Unity kills Runtime Fee for Personal users, offers rev share for others

gamesindustry.biz:

Unity has unveiled its planned changes to the controversial Runtime Fee policy that would charge developers fees on a per-install basis.

Unity Create president Marc Whitten detailed the changes in a blog post, starting with the removal of the Runtime Fee for any games built on a Unity Personal license.

Additionally, the company is changing some of the Unity Personal terms. Previously Personal accounts were only for developers who had less than $100,000 in revenue or funds raised in the previous year, but that's being upped to $200,000.

Also, Unity Personal developers will no longer need to feature the Made With Unity splash screen on their work.

Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise developers are being given the option of avoiding the Runtime Fee in favor of a 2.5% revenue share for the company, based on a developer's self-reported revenues.

Unity says if a developer takes that option and the revenue share works out to more than what the Runtime Fee would have been (based on the developer's self-reported new users), it will bill the lesser amount.

In another change to the plan, the Runtime Fee will no longer be retroactive; it will only apply to developers who ship their games using versions of Unity that ship in 2024 or later, so previously released titles and games that ship with the current version of the engine or earlier versions will be exempt.

"We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using – as long as you keep using that version," Whitten said.

Whitten also said he was sorry, and that Unity should have spoken with more developers and incorporated more feedback before announcing the Runtime Fee initially.

"Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can