After severe criticism of the changed subscription model, CEO Marc Whitten is back with a new monetization.
We have already reported in detail about CEO Marc Whitten’s plans to change the Unity Engine subscription model for game developers. Many studios then decided to stop working together or to refuse planned payments to the engine provider.
After two days of heavy criticism, the company was forced to rethink its new monetization model. In a post on the social media platform X, Unity Create announced that it would re-examine the model and adjust it if necessary.
CEO Marc Whitten has now returned in an open letter to present the revised version.
In the beginning he apologizes for the first idea of the model:
“First let me start with this: I’m sorry.”
“We should have spoken to you and incorporated more of your feedback before announcing our new term fee policy. Our goal with this policy is to ensure we can continue to support you today and tomorrow and continue to invest heavily in our game engine.”
“You are what makes Unity great, and we know we have to listen and work hard to earn your trust. We have heard your concerns and are making changes to the policy we announced to address them.”
The adjustments to the payment models now look like this:
The Unity Personal tariff – This tariff is intended for young and small teams and projects – essentially remains free. If the game reaches sales of $200,000 (previously $100,000 was set), monetization is due. If the game does not reach the $1 million mark in the last 12 months, it is not affected by the fee. Experienced studios that work with Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise are relieved; the runtime fee does not apply to games that are in development or have already been published. This fee only applies when the developers upgrade their game to a current Unity version. The graphics model update is scheduled for January 2024. In the future, developers will have the choice of whether they give 2.5 percent of their total revenue from the game to Unity Create, or whether this runtime fee depends on the total revenue. Depending on the situation, the developer always chooses the cheaper option. The developer also presents the necessary key figures; previously Unity planned to measure the pure number of installations in an unexplained way. A major problem behind the non-transparent method would be, among other things, data protection.
What’s exciting now is how the studios react to this. Meanwhile, Unity Create is struggling to settle the damage. Especially that one X-Kanal The provider’s website is supported around the clock by social media agents; questions and discrepancies receive an answer there within a very short time. As a supplement, the company offered an open question and answer session via its YouTube channel. In a one-hour window, players and users were able to speak openly about the model.
After this short letter and the stream, there are still many unanswered questions for the studios. Support for the Unity version, which is currently priced at a lower price, is currently scheduled to be discontinued when the new version is released in January. Developers are therefore forced to switch to the new one if they want to continue working with it. The first statements from users are mixed. Many welcome this adjustment, others dislike the idea of being forced into the new model when the engine is changed. There are currently no reactions from larger studios, which is not surprising given the weekend.
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