The title of this post is just straight up wrong and should be changed or this post flagged. They didn't reintroduce the "Runtime Fee" nor is it called that anywhere on the Unity site. It's an entirely different pricing setup that is virtually identical to Unreal's, just a bit cheaper.
binarynate · 1h ago
Clarification: Unity's "Industry" license is only for non-gaming and non-entertainment applications (e.g. automotive, architecture, etc.). So this doesn't impact developers developing games with Unity.
Lammy · 1h ago
Until it's an established payment model for one product category, after which it fill feel more natural to extend it to others.
The worst part of it isn't even that devs would get their wallets shaken out but that it's really just surveillance in disguise. Those apps would “““have to””” spy on me as an end-user in order for them to know what to charge.
m463 · 20m ago
I think phoning home is the platform for data collecting ("advertising") revenue.
Imustaskforhelp · 49m ago
Now thinking about it, its so valid point, how would that even work though if I am being honest
like I am pretty sure that the only way that they can do this is via giving it internet access and if that's the case, I wonder how much spying it does on our computer before sending it to unity headquarters in the name of this industry fees
Please, someone create a #usegodot or some twitter thing to just get it trending. We need to use goodot (I tried typing godot but I wrote goodot TWICE which is so funny and ironical so I am keeping it here)
Also I wonder how it might stand in eu / gdpr
matsemann · 31m ago
Unreal already has % of revenue. How do they track that, and is this any different?
Aka my guess it's a combination of trust, verification using public numbers (like downloads on Steam) and the ability to do audits of some kind?
noname120 · 1h ago
*for now
runevault · 47m ago
Thank you. I really do not understand why anyone trusts Unity to keep this for only non-entertainment if it proves successful. They only backed off before because the backlash was so bad. Assuming that means they won't try to find ways to slowly bring it back in the future is dangerous to me.
estimator7292 · 17m ago
That sounds well and good, but Unity forced my last company into the more expensive license unilaterally and with no discussion. They doubled our costs just because they can.
At this point, we should all treat Unity like we do Broadcom. Utterly toxic and should be avoided at all costs because they will shake you down and leave you with a lesser product for no reason other than blind greed.
Nothing Unity does will ever recover the goodwill they nuked for money
diffuse_l · 1m ago
I would expect no less from a company that acquired/merged with IronSource...
KerrAvon · 1h ago
It does, though, because it means you don't have the freedom to pivot to other industries, or to fork for use in industry, which is a thing that can happen. It's definitely a reason to consider avoiding Unity.
bob1029 · 6m ago
I've been building with unity for some time now and the only thing that actually registers for me is the steam cut. I don't care about the historical drama or per seat licenses if we "make it". Valve is a much bigger mouth to feed in any reality.
Making games is hard and worrying about stuff like this is virtually guaranteed to ensure your failure. Having 100% of $0 isn't gonna take you very far.
In terms of tooling experience, Unity does provide a very compelling blend. If you have any Java or C# background at all, it's very easy to get productive quickly. I think the integration between VS and the unity editor is exceptional.
0cf8612b2e1e · 1h ago
The last CEO lost his job over the backlash from the runtime fee. Guess you can try to boil the frog again at a lower temperature.
mushufasa · 49m ago
They must have raised money based on this plan -- the board must be holding them to execute it again to hit the projected IRR. If they had full control of their own destiny, I think most operators would just focus on a different business model.
arminiusreturns · 1m ago
[delayed]
FredPret · 30m ago
Unity has been losing money for years, not sure I would incorporate them into anything business critical.
They're going to feel all kinds of pressure to monetize users harder, and if they fail at that, they go bankrupt.
Unity has had different licenses for non-gaming for at least a decade. E.g. gambling has always required a special license. See this Reddit thread from 2015.
Based on job adverts, gambling is huge for Unity, even casino cabinets. It surprises me, you wouldn't think there'd be room for so many players in that market.
ApolloFortyNine · 1h ago
Most of the outrage was over it applying retroactively and that it was by download, which is quite frankly just a horrible idea and probably why it's not in this rendition.
