Unity Has Heard the Feedback, Vows to Change Runtime Fee Policy After Massive Backlash

wccftech.com:

Following the massive backlash caused by the new Runtime fee policy enacted by Unity Technologies for games made with its engine, the company has finally decided to correct course.

In a brief tweet posted a few hours ago, Unity said they 'heard the feedback' and are listening, talking to partners and the community to deliver changes to the aforementioned Runtime fee policy. More information will be shared in the next couple of days.

As a reminder, under the Runtime fee policy, Unity planned to monetize new installations after the game or application made with the engine had reached certain thresholds. This would be a one-time fee that didn't apply to re-installs, trials/demos, web and streaming games, and digital copies distributed via charity giveaways. Installs made through subscription services would be paid by the owner of that service, such as Microsoft with Game Pass.

Even with all those caveats, nearly all game developers have condemned the new policy, threatening to switch to Epic's Unreal Engine if Unity did not revert their plans. However, analysts have a different point of view. For instance, MiDia Research Senior Analyst Karol Severin highlighted in this blog post that there might be underlying issues within the games industry behind the idea of the Runtime fee policy. Here's an excerpt:

The combination of the saturated attention economy and entertainment industry KPIs having gradually shifted from unit sales towards time spent (especially in games), alongside high inflation and interest rates, are showing its teeth.

Simply put, the number of games (and developers) has been growing faster than the industry revenues. Furthermore, revenues are increasingly tied to time spent (due to the rise of F2P and live ops),