Unity’s New Brazen and Predatory 2024 Business Model Is Upsetting Game Developers

If you have lived under a rock for the past few days, you may have missed the new iPhone launch and the controversy behind Unity’s new shameless business model. For a better recap, Unity Technologies announced its brand new business model on Twitter on September 12th, and game developers immediately spread their confusion and unhappiness about the decision.

Today we announced a change to our business model which includes new additions to our subscription plans, and the introduction of a Runtime fee. We wanted to provide clarifying answers to the top questions most of you are asking.

Yes, this is a price increase and it will only…

— Unity (@unity) September 12, 2023

Many major game developers, such as Necrosoft Games creative director Brandon Sheffield, Massive Monster creative director Julian Wilton, Rust developer Garry Newman, InnerSloth and many others, voiced dissatisfaction with their poor understanding and lack of research regarding their new business model. Thus, our Player.me experts will take charge and explain the new business model and why the Game Developers are in the right to protest.

Unity’s New Business Model and Monetisation Plan

If you may not know, Unity is the cross-platform game engine that powers games like Rust, Hollow Knight, and Pokemon Go. Thus, to capitalise on its vast success, they released its new business model and controversial monetisation plan called Runtime Fee. According to them, the fee depends on the number of installations a game built with the Unity engine receives and the revenue it generates. 

To put it into perspective, Unity will charge the games developed using the lower-cost plan once they hit $200,000 in revenue in a year and 200,000 lifetime installations. However, once game developers using this lower-tier plan surpass these limits, Unity will charge the company $.20 per game installation. Moreover, Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise accounts will only face charges once they reach $1 million in revenue in a year and 1 million lifetime installations. Once they surpass the threshold, they will charge additional payments ranging from $.01 to $.15 per installation.

Although the explanation was simple and easy to understand, game developers did not take long to realise the whole picture after going through some calculations. For example, since the Runtime Fee would work retroactively, every studio with a game made using the engine that had ever exceeded the threshold needs to reimburse Unity with the Runtime fees. Thus, if Unity followed the numbers generated from just installation, without considering the factors of piracy, bundles, demos and distribution services, game developers would have to pay an astronomical amount to Unity. In response to the confusion, Unity released an official statement addressing the concerns, which we will cover below.

Unity Explaining Their Runtime Fee

In order to rectify their previous ambiguous statement, a spokesperson from Unity told Digital Trends: “Demos, trials, game bundles, and giveaways like the Humble Bundle do not count as installs while subscription services, like Game Pass, do count as an install.” Moreover, the spokesperson told Digital Trends that the company is confident in its fraud detection systems. However, they will establish a process for developers to submit concerns to its fraud compliance team.

We want to acknowledge the confusion and frustration we heard after we announced our new runtime fee policy. We’d like to clarify some of your top questions and concerns:

Who is impacted by this price increase: The price increase is very targeted. In fact, more than 90% of our…

— Unity (@unity) September 13, 2023

“Regarding fraud or piracy, we already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology detecting a similar problem. So, we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognise that users will have concerns about this, and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.”

Furthermore, the spokesperson addressed concerns regarding the negative impact on smaller studios with a chart above and a statement. “The pricing was designed to ensure developers could find success before the install fee takes effect. The impacted developers are generally those who have successful games and are generating revenue way above the thresholds. It means that developers who are still building their business and growing the audience of their games will not pay a fee.”

Also Read: 4 Best Unreal Engine 5 Games Coming This Year

Game Developers Rallied in Protest 

However, despite Unity laying many of its cards on the surface, it did not stop game developers from banding together and protesting the Rundown fee. One of the more vocal game developers, Necrosoft Games creative director Brandon Sheffield, stated he has lost trust in Unity. “We have been working on a game for four years. In that time, their pricing scheme has changed twice. They have removed the subscription tier we pay for and forced us to bump to a higher one. They have proved they can and will change financial agreements dramatically from right under us, with absolutely no options on our part. They are untrustworthy, and quite simply, you should not use their product.”

https://t.co/qg6yjZzL1d pic.twitter.com/5IJG9Hzgoc

— Innersloth 🦥 (@InnerslothDevs) September 12, 2023

Even InnerSloth, the Among Us developers, urged Unity to reconsider their plan or stop it altogether. “If this goes through, we will have to delay content and features our players actually want to port our game elsewhere (As others are considering). However, many developers would not have the time or means to do the same. Stop it.” 

Massive Monster creative director Julian Wilton added fire to the fuel by stating: “Their new pricing model shows an evident lack of understanding or interest in how many of its users’ business models operate. There is more nuance than just selling a game to the consumer, including demos for marketing, deals with storefronts, and selling bundles of keys. Not to mention, anyone targeting a lower price point or free model for their game will be very much affected and have more trouble with scalability.”

Concluding Remarks

Thus, with an overwhelmingly negative response from major gaming developers, will Unity reconsider its plan and come forward with a revamped version? While we think it is likely for Unity to alter some aspects of its model since it will only start on January 1st of next year, it is hard for us to predict what changes they can make to win over the trust of gaming developers again. What are your thoughts? Let us know on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. 

Frequently Asked Question

What Games Are Affected by the New Model?

According to the Runtime fee, every game involving Unity that surpassed the threshold they set will have to pay additional fees. Thus, popular games such as Among Us, Genshin Impact, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Cult of the Lamb, Pokemon Go and many more are susceptible to the new model.

When Does the Runtime Fee Start?

The Runtime Fee will start on January 1st, 2024. However, with the overwhelming dissatisfaction from the gaming developers, we foresee them delaying it and coming up with countermeasures to deal with the current situation. 

Is There Conflict within Unity?

According to a deleted Twitter post, an employee in Unity supposedly wrote: “We communicated extensively internally how horribly the reaction would be. We also stressed simplicity and an extensive FAQ detailing all edge cases.” Thus, if we believe it to be accurate, there is a rift and division within Unity Technologies.