The fallout to Unity’s recently announced price changes, including the new Unity Runtime Fee, keeps getting worse. While Unity have been mostly radio silent since the announcement, Unity developers certainly haven’t been. Now, they are fighting back in the only way they can, by hitting Unity in the pocket book.
The Unity Game Devs is a coalition of Unity Developers who have all signed on to the following pledge:
That’s why the September 12 announcement hits us hard. Effective January 1, 2024, Unity plans to introduce installation-dependent fees, a decision that jeopardizes small and large game developers alike, made without any industry consultation. To claim, as Unity has, that this new ‘Runtime Fee’ will impact only 10% of the industry is not just misleading, it’s patently false.
We strongly oppose this move, which disregards the unique challenges and complexities of our industry.
While we’ve always viewed our work as a collaborative effort, this decision blindsided us. With one stroke of the pen, you’ve put hundreds of studios at risk, all without consultation or dialogue.
To put it in relatable terms – what if automakers suddenly decided to charge us for every mile driven on the car that you bought a year ago? The impact on consumers and the industry at large would be seismic.
The action taken:
As a course of immediate action, our collective of game development companies is forced to turn off all ironSource and Unity Ads monetization across our projects until these changes are reconsidered.
We urge others who share this stance to do the same. The rules have changed, and the stakes are simply too high. The Runtime Fee is an unacceptable shift in our partnership with Unity that needs to be immediately canceled.
Key Links
Applovin Response to Recent Targeting (Wayback Machine Link, Bad Gateway on Source)
You can learn more about the Unity Game Dev coalition in the video below.