Summary
Unityis one of the most popular game engines and is used by many indie developers who are now facing a massive and detrimental change that will make using it significantly more risky. Someexcellent examples of Unity gamesareBeat Saber, Pokemon GO, Outer Wilds, Rimworld,andFall Guys. This mix of titles shows how versatile the engine has been over the years, enabling developers of all kinds to bring their ideas to life.
Unity has long been considered one of the best game enginesin existence right alongside the likes of Epic Games' Unreal Engine and Valve’s Source. The popular game engine allows developers to craft experiences for just about any platform they like. From mobile platforms to consoles and even PC, Unity could be described as the Swiss Army Knife of video game engines.
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Unityhas decided to start charging game developers each time a user installs a qualifying game. The criteria that a game has to meet to trigger the new Unity Runtime Fee are as follows: a revenue of $200,000 over a 12-month period and 200,000 installs over its lifetime. This is for the Unity Personal and Plus membership tiers. If these criteria are met, developers will have to cough up $0.20 for each install. Unity Pro and Enterprise members will have to meet a threshold of $1,000,000 in revenue and 1,000,000 installs over a 12-month period to trigger the Unity Runtime Fee, but will pay reduced rates compared to smaller developers; as little as $0.01 per install if the game has over 1,000,001 installs per month. These changes come in to effect on Jun 03, 2025.
One of the biggest issues with this change to Unity’s pricing structure is that it applies to all games, even those that were released years ago. Developers who have existing games running on Unity have no way of opting out of the new Terms of Service. According to the Unity Runtime Fee FAQ page, this doesn’t mean that developers will have to pay for installs that happen before June 25, 2025. However, it will use historical install data to determine whether the game meets the threshold or not.Unity has also had numerous layoffsin recent history, with Unity CEO John Riccitiello saying that this was done in a bid to set the company up for higher growth.
Much of the backlash at the Unity Runtime Fee has been aimed directly atUnity boss Riccitiello who once insulted game developerswho do not monetize their games with microtransactions. The new Unity pricing structure aligns well with Riccitiello’s belief that games need to create an “engagement loop” to drive microtransactions.
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