Unity's latest response: We apologize for making changes to the Operating Fee policy
IT House News on September 18, Unity responded to the fee policy on X (Twitter): "We apologize for the confusion and anxiety caused by the fee policy announced on Tuesday, we are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers and partners, and will make changes to the policy." We will share the update in a few days. ”
IT House previously reported that in the article "Unity Charging Model and Supporting Service Update", Unity announced that starting January 1, 2024, a new Unity Runtime fee (commonly known as the "runtime fee") will be introduced based on the installs of the game, with a minimum of $0.005 per download and a maximum of $0.2. Unity will also 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 in November.
Unity officially said that the "running fee" introduced this time is based on the number of times a high-quality game is downloaded by end users. When you choose this billing method, your game is bundled with the Unity Runtime for download.
Games that trigger a "running fee" need to meet both of the following conditions:
The game's revenue in the last 12 months has exceeded the minimum revenue threshold;
The game has already exceeded the minimum number of lifetime installs.
Unity officially sets a fee threshold, and only games that meet the following fee thresholds need to pay a "running fee":
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.
After being denounced by various game developers, Unity officially clarified:
Demo downloads including game demos will not be counted towards the "run fee" unless "the demo is included as part of the full game download";
Early Access games will be charged, while games offered for or included in charity will be waived;
For games in a subscription-based service like Xbox Game Pass, Unity doesn't charge the game developer, but instead charges the service provider like Microsoft.