Unity revises its controversial Runtime Fee Policy amid backlash from the gaming community

Unity has revised its recent controversial Runtime Fee policy in response to backlash from the gaming community. Under the new model, Unity Personal plan subscribers are exempt from the new fee. The company has also raised the revenue cap for games developed under the Unity Personal plan to $200,000, with games earning less than $1 million annually also being exempt from the fee. The requirement to use the 'Made with Unity' splash screen has also been removed.

For Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise plan subscribers, the updated pricing model (Runtime Fee policy) will only apply to games developed with the upcoming Long Term Support (LTS) version of Unity, due to release in 2024, so already launched games won't be affected by the new policy, unless creators choose to upgrade them to this new version of Unity.

Developers who must pay the runtime fee can choose between a 2.5 percent revenue share or a fee based on new player engagement monthly, effective from 2024. Unity will also allow users to follow the terms of service that correspond to their Unity version, restoring a previously promised but later withdrawn feature. The company is actively working to rebuild trust within the game development community, although many developers seem to be taking this event as an opportunity to start considering more open alternatives like Godot Engine in light of the uncertainty that has arisen.