Unity Engine: Developers will be charged based on game installs starting next year

IT House News on September 13, Unity Engine announced that from January 1, 2024, developers will be charged based on game installs.

In the article "Unity Charging Model and Companion Service Update", Unity Engine officially said that starting January 1, 2024, a new Unity Runtime fee will be introduced based on the number of installs of the game. In addition, in November, the Unity Engine will add tools and services such as cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and the ability to run AI models locally for free, on top of existing subscription plans.

The Unity Engine is basically made up of two important software parts: the Unity Editor and the Unity Runtime. The Unity Runtime is code that executes on the player's device.

Unity officially said that the introduction of Unity Runtime fees is based on the number of times a high-quality game is downloaded by end users. This billing method was chosen because the Unity Runtime is also installed each time the game is downloaded. In addition, Unity officials also believe that the initial install-based fee model allows creators to continue to earn money in the process of interacting with players, which is different from the revenue sharing model.

Games that trigger Unity Runtime charges need to meet both of the following conditions:

1) the game's revenue in the last 12 months has exceeded the minimum revenue threshold;

2) The game has exceeded the minimum lifetime installs.

In order to avoid the impact on games that are still in the growth period, Unity officially sets a fee threshold, and only games that meet the following fee thresholds need to pay Unity Runtime fees:

Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Revenue of $200,000 or more (currently approximately CNY 1.46 million) in the last 12 months and 200,000 installs over the lifetime of the game.

Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Revenue of $1 million or more in the last 12 months (currently approximately CNY 7.3 million) and 1 million installs over the lifetime of the game.

As a result of this new charging model, starting January 1, 2024, Unity will officially make Unity Personal available to everyone, regardless of revenue, giving creators more flexibility in managing licenses. However, when the revenue and installs of the game exceed the charging threshold, the studio needs to pay a small fixed fee for each installation of the game, which can be found in the following table:

Finally, to streamline the subscription plans offered, Unity Plus subscription plans will no longer be available to new users as of September 12, 2023. Existing Unity Plus users do not need to do anything at this time, and the official provides existing users with the option to upgrade to a Unity Pro subscription at the current Unity Plus subscription price, and the subscription period is one year.