A percentage of revenue is already what their biggest competitor (Unreal) does, and if they had announced that new versions had it they would have had backlash but not nearly to the extent that occurred.
Unity hasn't been profitable in 5 years, the revenue percentage doesn't even sound unfair, though the download fee was obviously exploitative.
pbarry25 · 1h ago
"What happens if I am distributing the runtime for commercial purposes?
According to our terms of service, the distribution of the Unity runtime for commercial purposes by Industry Customers requires explicit authorization from Unity and is subject to a fee ("Distribution License') which is generally equivalent to 4.0% of the revenue generated by the software product that incorporates the Unity runtime (discounts may apply). Please contact sales to discuss further."
For folks who didn't make the move to Godot the LAST time Unity pulled this, there's Godot... (not saying that move is easy for everyone, but am just sayin'...)
poly2it · 1h ago
This shows once again that Unity is an unreliable option for new projects. The worst part is not the 4% fee, but the bluntness with which Unity has administered these changes. They show that any terms can change at any moment.
pluc · 1h ago
If the US can do it, why can't everyone else
ksec · 1h ago
So somehow Unity gave away or sold part of its engine and now China has a different fork of Unity that has some of the Unreal features built in along with lots of work on Cel-Shading.
throwaway_7430 · 18m ago
While working at Unity I discovered my commits were being mirrored to a seperate github for china, where local chinese engineers hosted a fork of my teams service running on tencent cloud, re-engineering the DB etc to make it work with
Neither my product owner, tech lead, or skip-level knew about it and were surprised when I showed them
noname120 · 1h ago
Can you give a link to learn more about it?
Nezteb · 58m ago
Snippet from Wikipedia: "In August 2023, Unity China announced that it would soon launch a Chinese edition called Tuanjie Engine based on Unity 2022 LTS, which includes support for Chinese platforms like Weixin Mini Game, OpenHarmony and AliOS."
MangoToupe · 45m ago
> So somehow Unity gave away or sold part of its engine and now China has a different fork of Unity that has some of the Unreal features built in along with lots of work on Cel-Shading.
Surely "china" had access to unity this entire time, no? Isn't this the entire point of open source? "Unity" needs to provide some value if it wants to retain control of what code is being executed.
rozab · 38m ago
Unity is certainly not open source, although it is source available for certain plans. They are talking about the Chinese subsidiary of Unity itself
Lev1a · 1h ago
As soon as companies don't give public concrete numbers/tables/etc. and instead tell me to "contact sales for pricing", I know they're not worth the headache of dealing with them trying to squeeze as much money as possible from me and every other individual customer.
I.e. Fuck Off!
qualeed · 1h ago
From the top of the linked page:
>"$450.00/mo per seat"
>"$4,950.00/yr per seat"
And under the question "What happens if I am distributing the runtime for commercial purposes?":
>"Industry Customers requires explicit authorization from Unity and is subject to a fee ("Distribution License') which is generally equivalent to 4.0% of the revenue generated by the software product that incorporates the Unity runtime (discounts may apply)"
Lev1a · 39m ago
Since the title on here is "Unity reintroduces the Runtime Fee [...]" I assumed that there would be more to it the simple outright subscription plan(s), making me scroll down to the FAQ of the linked page where you can find the following bit of drivel which turned me right off:
> "How much does Unity Industry cost?
> For seat-based and floating license pricing, contact Sales."
Also, according to the "order summary" you get when have the default "monthly" option selected and click "Choose Plan", it says:
> "Commitment
> 8/21/2025 - 8/21/2026.
> Your total annual commitment is €4,968.00 excluding VAT /Sales Tax. ¹
> You will be charged for one month today and every month thereafter, and your subscription will > automatically renew at the end of your annual term. You can manage your subscription in your Unity Account."
indicating that even though you selected the "monthly" option it's still going to be an annual subscription and I just can't be bothered to wade through what're probably mountains of Legalese during my private time to find out how they're planning to keep you captive in that subscription for the whole year anyway.
