Rebecca Cruciani September 18th, 2023 - 1:45 PM
Following the announcement of their new Runtime fee policy changes last week, game engine Unity has responded to the negative criticism from both developers and players. Unity’s Twitter/X account posted an update regarding the backlash.
“We have heard you.” The statement reads, “We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy.”
We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…
— Unity (@unity) September 17, 2023
Individuals have pointed out that the post does not seem to be a sincere apology to teams involved as the post merely states there will be changes to the policy, not canceling it all together like many had hoped.
yall not going to get off this like some bullshit video game apology with weak willed gamer nerds
people need to build a future with a design engine and the trust is already broken
no one going to build a castle on sand after your bullshit
— Zack (@Asmongold) September 18, 2023
Although bigger teams also use it, Unity is very popular among indie game developers, creating popular games such as Among Us and Cult of the Lamb, whose developers notably said that they will delete their game if the policy proceeds. These independent developers would suffer the most with the fee, as it would negatively affect their finances.
Despite the situation, gamers can look to the web browser Opera GX for humor in their “frog of shame” reply to Unity. The image states that if the frog receives more likes than the original post, then the original post is bad. Currently, the frog is winning that competition by quite a bit. Opera GX promises to continue to send the frog to Unity’s social media accounts until they revert the policy.
— Opera GX (@operagxofficial) September 18, 2023
If Unity continues with the Runtime fee policy, developers whose games use Unity and meet certain thresholds will have to pay a monthly fee based on the number of installations per month and which version of Unity (Personal, Plus, Pro or Enterprise) they licensed. These changes are supposed to occur starting January 1st, 2024.
