Unity is “making changes” to its controversial install fee policy

Following a wave of criticism from the gaming community, Unity has announced that it will modify its new policy, which will require developers to pay a fee for each install.

The details:

• Unity has issued an apology in a new tweet following the announcement of its plan to implement a "Unity Runtime Fee" in 2024, which resulted in a generally negative response from players and developers who have previously used the engine. The company stated that it is "listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy," with more details coming "in a couple of days."
• Overall, reactions to the response have been mixed, with some praising Unity for seemingly listening, while others are skeptical of the company as it stated that it would only be "making changes" rather than reversing the policy entirely. "There was zero confusion. Just anger and total loss of trust that you would change existing contracts because you feel like it," said Monomi Park CEO Nick Popovich. "This policy, modified in a couple days or not, retains the above."
• Others pointed out that Unity referred to the backlash as "confusion," which many interpret as the company implying that the issues with the policy were simply due to studios not understanding. "I’d really like it if they stopped telling us we’re confused," said Bithell Games’ Mike Bithell. "If anything, the issue is an over abundance of clarity."
• Unity announced the fee last week, with developers required to pay up to $0.20 every time a game was installed after a certain number of copies were sold, beginning in 2024. It was then reworked to only count first-time installs, but many people continued to attack the company, with one employee even sending threats to two of its offices.

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