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After near-universal backlash, Unity appears to be backtracking on a newly announced policy to charge developers a game installation fee after meeting certain thresholds. However, no specifics were detailed by the game engine company yet.
On Twitter/X, Unity issued a statement about the new policy after game developers openly derided the proposal, including the teams behind Cult of the Lamb and Among Us. “We have heard you,” Unity said. “We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days.”
Unity revealed the new runtime fee policies last week, which would see developers paying the company for game installations after making $200,000 within 12 months or seeing over 200,000 downloads. At first, it appeared that even demos would be counted toward the milestone, as well as installations on subscription services like Xbox Game Pass–though these situations were later omitted from the program. The fallout from the industry was almost immediate.
There is still skepticism, even after the public statement from Unity. For instance, The Game Awards founder and host Geoff Keighley replied on Twitter/X, saying, “Let’s see the changes.”
Earlier this year, Unity reportedly slashed 600 jobs as part of a round of layoffs, with plans to reduce worldwide offices from 58 to fewer than 30.
