Yesterday, Unity announced changes to the policies surrounding its engine that may have changed the landscape of gaming in ways we can’t predict just yet. The Unity Runtime Fee is set to go into effect on January 1, 2024, and will charge developers or publishers a small fee every single time a user downloads their game. Almost immediately, developers like Cult of the Lamb‘s Massive Monster came out against the changes, posting their displeasure on Twitter to try to drum up support against Unity’s new policies.
After the initial announcement, Unity did walk back some aspects of the policy, claiming that the fees would only affect a small number of developers who pass a certain threshold. It also clarified that only the initial install would count, though if you install it on multiple devices, each device will count. This was announced to ward off some of the criticism from fans and developers worried that someone could use the install fee as a way to hurt developers they’re angry with. Unity also said that games on Xbox Game Pass and other subscription services wouldn’t be charged a fee. Instead, those fees would go to Microsoft or whichever company is hosting the service. Which will surely go over well with a company like Microsoft.
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What Are Developers Saying About the Unity Changes?
However, that has only gone so far to quell developer concerns, and the backlash Unity has been getting is only growing. Several developers have posted to Twitter about how the changes will affect their games, with some like Aggro Crab openly mulling the option of abandoning Unity entirely. Cult of the Lamb developer Massive Monster took things to the next level by saying that it’s planning to delete the game on January 1.
Now, it should be noted that this is probably a joke. After all, the Unity policy isn’t retroactive, so Massive Monster doesn’t have to worry about getting a huge fee once the policy goes live. That said, it is a great way to draw eyes to the issue and publicly pressure Unity to walk the changes back even further. In a tweet from its developer account, Massive Monster says, “This change would result in significant delays [for future games] since our teams would need to acquire an entirely new skill set.”
Reigns developer Nerial also joined in with its own humorous take on the situation. Using the format fans know from its games, Nerial directly called out Unity CEO John Riccitiello in its tweet. It’s clear that if this change does stick in its current format, many developers will likely leave Unity behind very quickly.
Whatever ends up happening, it’s certainly a volatile situation, and there’s almost no way Unity comes out of this looking good in the eyes of developers. Even if it does roll everything back, it’ll be interesting to see if developers leave for other engines because they don’t want to deal with Unity anymore. Either way, it’s a situation worth paying attention to over the next few months.
