Unity announces fees based on a game's installations and the developer's plan tier, starting on January 1, 2024, joining Unreal Engine, which has similar fees
Yesterday Unity announced that starting next year … Scott Hayden / Road to VR : Epic Games is “exploring native Unreal Engine support” for Apple Vision Pro Stephen Totilo / Axios : Unity rushes to clarify price increase plan, as game developers fume Dennis Patrick / Gameranx : Unity Developer Shows How They Would Owe Millions From New Fee Requirements Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media : “This Is a Disaster:” Game Developers Scramble to Deal With Unity's New Fees James Batchelor / GamesIndustry.biz : Unity clarifies new fee plans amid developer backlash Wesley Yin-Poole / IGN : 'Rust 2 Definitely Won't Be a Unity Game', Insists Furious Dev Dev's Games : Consumer FAQ About Unity's Recent Decision I've noticed there's a few frequently asked questions … TechNode : Unity's new installation fee infuriates global game developers Shunal Doke / GamingBolt : Cult of the Lamb Developer, Other Indie Studios Respond to Unity Engine's New Pricing Policy Unity Forum : Official Unity plan pricing and packaging updates Rawmeatcowboy / GoNintendo : Cult of the Lamb may be delisted Jan 1st, 2024 Threads: Anuj Ahooja / @quillmatiq : Unity is playing the “shoot first, deal with developers later” playbook from Reddit's recent API pricing changes. The sad part? Unity will be fine, normal every day users will never even know this happened, and small devs will be forced to pivot or die. … Miguel de Icaza / @migueldeicaza : Unity silently deletes previous pledge to allow you to abide by the license terms you had when you bought. Now they are claiming new terms override previous ones. Seems like they are exposing themselves to a promissory estoppel lawsuit: https://blog.unity.com/... Mastodon: Ryan Paul / @segphault@mastodon.social : FAQ from Unity says that for WebGL content in the browser, it counts as an “install” for every “initialization of the runtime on a client device” — which would seem to mean every page load. — Nobody involved in writing this policy understands the product. … @gamingonlinux@mastodon.social : This is fucked up. No other words for it. A REINSTALL is charged to game devs. #Unity — [image] Will Iverson / @wiverson@mas.to : I am literally going to have to rewrite the https://Dayboard.io parent and family apps in another stack because of this. Maybe capacitor/Tauri/Sveltekit, Godot, or native swift/Kotlin. — Ugh. — #unity #godot #capacitor #sveltekit #svelte #swift #kotlin — https://www.gamedeveloper.com/ ... Elissa / @vampiress@eigenmagic.net : “But now I can say, unequivocally, if you're starting a new game project, do not use Unity. If you started a project 4 months ago, it's worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.” — https://www.gamedeveloper.com/ ... X: @aggrocrabgames : SIGH [image] @innerslothdevs : [image] @unity : 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... Stephen Totilo / @stephentotilo : I got some clarifications from Unity regarding their plan to charge developers per game install (after clearing thresholds) - If a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that's 2 installs, 2 charges - Same if they install on 2 devices - Charity games/bundles exempted from fees @massivemonster : Stop the stink @unity [video] Troy Kirwin / @tkexpress11 : I worked on an early, very different iteration of the @unity pricing changes ~1 yr ago My thoughts: 1. Unity strategically had no choice but to make changes 2. Devs are upset, but it isn't quite as bad as it seems 3. Unity's comms & implementation wasn't great More below 👇 @mikeisaac : a smart indie dev studio owner i spoke to yesterday postulated a theory that unity's self inflicted disaster of increasing fees based on downloads was spurred by the runaway success of genshin impact, one of the largest games to run on unity — see below Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Unity CEO John Riccitiello was EA CEO when FIFA 09 launched with loot boxes. Last year he said devs making games without monetization in mind are “fucking idiots.” In an EA stockholder meeting he entertained the idea of charging $1 to reload an ammo clip in Battlefield. Mark Mayers / @desolusdev : [video] Xalavier Nelson Jr / @writnelson : ...I'm hearing at least one significant group of developers is talking a class-action lawsuit against Unity. Holy shit. Scott Richmond / @scotttrichmond : Pretty cool to see #unity execs performing actual insider trading by selling shares mere days before the obvious shitshow that is now the pricing structure changes. [image] Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 2/ I argue in this piece that mediation is the critical component to a scaled, integrated app-install ads business post-ATT because it delivers the bid data needed to optimize demand-side targeting. https://mobiledevmemo.