Unity have demonstrated time and time again they're trying to screw their customers, so fuck 'em, use literally any other engine like Godot which has been recommended in this thread already. I don't think the company will reverse their course again now that the original outrage has cooled off but hopefully at least some some bottom-feeding manager types responsible for this get fired for "underperforming" if/when enough devs take their money elsewhere.
¹ in € it's 414€/mo or prepaid 4554€/a, essentially 11 instead 12 months if paid in advance
butshouldyou · 1h ago
Literally next week Bitnami will pull all of their Docker images from public use. They were relied on by many people but since being bought by Broadcom, they just exist to be milked for cash.
They don't list a price for their new enterprise subscription, instead making you contact their 3rd party, outsourced sales team.
The quote I heard from a colleague was USD5'000 pcm. No wonder they don't want to publish that!
Broadcom has officially confirmed major changes to Bitnami's free container catalog, effective August 28, 2025, transitioning millions of developers from free access to paid subscriptions ranging from $50,000-$72,000 annually.
MangoToupe · 47m ago
Obviously, don't develop anything with unity (or unreal) if you can avoid it.
falcor84 · 40m ago
What does Unreal have to do with this?
webdevver · 1h ago
the entire games industry is reminiscent of cryptocurrency. hundreds of thousands of completely worthless "titles". sole purpose in life is to grab unwitting customers money and run.
in this case, unity grabbing a percentage seems like a trading exchange taking a cut. is the exchange really the 'bad guy' in this interaction?
its the 2020s: We're All Trying To Make Money.
bogwog · 1h ago
Games are art. Some people do it for money, some do it to express themselves, some do it for fun. What's worthless to you is very valuable to someone else.
webdevver · 1h ago
this is 1:1 what i hear people say about solana memecoins
shigawire · 32m ago
Memecoins as art? I count myself fortunate to have not been subjected to that line of thought until now.
Imustaskforhelp · 25m ago
Yes, Also petition to just call memecoins ponzi scheme or scamcoins to not even ever let people think that its worth putting 1 cent of money on.
Scamcoins are comparable to disease or even cancer. Theoretically every scam is.
kg · 9m ago
Unlike memecoins most games have utility via interactivity. I say most because there are definitely games like Banana that don't really have any interactivity, but it arguably had a different kind of utility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aitVHsg0rWA
DrillShopper · 16m ago
Oh no, they're fully irony poisoned.
Welp
Imustaskforhelp · 27m ago
Lets discuss. I genuinely hate memecoins with a passion but not indie games
Honestly, memecoins are just ponzi schemes. They are created on hype and people buy memecoins with the idea that it would trade higher and so on.
Noone in their goddamn right minds would just pay for an app showing some image of something. No, it is the idea that you can sell it for higher price, or if you can't, then why not just donate to them in the first place??
like if you think pepe is cool, just mail matt fury (I think he's the creator, just searched) some money and email him thanks on why pepe matters to you.
But nope people buy these shitty ass things just so that they can sell it to some other person believing the same dream as them.
And no, every cryptocoin is like this unless stablecoin in this sense but some coins have some utility that I can understand but still, if they have utility, just buy them when you want the utility man, but memecoins are the worst of the worst, just leeches on gullible people.
Indie devs are more like clippy (louis rossman, lets go, I am doing my deal spreading clippy)
Once you bought them, 99% don't want anything else from you. They don't want you to sell it to an higher fool.
they want you to play. they want you to give them feedback (both critisicm and praise) they want you to recognize the work they put in and they are proud of what they created which is why they created it.
Indie devs making games usually also take a lot more time and effort and that can only happen 90% of the time when you love the project than memecoins
But also I will admit that there are games that are not like that (think mobile ad games)
and yes they are as much an evil/scummy as memecoins. Maybe a little less since trading factor and selling to others is gone but still some apps target little kids so they are worse in that. Maybe those apps take some time to develop but that's it. In my opinion yes shitty mobile games are comparable to memecoins, they are both (scams?), one might take more effort than other but honestly that varies but yeah even then they both are scams.
