Unity is canceling the Runtime Fee
After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee, effective immediately.
too late, moved to godot 😘
Too late, moved to Unreal.
If this doesn't work out, Godot will be the next port of call.
I'm a little surprised that unreal is the next choice after unity given how much hate Epic seems to get. I thought about switching to unreal but then I learned that you have to download the epic store to use the unreal engine, and I refuse to do that after the "scan your whole PC and upload your game list" thing they pulled a few years ago.
Damage done. It became a great example of why it isn't a good idea to rely on an engine operated by a corporate entity, since there's always a chance your product will be directly affected by some external executive's random choice.
I got personally screwed by this when I sunk the cash into Substance Painter / Designer, and then they "joined the Adobe family."
At this point any software in my pipeline that's not FOSS would be considered a point of vulnerability.
I get that they wanted in on the Pokémon Go and Genshin Impact money printers, but anyone could have seen how much damage to their reputation it was going to cause.
Too little too late. Personally I've moved to Godot and am loving it. Have I mentioned that they have stellar documentation yet?
AND that the documentation is built in to the engine, only a 60mb download!
Along with Krita's one of the best docs I know, it's so good!
D'awww, did someone's little cash grab not work out?
I remember so much pessimism last year that people's complaints will change nothing and that almost every Unity dev is too deep and won't be able to switch engines.
Well, guess what, so many people did switch and Unity did feel the hurt. The community really did take action.
Everyone's going to (rightfully) dunk on Unity but I think this is a great move and it's nice that the engine isn't going away. Competition is always good, and I'm happy for the devs that did stick with the engine. Lots of studios celebrating on social media with a sigh of relief. I still think Godot is going to eat Unity's lunch the next few years so they better step it up.
Did they though? I haven't heard of a single big name studio switching to an opensource game engine.
I only know about the developers of Slay the Spire switching to Godot. Not the biggest name, but still well-known.
Most don't switch as they have in house skills that would cost to retrain. The real kicker is the big studios of the future that started their projects on Godot. Those Godot games that succeed (like Cassette Beasts or Brotato) may fund the big studios of the future, and you know their leads will be Godot specialists looking for Godot devs.
Other big studios may trial Godot, but when the seed is planted, the trees take 2 to 5 years to mature.
Big names probably plan ahead and may have switched the projects that were not too deep into development or haven't started yet. But it's likely something to not be loudly announced
we’ve made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers, effective immediately. Non-gaming Industry customers are not impacted by this modification.
Unity Personal: […] Unity Personal will remain free, and we’ll be doubling the current revenue and funding ceiling from $100,000 to $200,000 USD. […] The Made with Unity splash screen will become optional for Unity Personal games made with Unity 6 when it launches later this year.
at its heart, it must be a partnership built on trust
well… as much trust as you can get back after such activities.
They clearly shit their pants when they saw everyone leave. I wonder how many developers will return. I know I won’t.
Great, but why were no one but the bean-counters consulted when coming out with the blatant money-stealing scheme in the first place?
You have a lot of trust to build back because Godot has come a decently long way.
But some won't consider it. I was 2 months into a project and abandoned it. I'm now knee deep into another project in Unreal. If this doesn't go well, it'll be Godot, or Bevy or Armory. Unity is dead to me. It's still the same company run by the same board and I do not trust them.
Today. Unity is cancelling the runtime fee today.
Nothing stopping them doing a Microsoft and bringing back Recall.
Related - A Unity programmers take on Godot:
I tough they canceled it in the weeks after the outrage
I think they only cancelled the "this applies retroactively to previous versions" bit. They removed some of the egregious parts of the runtime free, but otherwise kept it.
Closing the stable door after the horse has made a 12 hour flight, settled in a new country married with children, recently gained citizenship and is a well respected member of the local school board.
Awww. Things didn't work out? 😢
Thoughts and prayers for the CEO 🙏
Day late and a dollar short. Long live literally anything else!
Long live Godot!
Too late for the Godot SWEEP
All my homies LOVE free software
I honestly got the impression that it was some half baked idea from some boneheaded executive that didn't have any idea how they were even going to put it into practice anyway.
Wouldn't be surprised if they just couldn't figure out how to get it working without major issues.
Someone else saw the ldtk jam chart, huh?
lol
Wow, that's some news! It’s awesome to see Unity listening to the community after the huge outcry. This whole situation has been like a wild rollercoaster ride, right? Developers everywhere can probably exhale a bit now. Let’s see if this rebuilds some of the trust that got shaken. So, what are your thoughts on where Unity goes from here?
Again? meh
