Unity will exclude existing projects from payment per game installation

Unity will adjust the Runtime Fee that requires developers to pay per game installation. For example, there will be a limit on the maximum payment of 2.5 percent, games with less than 1 million dollars in turnover do not have to pay anything and existing games will be excluded.

The game engine maker says the Runtime Fee will only apply to games that use the next LTS version of Unity. This version should be released next year. Games that are shipped now and that developers are currently working on will therefore not be subject to the Runtime Fee, confirms Unityprovided the developers don’t upgrade the project to the latest Unity version.

The company also says it will increase the turnover threshold. Previously, only games with an annual turnover of $200,000 were exempt from the Runtime Fee, but now it will be $1 million. The Runtime Fee will also be capped at 2.5 percent of a game’s turnover. There were already rumors about such a limit, but then it was about 4 percent.

The Runtime Fee is an amount that developers must pay each time a user installs a game on a device for the first time. Unity sees the Fee as an additional source of income, on top of the amount developers already pay for the game engine. The company announced the Fee last week, which quickly drew criticism from game makers, partly because the Fee would also apply to existing games. The Fee should generate $0.20 to $0.005 per installation for Unity, depending on the number of installations; few installations cost more per installation than when there are many installations.

Unity executive Marc Whitten apologizes for the course of events and the lack of communication prior to the introduction of the Runtime Fee. Whitten says the Fee allows Unity to continue investing in the game engine.