Unity apologises for its disastrous pricing plans and promises changes (but not reversal) in wake of developer backlash

rockpapershotgun.com:

Unity has apologised to developers for “confusion and angst” caused by its proposed new pricing structure that sought to charge game creators a fee every time their game was installed, promising that changes will be made - but without suggesting that it would pull away completely from implementing the much-criticised plans.

The game engine company revealed its controversial “Unity Runtime Fee” last week, announcing that it would begin charging game makers $0.20 for every additional copy sold past an annual revenue threshold of $200,000 and lifetime install threshold of 200,000 starting in 2024.

That’s 200,000 installs, not sales - meaning that one player installing the same game on multiple devices (or the same device multiple times) could contribute multiple installs to the total. Those thresholds would apply to those using the Personal or Plus editions of Unity, increasing to $1 million and one million lifetime installs for those on the engine’s Pro and Enterprise tiers, who would pay between $0.01 and $0.15 based on their monthly install figures.

Unsurprisingly, the announcement did not go down well with developers, with widespread backlash across the industry to the proposed pricing. A number of developers announced their intentions to move away from Unity if the plans went through, while others sought clarification about how installs would be accurately tracked (the answer: poorly), how the company would distinguish certain channels not counted towards those totals - such as charity bundles and demos - and the risk of fraudulent installs by those trying to damage devs by bumping up their fees (which apparently would need to be addressed after the fact).

Amid the industry outrage, Unity was forced to close