“Thank you for your honest and critical feedback”
Unity has apologised to developers for “confusion and angst” caused by itsproposed new pricing structurethat sought to charge game creators a fee every time their game was installed, promising that changes will be made - but without suggesting that it would pull away completely from implementing the much-criticised plans.
Unsurprisingly, the announcement did not go down well with developers, with widespread backlash across the industry to the proposed pricing. A number of developersannounced their intentions to move away from Unityif the plans went through, while others sought clarification about how installs would be accurately tracked (the answer:poorly), how the company would distinguish certain channels not counted towards those totals - such as charity bundles and demos - and the risk of fraudulent installs by those trying to damage devs by bumping up their fees (which apparently would need to be addressed after the fact).
Amid the industry outrage, Unity wasforced to close multiple officesin response to “credible threats” made against staff in its San Francisco and Austin locations, which were investigated by law enforcement. That threat was later reported to have come from a Unity employee working outside of the offices.
In its latest response to the backlash posted to Twitter/X, Unity apologised for “the confusion and angst” caused by the recent runtime fee announcement.
We have heard you. 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…
“We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy,” it continued, without specifying any changes or making any indication that the plans would be reversed as many had called for online.
Developer responses to Unity’s statement suggest that it may take more than “changes” to win back the trust of developers, some of whomhave already made stepsto move their games to alternative engines in the wake of Unity’s announcement. We’ll find out more as Unity’s “changes” are revealed.
