Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs.
We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed.
Games qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee after two criteria have been met: 1) the game has passed a minimum revenue threshold in the last 12 months, and 2) the game has passed a minimum lifetime install count.
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Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs.
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Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.
This means that if you have made more than $200K in the last 12 months and have lifetime installs of over 200K, you'll have to pay per game install. It won't affect most people but this sounds outrageous. It's a good time to be a Godot enthusiast. Unity really is insanely desperate these days.
I'm curious what happens if a developer cancels their contract and refuses to pay?
Does that mean I can no longer install the games I already own?
Edit: Looking more at the pricing across the various plans, it seems more like a way to force lower tier subscribers into the higher tier plans. It's like 20 cents an install for the cheaper plan, but drops to 1 cent for Enterprise customers.
Doing it per installation is still fucking bullshit though. Do it per sale, unless you're not tracking that. In which case how are you tracking how much money they're getting?