On September 12, 2023, Unity made some anti-consumer pricing strategy changes. After a hard backlash from its users, the company stepped back and tried to revert some of the changes and avoid the damage it has done.
However, the changes were not good enough, and John Riccitiello, the company’s former president, stepped down. On May 15, the company appointed Matthew Bromberg as its new president.
In Unity’s blog post, Matthew Bromberg shared that the Runtime Fee will be canceled, effective immediately, for all its customers. This new modification won’t impact non-gaming industry customers.
The blog post mentions that over the last 20 years, Unity has partnered with hundreds of thousands of designers, developers, artists, engineers, publishers, and platforms, and their goal was to “democratize game development” by building a platform where games can be made by anyone, for everyone.
To build back the broken trust between the company and consumers, the blog post mentions that the company wants to deliver value at a fair price in the right way so that the consumers feel comfortable building their businesses over the long term with Unity as their partner.
Unity is reverting its existing seat-based subscription model for all gaming customers, including those who adopted Unity 6.
The following is the new strategic model of the company, according to its blog post:
- Unity Personal: As announced last year, Unity Personal will remain free, and the company will be doubling the current revenue and funding ceiling from $100,000 to $200,000 USD. This means more customers can use the engine at no cost. The Made with Unity splash screen will become optional for Unity Personal games made with Unity 6 when it launches later this year.
- Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: The company will be modifying subscription pricing and the qualifying annual revenue thresholds, effective January 1, 2025. These changes will apply to all new and existing Pro and Enterprise customers when customers purchase, upgrade, or renew a subscription on or after this date.
- Unity Pro: An 8% subscription price increase to $2,200 USD annually per seat will apply to the Pro version. Pro version will be required for customers with more than $200,000 USD of total annual revenue and funding.
- Unity Enterprise: A 25% subscription price increase will apply to Unity Enterprise. Unity Enterprise will be required for customers with over $25 million USD of total annual revenue and funding. A minimum subscription requirement may also apply. Because this set of its largest customers has unique needs and uses many of its products and services, the company will contact everyone in the days ahead to discuss customized packages.
“The Runtime Fee was an absolutely catastrophic decision from Unity and I don’t think there was any scenario where they wouldn’t kill it. The gaming industry, and especially mobile gaming, is currently not in a great place and simply couldn’t handle that fee structure.
The new direction from Unity is better and hopefully the outlook for games companies will improve next year, making it easier for studios to absorb the announced per-seat fee increases.
Nevertheless, this situation made it clear just how much power Unity has and how dangerous it is for an entire industry to be so reliant on a provider”
Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer of ZBD
The company states that from this point forward, it’s their intention to revert to a more traditional cycle of making any potential price increase only annually. Customers may continue using their current software version under the previously agreed terms as long as they keep using that version.
