The Unity Run-Time Fee is Dead!

Exactly one year ago today Unity set itself on fire with one of the most ill advised business decisions in decades... the Run-Time fee. A blatant and overreaching cash grab that IMMEDIATELY faced backlash from the community.

A year later, the Unity run-time fee is no more! Learn more in this video as well as new pricing details at come along with the announcement.

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[widrolo]

An anniversary for the mistake that almost killed you company is crazy😭

[theguyfromsaturn]

I don't understand what they teach in MBA schools. It's obvious that the most valuable asset for a company is customer goodwill. Trust is hard to earn, very easy to lose, and once lost practically impossible to rebuild. EVERY business decision should be run through a filter of "how is this impacting the goodwill of our core audience". I don't see Unity coming back from this.

[mahkhardy]

This is good for anyone still using Unity. For those who left Unity, it's all good you don't have to go crawling back. Keep moving forward so we all have more competitive options.

[edwoodgrant]

I don't think this is for people who have already left the Unity engine, but it's more likely for people who are finishing their current project and planing to bail out (but can't yet). It's more about stopping the bleeding rather than try to bring old grumpy customers back.

[ThiVasss]

A few months before that fiasco I was 50/50 on Unity and Godot. I finally ended up on Godots side because at the time I felt it was easier to upload to the web. Then that happened and solidified my choice. Now I am a Godot fanboy.

[akunbora]

Years ago, Unity started requiring weekly renewals for the personal license. After doing it for the 4th time, I realized it sucked and was demotivating. I tried Godot but was already burnt out from my studies, so I stopped game dev altogether.
Lucky.., a year later, I regained my motivation and learned Godot. Can’t imagine going back to Unity. Godot is just so simple and convenient.
Open-source apps and all behind them are a blessing. I recently tried Defold cuz it’s kinda open source.. it was fun. Hope the community grows.

[ADTDev]

If you crumple a sheet of paper, and flatten it back then say sorry, the piece of paper is still wrinkled. Unity messed up bad.

[panthrax]

The most valuable lesson I ever learnt is, once you lose trust, you lost it for a reason. You don't ever trust that same person again.

[braiesteanu]

I'm a unity Industry user, and have been for a couple years now.

They have fucked up beyond repair and we're still being seen as a complete cash-cow.

Even now, they didn't revert the runtime fee completely for everyone, and we still have it.

They also silently added this whole required industry license silently last year a few months before the runtime fee announcement but nobody batted an eye because "eh, who cares about the industry side of Unity" but it's a massive massive industry and a stable job for many devs.

So, while I would love to come back to unity, it's expensive as hell and quite risky.

[monawoka]

Great. So is my trust. It doesn't matter. You can never come back from trying to retroactively change pricing models on ALREADY SHIPPED GAMES. I will never enter into a business agreement with a company that pulls a stunt like that.

[cefcephatus]

Since it's been a year, half of devs who changed their engine won't come back now.

[TheIronicRaven]

Unfortunately for me, its too little too late. I am Thrilled that Unity is getting rid of their mistakes (both policies and people) but I've already spent the last year rebuilding my old project from the ground up in Godot. I am not going to spend another year switching back to Unity. Not only that, Godot is free, and will always be free. I just don't have any reason to go back to Unity. I am very happy for the gamedev community, Unity is again becoming a viable option that will bring quality and stability (or so it appears right now) but as for me, I'm out. Never coming back. Not because Unity is bad, but because I found something that works for me much better.

[ZebulonsPi]

I've moved off to Godot for my game dev, and I'm WAY happier. Unity has become so bloated, the difference is incredible. Trying to get back into a prototype I had built to harvest some stuff, it took minutes for it to even start. I like the tightness of Godot, and the energy surrounding the community, a lot more than Unity's right now. I'm gone for good.

[Luke-zxw]

When people move to different things, they don't come back.

[etherealregions]

For myself. Unity seems like that Ex that just won't go away. "I'll quit screwing around, I promise!" 😂

[Alex-vqfz]

Thank you Unity for fucking up so royally and giving me a reason to check out Godot. Been loving it the past year more than I ever did with my 6 years with Unity.

[peterharaszti]

You literally posted a video about this sooner than the mail arrived in my inbox.

[jeanmakesgames]

this mean one thing: Unity 6 installs number are very bad, they finally realize how much they have shot themselve in the foot and before to launch the final version of Unity 6 they are removing it to try to get the number of install up. Which is a very good thing. But that doesn't mean that Unity not gonna come up with an other bad idea soon.

[MattGuerrette]

Shame people are not as equally outraged at Apple doing the exact same thing with the "Core Technology Fee". They'd rather complain about Tim Sweeny and Epic....

[igk]

Do not go back to technologies and companys who pull these kind of stunts!
Let Unity die so other Corporations wont attempt such horrid policies
and be every vigilant in the future!