Unity has canceled the controversial Runtime Fee, though Pro and Enterprise subscriptions will receive price increases.
You may recall that last year, Unity - the leading engine for VR game development - announced the 'Runtime Fee' would charge developers based on revenue in the last 12 months and lifetime installs. Stating this would be applied to all currently available games using the popular engine, this controversial change caused a huge backlash from developers and threats of legal action.
Henry Stockdale
The fallout eventually led to the departure of the then-CEO, John Riccitiello, who's since been replaced by Matthew Bromberg, and the Runtime Fee was heavily revised to exclude games built on Unity Personal plans. Retroactive fees were also scrapped, though this still would have affected developers using Pro and Enterprise plans.
Exactly one year later after the controversial policy was initially revealed, it's now being scrapped "effective immediately." In a new statement, CEO Matthew Bromberg confirmed that the Unity Game Engine will revert back to a seat-based subscription model, which means one person can use an individual subscription across limitless devices.
As part of the announcement, Bromberg also outlined Unity's upcoming changes to its individual plans. Unity Personal will remain free as previously confirmed, and the funding ceiling will double from $100k to $200k. However, Unity Pro subscribers face an 8% annual subscription price rise to $2,200 per seat, while Unity Enterprise subscriptions will increase by 25% annually.
Pricing changes for both plans will take effect on January 1, 2025.
