Unity Technologies has announced significant changes to its pricing and service structure, including the introduction of a Unity Runtime Fee and additional features for subscription plans, effective January 1, 2024. The company addressed community concerns and confusion in a blog post, promising further updates in response to feedback.
Unity is a cross-platform game engine that supports desktop, mobile, console, and virtual reality platforms. Some popular games created with Unity include Monument Valley, Alto's Adventure, Among Us, Fall Guys, Untitled Goose Game, Cuphead, Crossy Road, and Outer Wilds. Unity was first announced in 2005 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The engine has since been extended to support a variety of platforms.
Unity's recent announcement regarding the Runtime Fee is based on the number of times a qualifying game is downloaded by end-users. This fee will apply to Unity Personal, Unity Plus, Unity Pro, Unity Enterprise plan subscribers and Unity Runtime distributors. It's calculated per project and covers all platforms, including mobile, PC, console, and streaming.
Games qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee after meeting specific criteria: they must exceed a minimum revenue threshold in the last 12 months and achieve a minimum lifetime install count. Unity Personal and Unity Plus subscribers will pay a small flat fee per install once these thresholds are met. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscribers will be eligible for volume discounts, offsetting the per-install cost as their games grow.
Unity has structured the fees to account for different regions, with standard and emerging-market rates. Additionally, customers adopting Unity services beyond the Editor, such as Unity Gaming Services or Unity LevelPlay mediation for mobile ad-supported games, may be eligible for credits toward the Unity Runtime Fee.
To provide added value to its subscription plans, Unity will introduce several new features in November. These include Unity DevOps for better collaboration, Unity Asset Manager for cloud-based asset management, Team Administration for role and access controls, and Unity Sentis for embedding AI functionality at runtime. Importantly, these enhancements will not come with seat price increases. Unity Plus, one of the subscription plans, will be retired for new subscribers, streamlining Unity's plan offerings.
These changes aim to provide more flexibility to Unity users, cater to different scales of success, and offer enhanced tools and services to support game development without increasing seat prices. Unity plans to continue engaging with its community, customers, and partners to refine its policies and offerings in response to feedback.
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