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : I think Unity's per-install pricing decision is being misinterpreted. Unity's blog post says explicitly that the company will offer discounts for adopting LevelPlay. I imagine that Unity would far prefer devs adopt LevelPlay than pay runtime fees. (1/X) https://mobiledevmemo.com/... @henryhoffman : if you buy our Unity game, please don't install it @samueldeats : I've never seen something so poorly thought through, lmao how is this real [image] @madewithgodot : The end of an era. But also...the start of another. 😉 @tempolabgames : Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Unity Runtime Fee $5,600,000 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my indie studio is dying @dgoodayle : One final cash grab of a dying business. I'm so sad to see something the helped me start my career turn into this mess. Anyone looking to get into Unreal, give me a shout, happy to train up, port projects or give advice Rami Ismail / @tha_rami : Listen folks, y'all can stop arguing the specifics. Here's the four main things: - Unity should not be able to retroactively change the terms & conditions on products or sales you've already made. Them making this move says they're willing to, and that should be terrifying. @zaccacts : You know what... maybe I don't want them to stop posting about Among Us after all... Josh Sawyer / @jesawyer : I love that there's a stream of updates from 3rd parties that are all like I talked to Unity and they clarified that: 1) the bad thing is even worse 2) the less bad thing is the same amount of bad 3) there's a new secret 3rd bad thing that's the worst thing you've ever heard Brandon Sheffield / @necrosofty : So now Microsoft is gonna pay fees for gamepass? Good luck with that. And lemme tell ya, talking a bunch of nonsense and then walking it back to another ambiguous place does not give me confidence in your ability to run a product Dillon Rogers / @tafferking451 : No. Walk back the installation fee entirely. @mikeisaac : congrats to epic games, owners of unreal engine, for all the business sent their way from the self-inflicted wound over at their main competitor unity, whose fee changes today seems to have pissed off every game dev on earth https://www.axios.com/... Doc / @docsquiddy : I bet that they were always planning this, they just thought that they were Galaxy braining by asking more than they actually wanted and unity users would accept getting screwed less than a worst case scenario @theswweet : A list of games running on Unity: -Genshin Impact -Honkai Star Rail -Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl -Fate GO -Among Us -Fall Guys SOMEONE is gonna end up sending John Unity a horse's head as a message @adamatomic : really looking forward to getting invoiced for what unity believes is “an accurate determination of the number of times a runtime is distributed for a given project” based on undisclosed proprietary data sounds positively airtight and extremely legal Will / @willmesilane : Even if Unity rolled this decision back would you actually trust them to not do some unbelievably idiotic thing like this ever again?? @madscientist212 : Reminder, in their forum FAQ, Unity claimed the reason they had to charge for reinstalls was because “Unity doesn't receive end-player information, just aggregate data.” Now they're claiming only first time installs will count. This is contradictory. They are blatantly lying. Rami Ismail / @tha_rami : Literally the entire situation with Unity could've been avoided if they'd gone with a good ol' revenue share. Nobody would've liked that, but it would literally have avoided almost *every single issue* that people have raised, and the objections would've blown over in a moment. @patstaresat : I can't understand how this is legal. Take Pillars of Eternity 2, a game that shipped years ago under Unitys conditions at the time, and Unity says that NOW Obsidian owes them for every new install? It's like home depot deciding to charge me every time I swing hammer I got there @chrisdeleon : also Microsoft at the same time, which isn't much smaller than Apple. these corporations exist on a scale where Unity might as well propose they're going to bill national governments then just expect them to do that because they had the idea to ask for it https://www.axios.com/... [image] Jacob Janerka / @jacobjanerka : Our game The