What is the new Unity Engine policy? Pricing model results in backlash from game developers

Unity has been the go-to engine for video game developers, ranging from budding indie teams to major studios. Unfortunately, the company behind the popular software may have axed its own feet with a new pricing policy that has caught gamemakers off guard. To summarize, developers who release commercial titles running on Unity will have to pay a small fee for every unique install.

While the pricing is $0.2 per install for Unity Plus (reduced for higher subscriptions) and kicks in once certain profit thresholds are met, this move has many studios up in arms over how egregious it is.

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Game studios contemplate dropping Unity for future projects after introduction of perceived anti-developer pricing model

Basically, studios will have to pay Unity a small fee for game installs and revenue made. Called Runtime Fee, this feature will go live on January 1, 2024. For example, those using the Unity Personal/Plus plans will need to pay $0.2 per unique install after the game reaches the following milestones:

• $200,000 in profit over the past 12 months
• 200,000 total installs on user hardware

This pricing is reduced for subsequent models. Unity Pro users who have achieved one million in revenue alongside a million game installs will pay anywhere from $0.15 to $0.02 per install. This depends on how many times the title was installed leading up to that userbase number.

The company has slightly adjusted its ruleset for the policy since this announcement. For example, only unique installations of a game will trigger this fee. Users can uninstall and reinstall a title as many times on a platform without incurring costs to the developer, but if they own a copy across multiple systems, then each activation will cost the studio.

While this will not be much of an issue for one-time single-player games, free-to-play multiplatform games will find themselves in a pinch. All of this is incredibly bizarre, to say the least. As if this was not bad enough, even past Unity games from a studio will be charged the fee under this new model. On that note, how does the company intend to track pirated installs?

It is a dire situation, no matter the way it's twisted. As expected, game developers are rightfully upset. They have taken to social media to express their frustration over the unfairness of this new change.

From "Dusk" and "Iron Lung" developer David Szymanski to the team at Massive Monster of "Cult of the Lamb," no one approves of this idea. It seems like publishers will not take it kindly to this new development either.

Many people have been wondering how services like Xbox Game Pass would affect this as it does not just allow consumers unfettered access to a vast library of games but also allows installation across different Xbox and PC systems.

Now, it seems like the appropriate charges will be leveraged to the service owner instead, that is, Microsoft. It certainly smells like a lawsuit in the works. But wait, there is more. Users have been keen to point out that Unity's current CEO, John Riccitiello, is Electronic Art's ex-CEO, who has been notorious for making controversial statements in the past.

This includes calling developers who do not include microtransactions in their games "f*cking idiots." Given how game makers have collectively come together to fight back against this infuriating policy, it further hurts the company's credibility. If this isn't poetic justice, we don't know what is.

Back to the main topic, this puts a big dent in the dreams of many passionate hobbyists looking to break into the game development scene on the back of this highly popular game engine. Developers are already urging their fandoms not to purchase or install their games as their teams migrate to other software, such as Unreal Engine and Godot Engine.

If Unity wants to preserve its image as an industry leader, it needs to start working on it right now before it is too late.