Unity Engine runtime fee: Difference between revisions

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''Unity Technologies ~~know~~ for their Unity game engine ~~attempted~~ to ~~force~~ all of ~~its paying~~ users to adopt their ~~new business model that included a~~ per-download fee.''

''Unity Software Inc. (aka: Unity Technologies), a publicly traded software company known for their Unity game engine, implemented sweeping changes to its pricing model for Unity that would affect all users of the engine, forcing users to either adopt their per-download fee or de-list their games.''

==Background==

Unity is a well known game engine used by ~~plethora~~ of both ~~big~~ and ~~small studios~~. Unity had multiple subscription tiers:

Unity is a well known game engine used by studios of all sizes, and very widely across the indie space due to its accessibility, capacity for both 2D and 3D development, and C# support. Prior to the runtime fee, Unity had multiple subscription tiers:

===Unity Personal===

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==''Runtime fee''==

On ~~the [DATE]~~ Unity announced the new pricing ~~model which requires you~~ to ~~pay a fee starting at~~ 15 ~~cents~~ per install ~~of product developed with Unity~~, ~~this change was~~ to be applied retroactively to any product released prior to this change~~, and going forward the developers would have to pay for future installations of their product~~.

On September 12th, 2023, Unity announced a "Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs," which fundamentally altered their monetization model. This runtime fee aimed to charge developers a small amount every time an end user installed their application. To qualify for the fee, games must have passed a minimum revenue threshold within the past 12 months and a minimum lifetime install count threshold. The following table (taken directly from the original announcement) lays out specific thresholds and install costs that the new model would impose on engine users.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first= |date=2023-09-12 |title=Unity plan pricing and packaging updates |url=https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912135629/https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |archive-date=2023-09-12 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Unity Blog}}</ref><table class="table-responsive" style="width:100%;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><tr style="background-color:#2196f3;color:#ffffff"><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="15%"></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%">Unity Personal and Unity Plus</th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="29%">Unity Pro</th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%">Unity Enterprise</th></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td colspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Unity Runtime Fee thresholds to be met</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Revenue Threshold (USD)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$200,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Install Threshold</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">200,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Installs over the Install Threshold</td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Standard monthly rate</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1–100,000</td><td rowspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.20 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.15 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.125 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">100,001–500,000</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.075 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.06 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">500,001–1,000,000</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.03 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,001+</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Installs over the Install Threshold</td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Emerging market monthly rate</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1+</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.005 per install</td></tr></table>

These fees were to be applied retroactively to any product using the unity runtime, including those released prior to this change.<ref name=":1">Needs citation

</ref>

To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.

This announcement also removed the popular unity plus plan, forcing developers to the more expensive Unity Pro plan if they wanted to remove the baked in unity splash screen.<ref name=":0" />

To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.<ref name=":1" />

==Consumer impact==

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==Consumer response==

~~''Summary~~ and ~~key issues~~ of ~~prevailing sentiment from~~ the ~~consumers that can be documented via articles~~, ~~emails~~ to ~~support~~, ~~reviews and forum posts~~.''

The yearly GMTK Game jam released a series of statistics on engine usage within the jam, both in 2023<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2023-07-18 |title=game engines that people used to make 6835 game jam games |url=https://x.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> before the runtime fee announcement and in 2024<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2024-08-21 |title=game engines that people used to make 7,711 game jam games |url=https://x.com/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> afterwards. The 2023 results showed 59% of jam entries were made in the unity engine, while the next largest engine, Godot, (a free & open source competitor to unity), took a 19% share. The 2024 results see unity's share drop by 16% to an overall 43%, and Godot's more than double to 37%, Illustrating a significant exodus of talent from the unity platform correlating with the release of the runtime fee.

==References==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{StubNotice}}
-''Unity Technologies know for their Unity game engine attempted to force all of its paying users to adopt their new business model that included a per-download fee.''
+''Unity Software Inc. (aka: Unity Technologies), a publicly traded software company known for their Unity game engine, implemented sweeping changes to its pricing model for Unity that would affect all users of the engine, forcing users to either adopt their per-download fee or de-list their games.''
 ==Background==
-Unity is a well known game engine used by plethora of both big and small studios. Unity had multiple subscription tiers:
+Unity is a well known game engine used by studios of all sizes, and very widely across the indie space due to its accessibility, capacity for both 2D and 3D development, and C# support. Prior to the runtime fee, Unity had multiple subscription tiers:
 ===Unity Personal===
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 ==''Runtime fee''==
-On the [DATE] Unity announced the new pricing model which requires you to pay a fee starting at 15 cents per install of product developed with Unity, this change was to be applied retroactively to any product released prior to this change, and going forward the developers would have to pay for future installations of their product.
+On September 12th, 2023, Unity announced a "Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs," which fundamentally altered their monetization model. This runtime fee aimed to charge developers a small amount every time an end user installed their application. To qualify for the fee, games must have passed a minimum revenue threshold within the past 12 months and a minimum lifetime install count threshold. The following table (taken directly from the original announcement) lays out specific thresholds and install costs that the new model would impose on engine users.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first= |date=2023-09-12 |title=Unity plan pricing and packaging updates |url=https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912135629/https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |archive-date=2023-09-12 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Unity Blog}}</ref><table class="table-responsive" style="width:100%;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><tr style="background-color:#2196f3;color:#ffffff"><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="15%"></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%"><strong>Unity Personal and Unity Plus</strong></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="29%"><strong>Unity Pro</strong></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%"><strong>Unity Enterprise</strong></th></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td colspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Unity Runtime Fee thresholds to be met</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Revenue Threshold (USD)</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$200,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Install&nbsp;Threshold</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">200,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Installs over the Install Threshold</strong></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Standard monthly rate</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1–100,000</strong></td><td rowspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.20 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.15 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.125 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>100,001–500,000</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.075 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.06 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>500,001–1,000,000</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.03 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1,000,001+</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Installs over the Install Threshold</strong></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Emerging market monthly rate</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1+</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.005 per install</td></tr></table>
+These fees were to be applied retroactively to any product using the unity runtime, including those released prior to this change.<ref name=":1">Needs citation
+</ref>
-To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.
+This announcement also removed the popular unity plus plan, forcing developers to the more expensive Unity Pro plan if they wanted to remove the baked in unity splash screen.<ref name=":0" />
+To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.<ref name=":1" />
 ==Consumer impact==
@@ Line 24: / Line 28: @@
 ==Consumer response==
-''Summary and key issues of prevailing sentiment from the consumers that can be documented via articles, emails to support, reviews and forum posts.''
+The yearly GMTK Game jam released a series of statistics on engine usage within the jam, both in 2023<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2023-07-18 |title=game engines that people used to make 6835 game jam games |url=https://x.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> before the runtime fee announcement and in 2024<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2024-08-21 |title=game engines that people used to make 7,711 game jam games |url=https://x.com/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> afterwards. The 2023 results showed 59% of jam entries were made in the unity engine, while the next largest engine, Godot, (a free & open source competitor to unity), took a 19% share. The 2024 results see unity's share drop by 16% to an overall 43%, and Godot's more than double to 37%, Illustrating a significant exodus of talent from the unity platform correlating with the release of the runtime fee.
 ==References==