I’ll be honest, I’m nowhere near making a game that even makes a dime, but one day I may be.
Unity announced on the 12th September that they’re changing things, and changing them for the worse not the better. They are scrapping Unity Plus and going to attempt to charge a “runtime fee” every time the game is installed once past a few limits. That is to say if you are on Unity Personal (or Unity Plus if you’re lucky enough to have a licence for it), you can make up to $200,000 in a year per game, and have 200,000 installs in your game’s lifetime before being charged for the privilege, or $1,000,000 and 1,000,000 installs on Unity Pro and Enterprise.
Scrapping Unity Plus
I have no idea why, this entire thing is just a money grab.
For those of you who, like me, were contemplating buying Unity Plus when it got to seriously releasing anything, just so the splash screen can be removed/edited, that’s no longer an option. Instead, there’s the “Pro” subscription, at 4-5 times the price and almost $200/mo (not that you can only pay for a month, but you get the idea).
The “Runtime Fee”
What absolute tosh. <— You can insert whatever other mostly 4 letter word you want here, I can think of a few other choice ones myself😉
Who knows how many times their game will be installed, and on how many devices? Who knows how Unity is detecting “fraudulent” installs? Who determines what fraudulent is? If I have a piece in my own TOS that says players can only install a game on one machine ever, and I get more installs than sales, are the extras fraudulent? There are a lot of unanswered questions.
What about the TOS?
If you had a Unity account before April 03, 2023, you’re in luck – The terms of service from that time have 2 tricksy pieces of language that stop you from being impacted unless you change to Unity 2024.x whenever they decide to release that. Unfortunately if you’re a new Unity developer, there’s not a lot you can do, as the new language does technically allow them to impose the fee.
Conditioned upon your compliance with these Software Terms and the Terms, and payment of all applicable subscription fees, Unity grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free right to […] distribute the Unity Runtime as an integrated part of your Projects, solely as embedded or incorporated into your Projects
Section 2.1, Pre April 03, 2023 terms
The runtime fee is a royalty, is it not?
Without limiting the Terms, Unity may update these Software Terms at any time for any reason and without notice (the “Updated Terms”) and those Updated Terms will apply to the most recent current-year version of the Software, provided that, if the Updated Terms adversely impact your rights, you may elect to continue to use any current-year versions of the Unity Software […] according to the terms that applied just prior to the Updated Terms (the “Prior Terms”). The Updated Terms will then not apply to your use of those current-year versions unless and until you update to a subsequent year version of the Software
Section 6, Pre April 03, 2023 terms
Hmmm, that’s interesting…. it says they can’t act retrospectively, and the latest TOS don’t apply….
Why do I even care?
While I’ve already said I’m nowhere near making a dime from anything I’ve done in Unity, this effects the entire developer community, and also…. If I do end up making anything, the pre April TOS have the limits for the plans, so you can even upgrade or do those without inviting yourself into the new TOS.
What I’m doing about it
Sending a support ticket. Here it is:
Hi,
Please note that I DO NOT agree with your latest TOS update as of April 03, 2023 – As per section 6 of the previous TOS (that can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20230303043022/https://unity.com/legal/editor-terms-of-service/software) I elect to be bound by those terms, and no future ones for use of Unity versions prior to Unity 2024.x when they are released, as the update adversely impact my contract rights to not pay a fee for use of the Unity Runtime (section 2.1 of the previous terms). Please acknowledge this fact and notate my account so that no fees are charged now or in the future for builds of any games or products that are developed in Unity versions prior to 2024.x.
Please also note that anything I have had to click to say that I agree to the terms to notify you of this change is null and void, as the right is enshrined in a TOS already agreed to and any such acceptance was for the sole purpose of raising this ticket.
Currently I have no projects that even come close to the thresholds, but by doing this I can opt to change plan instead of paying, and am not bound by anything that Unity decides to thrust onto developers, now or in the future.
What next?
I’m sure their support teams are busy, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything.