Unity backs down and promises to change its controversial new pricing policy

TO Unity A bomb exploded in his hands. After controversy following the announcement of a new pricing policy that would force developers using its graphics engine to pay a commission on every installation of their games, the company had no choice but to compromise. back down, apologize and promise change to rectify the situation.

IN short message posted on X (Twitter)Unity apologized “for the confusion and distress” caused by its announcement. The company indicated that changes will be applied to the new monetization strategy which will come into force on January 1, 2024. However, he did not reveal details and assured that the news would be announced soon.

Thus, Unity tried to calm the situation after a week of chaos. “We heard you. We apologize for the confusion and concern caused by the execution fee policy we announced on Tuesday. We listen, we talk to our team members, our community, our customers and our partners, and we will make policy changes. We’ll share the news in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical comments,” they said via social media.

Of course, mistrust among developers who depend on this graphics engine is still at a very high level. And now the entire gaming industry is looking to Unity to see how it can get out of the mess it’s in. What Geoff Keighleycreator Summer Games Festival And Game rewardsand probably one of the most powerful figures in the industry demanding to see the promised changes, this is not a minor detail.

Studios dependent on this technology, especially independent ones, not only see economic harm in the new pricing policy, but also as a violation of trust. Unity not only announced the abusive pricing policy without prior notice, but also removed its terms of use from GitHub.

Unity apologizes and promises to make changes to its new pricing policy

If you’re not sure why Unity is so controversial, let’s take a quick look at it. Last Tuesday, the creators of the graphics engine announced that from January 1, 2024, a new pricing policy will come into force, which will force developers to pay a kind of royalty for each new installation of your games.

The fee, set by John Riccetello executives, will go into effect when two thresholds are reached: if a game exceeds 200,000 total installs since its launch and if it generates more than $200,000 in revenue in the last 12 months. Once both limits are exceeded, the developers They will have to pay up to 20 cents for each new installation..

However, it is worth clarifying that the speed of Unity Runtime will not be the same for everyone. What was mentioned in the previous paragraph applies to Unity Personal and Unity Plus plan subscribers. For Unity Pro users, the “tax” on each new installation will start from 15 centsonce their games reached 1 million installs and $1 million in revenue in the last 12 months.

For those who depend on Unity Enterprise, the terms will be the same as Unity Pro, but the fee for each new installation will be slightly lower: or 125 dollars.

Developer Anger

Developers using Unity in their video games immediately cried out. In many cases they stated that this type of plan would fail. This is because depending on the popularity of the game, previously unforeseen expenses of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars may arise.. A situation that will hit small and independent studios the hardest.

But what probably caused the most anger was the fact that the tariff was applied unilaterally, without much clarity or further explanation. After the initial announcement of Unity tried to explain the situationalthough this could not reassure the creators.

According to the company, more than 90% of its customers will not be affected by the new pricing policy. He also assured that the rate will only apply to new installations carried out from January 1, 2024. Additionally, reinstallations or “rogue installations” – such as pirated copies – will not be considered. However, there will be no charge for web games, streaming games, or installations created as a result of charitable initiatives. According to our estimates, in this latter case we are talking about packages such as Modest set or similar.

Despite the explanations Relations between the studios and Unity seem to have soured. Assuming that the new strategy affects 10% of developers, it will affect about 23,000. No less number, and whose estimate is taken from the 2022 investor report. There, the company assured that 230,000 creators used its engine and services in more than 750,000 games.

Mega critcreators Kill Spire they announced that They will transfer the development of the new game to a different graphics engine. unless the changes are reversed and protection is implemented in the terms of use. Inner Slothcreators Among usAlso They were very critical O.

Terrible indoor climate

The Unity case has not only caused discontent among the video game development community. Things are not going well within the company either.. The firm laid off about 600 employees in 2022, and its finances are still struggling. In its latest financial report, John Riccetello’s team reported losses of more than $880 million.

Tempers have become so tense that last week two Unity offices were closed—one in Austin, Texas, and another in San Francisco, California—after receiving “credible death threats.” It later turned out that they were created by a company employee.