this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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[–] simple@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Link to the official post: https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee

It still doesn't return the broken trust or conformation that the people running Unity are insane, but this is a good move and devs don't need to alarmingly port their current projects to other engines.

I want to start with this: I am sorry.

Translation: damn, we really didn't get away with this.

The Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond.

We will make sure that you can stay on the terms applicable for the version of Unity editor you are using

Good. This is how it should've been from the start. If they bake that into the license I think people will be comfortable staying on Unity for the time being.

For games that are subject to the runtime fee, we are giving you a choice of either a 2.5% revenue share or the calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month. Both of these numbers are self-reported from data you already have available. You will always be billed the lesser amount.

Also good. It should've been revshare from the start. I still don't understand how they would trust self-reported numbers but we'll see.

These are good changes. The damage isn't undone but at least current Unity devs won't be thrown under the bus.

Honestly, I don’t think Unity has much runway left at this point. The exec team isn’t changing, and they’re the ones that caused this clusterfuck with a blatant money grab. They also didn’t even mention the scummy anticompetitive (and potentially illegal in some jurisdictions) fee vouchers they were handing out to try to steal users from AppLovin, nor was the sneaky update of their license terms that was done to enable the whole snafu addressed.

They tried to fuck over their customer base quite a bit too hard, and it boomeranged very predictably.