But doing the disservice of even comparing every indie game to memecoin might make you A) completely wrong, doing a great disservice while basically spreading lies that basically ragebaited me man
B) the most downvoted person
You kinda ragebaited me no offense and I know you might be a good person. And its okay, misunderstandings happen. I may be wrong too, I usually am and that's why lets discuss if you think there is something wrong with what I said
add-sub-mul-div · 4m ago
The thing about whether they're a good person or not is that it doesn't matter because they're not worth replying to either way. You don't have a moral obligation to steel-man absolute stupidity, whether it's meant sincerely or trollingly.
kg · 7m ago
> Noone in their goddamn right minds would just pay for an app showing some image of something
Not to necessarily disagree with anything else you argued, but there's a small relatively profitable genre of games for consoles that are just a unity template with an image of a turtle or whatever, and you mash a button to pet the turtle. The reason these exist and people buy them is because you get trophies for pressing the button.
So "an app just showing an image of something" is not very far from what those games are, and a bunch of them exist and do make money. It's tremendously weird.
There are also games like that Banana steam game that exist as part of a weird microtransactions economy instead of existing as what most people would consider a game.
The worst part of it isn't even that devs would get their wallets shaken out but that it's really just surveillance in disguise. Those apps would “““have to””” spy on me as an end-user in order for them to know what to charge.
like I am pretty sure that the only way that they can do this is via giving it internet access and if that's the case, I wonder how much spying it does on our computer before sending it to unity headquarters in the name of this industry fees
Please, someone create a #usegodot or some twitter thing to just get it trending. We need to use goodot (I tried typing godot but I wrote goodot TWICE which is so funny and ironical so I am keeping it here)
Also I wonder how it might stand in eu / gdpr
Aka my guess it's a combination of trust, verification using public numbers (like downloads on Steam) and the ability to do audits of some kind?
At this point, we should all treat Unity like we do Broadcom. Utterly toxic and should be avoided at all costs because they will shake you down and leave you with a lesser product for no reason other than blind greed.
Nothing Unity does will ever recover the goodwill they nuked for money
Making games is hard and worrying about stuff like this is virtually guaranteed to ensure your failure. Having 100% of $0 isn't gonna take you very far.
In terms of tooling experience, Unity does provide a very compelling blend. If you have any Java or C# background at all, it's very easy to get productive quickly. I think the integration between VS and the unity editor is exceptional.
They're going to feel all kinds of pressure to monetize users harder, and if they fail at that, they go bankrupt.
https://valustox.com/U
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/35xt2r/unity3d_gam...
A percentage of revenue is already what their biggest competitor (Unreal) does, and if they had announced that new versions had it they would have had backlash but not nearly to the extent that occurred.
Unity hasn't been profitable in 5 years, the revenue percentage doesn't even sound unfair, though the download fee was obviously exploitative.
According to our terms of service, the distribution of the Unity runtime for commercial purposes by Industry Customers requires explicit authorization from Unity and is subject to a fee ("Distribution License') which is generally equivalent to 4.0% of the revenue generated by the software product that incorporates the Unity runtime (discounts may apply). Please contact sales to discuss further."
For folks who didn't make the move to Godot the LAST time Unity pulled this, there's Godot... (not saying that move is easy for everyone, but am just sayin'...)
Neither my product owner, tech lead, or skip-level knew about it and were surprised when I showed them
Surely "china" had access to unity this entire time, no? Isn't this the entire point of open source? "Unity" needs to provide some value if it wants to retain control of what code is being executed.
I.e. Fuck Off!
>"$450.00/mo per seat"
>"$4,950.00/yr per seat"
And under the question "What happens if I am distributing the runtime for commercial purposes?":
>"Industry Customers requires explicit authorization from Unity and is subject to a fee ("Distribution License') which is generally equivalent to 4.0% of the revenue generated by the software product that incorporates the Unity runtime (discounts may apply)"
> "How much does Unity Industry cost?
> For seat-based and floating license pricing, contact Sales."
