Unity is making some changes to its controversial Runtime Fee, thanks community for its “hard feedback”

The president of Unity Create, Marc Whitten, has published an open letter responding to the backlash over the recent Unity Runtime Fee announcement, and has outlined a number of changes that are going to be made to the policy before it’s enforced in 2024.

“I want to start with simply this: I am sorry,” Whitten wrote. “We should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy. Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can continue to support you today and tomorrow, and keep deeply investing in our game engine.”

Explaining the changes, Whitten first confirmed that the Runtime Fee will no longer apply to Unity Personal and Unity Plus users. Runtime Fee aside, the annual revenue and funding limit for Personal is being increased from $100,000 to $200,000, and it will no longer be a requirement to use the “Made in Unity” splash screen – this will become optional. 

Detailing the further alterations to the Runtime Fee, Whitten continued: “No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee.”

While the Runtime Fee will still apply to Unity Pro and Enterprise users, it will now only apply to games created with the next Long Term Support (LTS) releasing in 2024, so games that have already been shipped and projects currently in the works will not be affected unless they’re upgraded. 

Furthermore, affected users will have the choice between paying a 2.5% revenue share or a calculated amount based on the amount of “unique initial engagements” on their game(s). They will pay whichever amount is the smallest, and both potential costs are calculated based on self-reported data. 

Wrapping up the letter, Whitten added: “Thank you for caring as deeply as you do, and thank you for giving us hard feedback.”

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