quoting: baconcowI've already switched to Godot and ported what I had there. It isn't much, but I don't plan on going back. Always online, for a development environment, is trash. Their top executives clear well over $100 million. Apparently, they are spending half a billion yearly on marketing. If they are bleeding profit and want ways to get back in the green, going after the developers profits should not be their first priority.
Quoting: HighballI started with Godot a year ago. I saw the writing on the wall with Unity, which is why I chose to learn Godot. The recent debacle just cemented my decision from a year ago. I hope this will give the current Unity developers the off ramp they need and I hope they take it.
Care to link to your games ? Always looking for more Linux games that use a FOSS engine.
ElectricPrism Sep 22, 2023
Welcome to the future of digital hell on earth.
This is the world as it will be if we fail in our foss quest.
The Lord of the Bin
ElectricPrism Sep 22, 2023
I don't think these moves by Unity are missteps, they might as well come out and say they only want you to be able to Stream Their Editor since that seems to be the way things are going.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=z_XUBUc_uDQ
Kimyrielle Sep 22, 2023
Also, what the heck is "initial engagement"? A term you come up with when you attended too many board meetings? Or had to much coffee?
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