Ten days after the internet was sent into a frenzy by announcing its new terms of service, Unity backed down. The company apologized and announced changes in pricing policy which provoked the ire of hundreds of thousands of developers. Although Unity does not completely eliminate installation costs, offers a royalty-based alternative.
Marc Whitten, head of Unity Create, posted a letter on the Unity blog with details the conditions that come into force from 2024. The manager apologized for not taking the community into consideration when announcing the controversial pricing policy. “You are what make Unity great, and we know we have to listen to you and work hard to earn your trust,” Whitten said.
This is indicated under the settings There is no installation fee for Unity Personal users – the basic plan of games. Unity eliminates the need to use the screen Made with unity and increased the income limit to $200,000. The company confirmed that games that generate less than $1 million per year will not pay the rate.
The most obvious change affects Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, the subscription models that most developers pay for. He The installation fee will not be charged retroactively and only applies to those using the 2023 LTS version of the graphics engine.
“The term fee policy only applies upon delivery of the next LTS version of Unity in 2024 and beyond. Games currently shipping and projects you are currently working on will not be included unless you choose to update to this new version of Unity.
Unit
The latter is important because the retroactive fee was applied One of the most controversial points during the announcement. Hundreds of developers accused Unity of violating trust by not adhering to the original terms of use. In response, the company mentioned that it will ensure compliance with the terms and conditions applicable to the version of the editor used by the developer.
Unity charges a fee for each game installation
The only thing that hasn’t changed is Intention to charge a fee for each game installation developed in Unity. The company has made adjustments but still intends to apply the Unity Runtime fee to Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscribers.
He The fee is charged as soon as two thresholds are exceeded: $1 million in gross revenue (last 12 months) and 1 million first interactions (installs). Developers can choose pay 2.5% of your income every month or the amount charged based on unique initial interactions.
All games exceeding this threshold are subject to a fee, including those distributed via streaming services, subscriptions or via WebGL application. That means Games developed with Unity 2023 LTS that reach Game Pass must pay the fee. If the service does not provide data on the number of installations, the developer may opt to pay license fees.
Unity will rely on data reported by developers, but in the absence of this will rely on information received through game engine services. Yes A user installs and uninstalls a game multiple times on their PC or console, it is counted as a single interaction. This prevents attacks such as: Check the bombing this could have an impact on your studies.
He The installation fee is different for each sales channel So when a user purchases the game on Xbox, PlayStation and Steam, an interaction is recorded for each platform. Developers can use estimates based on the number of units sold or installation data offered by each service.