Also, according to the "order summary" you get when have the default "monthly" option selected and click "Choose Plan", it says:
> "Commitment
> 8/21/2025 - 8/21/2026.
> Your total annual commitment is €4,968.00 excluding VAT /Sales Tax. ¹
> You will be charged for one month today and every month thereafter, and your subscription will > automatically renew at the end of your annual term. You can manage your subscription in your Unity Account."
indicating that even though you selected the "monthly" option it's still going to be an annual subscription and I just can't be bothered to wade through what're probably mountains of Legalese during my private time to find out how they're planning to keep you captive in that subscription for the whole year anyway.
Unity have demonstrated time and time again they're trying to screw their customers, so fuck 'em, use literally any other engine like Godot which has been recommended in this thread already. I don't think the company will reverse their course again now that the original outrage has cooled off but hopefully at least some some bottom-feeding manager types responsible for this get fired for "underperforming" if/when enough devs take their money elsewhere.
¹ in € it's 414€/mo or prepaid 4554€/a, essentially 11 instead 12 months if paid in advance
They don't list a price for their new enterprise subscription, instead making you contact their 3rd party, outsourced sales team.
The quote I heard from a colleague was USD5'000 pcm. No wonder they don't want to publish that!
Broadcom has officially confirmed major changes to Bitnami's free container catalog, effective August 28, 2025, transitioning millions of developers from free access to paid subscriptions ranging from $50,000-$72,000 annually.
in this case, unity grabbing a percentage seems like a trading exchange taking a cut. is the exchange really the 'bad guy' in this interaction?
its the 2020s: We're All Trying To Make Money.
Scamcoins are comparable to disease or even cancer. Theoretically every scam is.
Welp
Honestly, memecoins are just ponzi schemes. They are created on hype and people buy memecoins with the idea that it would trade higher and so on.
Noone in their goddamn right minds would just pay for an app showing some image of something. No, it is the idea that you can sell it for higher price, or if you can't, then why not just donate to them in the first place??
like if you think pepe is cool, just mail matt fury (I think he's the creator, just searched) some money and email him thanks on why pepe matters to you.
But nope people buy these shitty ass things just so that they can sell it to some other person believing the same dream as them.
And no, every cryptocoin is like this unless stablecoin in this sense but some coins have some utility that I can understand but still, if they have utility, just buy them when you want the utility man, but memecoins are the worst of the worst, just leeches on gullible people.
Indie devs are more like clippy (louis rossman, lets go, I am doing my deal spreading clippy) Once you bought them, 99% don't want anything else from you. They don't want you to sell it to an higher fool. they want you to play. they want you to give them feedback (both critisicm and praise) they want you to recognize the work they put in and they are proud of what they created which is why they created it.
Indie devs making games usually also take a lot more time and effort and that can only happen 90% of the time when you love the project than memecoins
But also I will admit that there are games that are not like that (think mobile ad games) and yes they are as much an evil/scummy as memecoins. Maybe a little less since trading factor and selling to others is gone but still some apps target little kids so they are worse in that. Maybe those apps take some time to develop but that's it. In my opinion yes shitty mobile games are comparable to memecoins, they are both (scams?), one might take more effort than other but honestly that varies but yeah even then they both are scams.
But doing the disservice of even comparing every indie game to memecoin might make you A) completely wrong, doing a great disservice while basically spreading lies that basically ragebaited me man B) the most downvoted person
You kinda ragebaited me no offense and I know you might be a good person. And its okay, misunderstandings happen. I may be wrong too, I usually am and that's why lets discuss if you think there is something wrong with what I said
Not to necessarily disagree with anything else you argued, but there's a small relatively profitable genre of games for consoles that are just a unity template with an image of a turtle or whatever, and you mash a button to pet the turtle. The reason these exist and people buy them is because you get trophies for pressing the button.
So "an app just showing an image of something" is not very far from what those games are, and a bunch of them exist and do make money. It's tremendously weird.
There are also games like that Banana steam game that exist as part of a weird microtransactions economy instead of existing as what most people would consider a game.