Unity's self-combustion engine | This Week in Business
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Unity had a pretty bad week.
I'm actually writing this lead on Tuesday afternoon, but feeling pretty confident that whatever happens from here on out, this much will be true.
(Friday morning update: Yup.)
Tuesday morning, Unity decided to introduce its new Runtime Fee, which Unity developers of a certain size will have to pay every time their game is installed on a new device after January 1, 2024.
STAT | $0.20 – The fee per install for small developers (Unity Personal subscribers) whose games brought in $200,000 in the past year and have 200,000 lifetime installs to date.
STAT | $0.01 – The fee per install for large developers (Unity Enterprise clients) whose games brought in $1 million in the past year and have lifetime sales of one million or more.
It doesn't sound like a lot, and if a developer just had to pay the fee each time they sold a $60 game, it wouldn't be. But there are problems because these charges are based on game installs, not sales, and Unity has not done a great job communicating what's going on here.
QUOTE | "An install is defined as the installation and initialization of a project on an end user's device." – Unity's initial FAQ on the new fee.
We asked Unity if that would include demos, since those are distinct projects that get installed on end user devices and certainly seem to count.
QUOTE | "No, demos, trials, game bundles and giveaways - like the Humble Bundle - do not count as installs." – A Unity spokesperson, in an email response to
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