Unity has cancelled its controversial Runtime Fee

Unity has announced that it has scrapped its controversial Runtime Fee.

The fee, which was introduced in September 2023 and was set to start on January 1, was initially going to see Unity charging a royalty fee based on the number of times a game is installed using the Unity engine.

Later that month the company partially walked back on its plans, saying the Runtime fee would only apply to users subscribed to its Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscription services, and would no longer apply to existing games.

However, in a new statement posted on the Unity website, Unity president and CEO Matt Bromberg announced that the fee has now been scrapped entirely.

“After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers, effective immediately,” he wrote. “Non-gaming Industry customers are not impacted by this modification.

“Over the last 20 years, we’ve partnered with brilliant designers and developers, artists and engineers, publishers and platforms, to build a world where great games could be built by anyone, for everyone. We called it ‘democratising game development’, and it remains our core mission today.

“However, we can’t pursue that mission in conflict with our customers – at its heart, it must be a partnership built on trust.

“I’ve been able to connect with many of you over the last three months, and I’ve heard time and time again that you want a strong Unity, and understand that price increases are a necessary part of what enables us to invest in moving gaming forward.

“But those increases needn’t come in a novel and controversial new form. We want to deliver value at a fair price in the right way so that you will continue to feel comfortable building your business over the long term with Unity as your partner.

“And we’re confident that if we’re good partners and deliver great software and services, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do together.”

Instead of the Runtime Fee, Unity will be reverting to its seat-based subscription model, but will be raising prices for Unity Pro and Enterprise subscriptions.

While Unity Personal will remain free (and its revenue and funding ceiling has been raised from $100,000 to $200,000), Unity Pro subscriptions will rise 8% to $2,200 annually and Unity Enterprise subscriptions will rise by 25%.