Dungeon Experience is made in Unity, so with their new announcement of potential cost for paid installs, our game on release will now only be playable in my house with cash payment. I will be personally providing complimentary tea and a firm handshake. David Szymanski / @duskdev : I've been through “this will destroy indies” policy changes before, and none of them were as bad as they looked on Twitter, so I'm hoping this Unity thing will be similar. That said, regardless of what happens, Butcher's Creek will be my last game on Unity. Brandon Sheffield / @necrosofty : Unity is saying charity bundles are exempted from fees, but *they don't know* which installs are from charity bundles. Even we as devs don't have a way of knowing that. Did I sell this game on humble or was it free in a charity bundle? Unity doesn't have access to that info. @succinct_punchy : if anyone's wondering what precisely has compelled Unity to try and racketeer the entire developer ecosystem reliant on it, I have a pretty good theory. [image] @mkatorin : >Find Unity indie passion project on itch >Has women and minorities in it >*uninstall* *reinstall* *uninstall* *reinstall* *uninstall* *reinstall* *uninstall* *reinstall* *uninstall* *reinstall* *uninstall* *reinstall* [image] @alexstrook : Unity: your game was installed 300K times Me: how do you know that? Unity: [image] Lars Doucet / @larsiusprime : It occurs to me that Unity's new pricing model incentivizes developers to get people to buy their games but then never install them. Steam players, you know what to do. You've been preparing all your lives for this moment. Remember your training. @komegatze : Reminder that the CEO of Unity is the same guy from EA who thought you as the player should pay real money for bullets in an fps game every time you reload. @kriswolfheart : phil spencer walking in on Jan 1st to find a 300,000,000 dollar bill from Unity lmao https://twitter.com/... Stephen Totilo / @stephentotilo : NEW - I got a major update from Unity about their new fees - Unity “regrouped” and now says ONLY the initial installation of a game triggers a fee - Demos mostly won't trigger fees - Devs not on the hook for Game Pass More here: https://www.axios.com/... Rami Ismail / @tha_rami : Just as a note, gamers, the Unity changes mean the following for you: - Demos are now risky to devs - DRM-free games are now risky to devs - Bundles are now risky to devs - Giveaways are now risky to devs - Updates are now risky to devs - Multi-device users are now risky to devs @lazerwalker : You've gotta hand it to Unity for single-handedly causing the entire games industry to completely waste at least a day of productivity Dominic Tarason / @dominictarason : Still in a state of disbelief that when asked for clarification by a journalist, Unity clarified that yes, EVERY time you install a game using the engine, they will charge the developer extra for it. Even if you uninstall and reinstall on the same machine. That is madness. @lazerwalker : are you a badass enough game dev to walk the tightrope of having your game classified as “gambling” by Unity Software Inc but not by the US government Edmond Tran / @edmondtran : Haha the Unity pricing shit doesn't apply to developers using it for gambling purposes what the christ [image] @mortredenjoyer : No More Heroes III is the only video game that lets you beat the ever-living dogshit out of the current CEO of Unity in a Smash Bros-style boss fight approved by Nintendo. And it was made in Unreal Engine too. Tap in. [video] @kriswolfheart : Unity is making this real [image] Kenney / @kenneynl : Unity will soon charge devs per-install after a certain threshold. I'd like to express my concerns regarding privacy (tracking installs/downloads), preservation and changing the whole business model while devs are using the engine for their projects. 🫤 https://blog.unity.com/... @comrade_waluigi : if you told people like ten years ago that unreal engine would one day be more accessible for indie devs than unity they'd think you're fucking insane @unity : @CactusVRStudios We leverage our own proprietary data model, so you can appreciate that we won't go into a lot of detail, but we believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. @mikeisaac : congrats to epic games, owners of unreal engine, for all the business sent their way from the self-inflicted wound over at their main competitor unity, whose fee changes today seems to have pissed off every game dev on earth https://www.axios.com/... Pim de Witte / @pimdewitte : I'm originally a @unitygames developer and creator of an open source Unity project used by thousands of developers. I'm now a CEO of a $100M+ company. Here's where I'm at on the Unity pricing model change. First, let's dig into why they likely did this. 1) per-seat pricing... [image] @kurtruslfanclub : > make a game > game is fremium > game makes 200k from in-app purchases after being installed 3 million times > now owe Unity 20c per 2.8M installs, $560K > that's 360K more than we made Aram Zucker-Scharff / @chronotope : The more I learn about the Unity thing and how they plan to run it, the more dumb it gets. Just real high level greedy moron stuff executed with all the elegance of shooting yourself in the foot. @henryhoffman : if you buy our Unity game, please don't install it Miguel de Icaza / @migueldeicaza : So every Unity game has been phoning home without the knowledge of the developer or the user? This would be some AAA-grade shenanigans. Philipp Seifried / @philippseifried : So the company that introduced a per install fee with no advance notice is going to tell you how many installs you have to pay them for, through black box tech where you can appreciate that they won't go into a lot of detail. You guys are hearing yourselves, right? Alyssa Sweetman / @alykkat : I feel for everyone at Unity today that wasn't part of the decision, pushed against it, or is managing customer support today... bc ooof, those front facing teams today. Stephen Totilo / @stephentotilo : I got some clarifications from Unity regarding their plan to charge developers per game install (after clearing thresholds) - If a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that's 2 installs, 2 charges - Same if they install on 2 devices - Charity games/bundles exempted from fees Forums: r/gamedev : Unity can get f*ked.. from Rust developers r/thelongdark : Unity's new fees leave game developers fuming r/KotakuInAction : Unity rushes to clarify price increase plan, as game developers fume r/gachagaming : Unity clarifies price increase plan r/Suikoden : Remember that the remasters are being developed using Unity? r/XboxSeriesX : Unity introducing new fee attached to game installs r/wildrift : WildRift is about to get screwed over by the new Unity Pricing and Packaging updates r/LegendsOfRuneterra : LoR is getting screwed over by the new Unity pricing update r/gamedev : Innersloth (Among Us developers) announce they will move engines if Unity follows through with pricing changes r/gaming : Unity rushes to clarify price increase plan, as game developers fume r/Genshin_Impact : Genshin's engine, unity, will start charging per game install starting 2024 r/ThePrimeagenReact : Unity will introduce a new Runtime Fee that's based on game installs r/technology : Unity has changed its pricing model, and game developers are pissed off
Context & Ripple Effects
Unity’s proposed Runtime Fee made engine pricing a direct operating consideration for developers, with charges tied to installations and plan tier rather than solely to upfront software access.
The initial announcement was followed by scope clarifications, then discussion of a possible revenue-based cap and, later, exemptions for Unity Personal and older engine versions. That sequence shows how quickly implementation details became central to the policy’s impact.
First-order effects
- Unity developers must model potential Runtime Fee exposure against their game’s installation volume and their current plan tier before the stated January 1, 2024 start date.
- Unity changes the commercial terms for affected customers; developers using competing engines, including Unreal Engine, gain a more immediate basis for comparing engine costs and contract risk.
Second-order effects
- Studios and publishers are likely to put more weight on whether an engine’s pricing is predictable across launches, demos, subscriptions, and distribution arrangements, rather than treating engine selection as only a technical decision.
- Unity’s follow-on clarifications and contemplated cap show that backlash can force a pricing-policy redesign, making the final rules—not just the announced headline rate—material to customers’ planning.
Third-order effects
- If usage-linked engine charges persist, game-engine vendors will compete more explicitly on the auditability and predictability of their monetization terms, alongside tooling and performance.
- The episode points to greater scrutiny of unilateral platform-policy changes: developers may seek contractual protections or favor tools with lower switching and pricing risk, though the corpus does not establish how broadly that shift will occur.
The trend: Game-development infrastructure is moving toward more complex, usage-linked monetization, making pricing governance a competitive feature of the engine market.