If you are a game developer who uses Unity, you might have heard about the recent announcement of a new pricing model that will affect your games starting from January 1, 2024. In this blog post, we will explain what the new pricing model is, how it will impact you, and what you can do to prepare for it.
What is the new pricing model?
A Unity Runtime Fee, which is based on game installs, is a new feature of the new pricing model, according to Unity's official blog post. This implies that you will be required to pay a tiny flat cost to Unity each time a user downloads your game that makes use of the Unity Runtime. The cost varies according on your membership plan, the revenue generated by your game, and the region from where it is downloaded.
The Unity Runtime Fee only applies to games that meet both of these criteria:
- The game has made more than $200,000 USD in the last 12 months for Unity Personal and Unity Plus users, or more than $1,000,000 USD for Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise users.
- The game has more than 200,000 lifetime installs for Unity Personal and Unity Plus users, or more than 1,000,000 lifetime installs for Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise users.
If your game does not meet both of these criteria, you do not have to pay the Unity Runtime Fee.
The fee structure is as follows:
| Subscription plan | Standard fee per install | Emerging market fee per install |
|-------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------|
| Unity Personal | $0.01 USD | $0.005 USD |
| Unity Plus | $0.01 USD | $0.005 USD |
| Unity Pro | $0.005 USD | $0.0025 USD |
| Unity Enterprise | $0.005 USD | $0.0025 USD |
While nations like the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Japan, etc. pay the standard fee, other nations like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, etc. pay the emerging market fee. The complete list of nations is available here.
For users of Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise, volume discounts are also available, which lower the cost of the fee per install as your game's player base increases. You will only be charged $0.00125 USD for regular markets and $0.000625 USD for emerging countries if your game receives more than 10 million installs in a single month.
Why is Unity changing the pricing model?
Unity says that the new pricing model is designed to reflect the value of the Unity Runtime, which is the code that runs on player devices and makes your games work at scale. The Unity Runtime Fee is also meant to align with your game's success, so that you only pay when your game reaches a certain level of revenue and installs.
Unity also claims that the new pricing model will allow them to invest more in developing new features and services for game developers, such as cloud-based asset storage, DevOps tools, and AI at runtime. These features will be added to all subscription plans at no extra cost starting from November 2023.
How will the new pricing model affect you?
The effect of the new pricing structure will vary depending on how well your game does and what membership plan you have. The following examples show what you would pay under the new pricing structure.
- Scenario 1: You are a Unity Personal user who has a game with 100,000 lifetime installs and a 12-month revenue of $150,000 USD. Your game does not satisfy both requirements, hence you are exempt from paying the Unity Runtime Fee.
- Scenario 2: You are a Unity Personal user with a game that has 300,000 lifetime installs and made $250,000 USD in the previous year. Because your game satisfies both requirements, you must pay the Unity Runtime Fee. You would pay ($0.01 + $0.005) / 2 * 300,000 = $2,250 USD overall, assuming that your game has an equal distribution of installs across conventional and emerging markets.
- Scenario 3: You are a Unity Pro user with a game that has 800,000 lifetime installs and a 12-month revenue of $800,000. Your game does not satisfy both requirements, hence you are exempt from paying the Unity Runtime Fee.
- Scenario 4: You are a Unity Pro user with a game that has 1.2 million lifetime installs and a 12-month revenue of $1.2 million USD. Because your game satisfies both requirements, you must pay the Unity Runtime Fee. You would spend ($0.005 + $0.0025) / 2 * 1.2 million = $4,500 USD overall, assuming that your game has an equal distribution of installs across conventional and emerging countries. But if your game receives over 1 million installs in a single month, you
What can you do to prepare for the new pricing model?
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| Image by Freepik |
If you use Unity to create games, you should be aware of the new price structure and how it may impact your projects. You can take the following actions to get ready for it:
- Check your game's install and income statistics to see if you're eligible for the Unity Runtime Fee.
- Calculate your potential cost under the new pricing structure based on the success of your game and your membership package.
- Evaluate the costs and advantages of various subscription options, and if upgrading or downgrading makes sense for your company, do so.
- Beginning in November 2023, explore the new Unity subscription features and services to see how they can help you optimise your game production workflow.
The new Unity price structure is a substantial modification that will have an impact on numerous game developers who utilise the engine. Others may view it as a burden that will cut into their revenues and restrict their creative freedom, despite the fact that some may see it as a reasonable approach to share the value of the Unity Runtime. Whether Unity is still the ideal engine for your games or not is ultimately up to you.
Open Source Game Engines You Can Try or Contribute in.
- Bevy: A Rust-based data-driven gaming engine that is refreshingly straightforward.
- Babylon.js: A robust, gorgeous, straightforward, and open gaming and rendering engine bundled into a welcoming JavaScript framework.
- Raylib: A straightforward and user-friendly library for writing video games in C, C++, Python, Lua, and other languages.
- OpenRA: A C#-based, SDL- and OpenGL-based real-time strategy game engine for classic Westwood titles like Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
- Superpowers is a real-time collaborative HTML5 tool for creating games, animations, comics, and other content.
- Atomic Game Engine: A multi-platform 2D and 3D engine with a uniform API in C++, C#, JavaScript, and TypeScript is called the Atomic Game Engine.
-OpenRTS is a 3D Real-Time Strategy game engine written entirely in Java.
- MelonJS: A new, cutting-edge, and portable HTML5 game engine.
- Gameplay3D: A cross-platform, open-source C++ game engine for 2D and 3D games.
Turbulenz is a modular framework for 2D and 3D games that may be used to create HTML5-based games for browsers, desktops, and mobile devices.
I hope this list is helpful for you. If you want to learn more about these game engines, you can check out their GitHub repositories or their official websites. Happy gaming!
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