The Unity Runtime Fee Plan: Irreparable Damage to the brand of N-BooGiving Games, as Derived from User Feedback
The new plan is a drastic departure from what was initially announced. Users of the personal subscription plan will not be charged the new fee and the revenue cap on games will be increased to $200,000.
Even though this latest announcement appears to address many concerns, it seems like trust between the game development community and Unity might have been irrevocably damaged. The company will be hosting a live “fireside chat” on YouTube to discuss the new policy on Friday at 4PM ET / 1PM PT.
Throughout this launch, users have been asking what the decision will be when a game has met revenue thresholds. It said that it relied on proprietary software, but would not reveal how the software worked. The developers were concerned that the software they were using was unreliable or that they would run afoul of privacy laws. Unity has walked this back entirely, stating that now it will allow users to self-report revenue.
The poor communication between Unity and its associates was acknowledged. “I want to start with simply this: I am sorry,” Whitten said. “We should have spoken with more of you and we should have incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new Runtime Fee policy.”
Regardless of whatever changes Unity makes, Sheffield’s studio, Necrosoft Games, won’t be using Unity for its next project. He says they don’t trust them to stick to their word. We don’t trust how they update their engine in ways that affect us as PC/console developers. I think they have done irreparable damage to their brand for game developers in general, and the walkback isn’t going to fix it.”