What Did Unity Do To Get Everyone In Gamedev Angry? The 'Ridiculous' Installation Fee Explained

For the past couple of days, video game developers have been turning their backs on Unity, a game engine developed by a software company of the same name, proclaiming they'll be using other engines such as GODOT and Unreal Engine from now on. What did Unity do to tick off every single indie developer in business? Learn about the Unity's installation fee that is turning the indie gamedev away in our brief explainer.

What Is Unity's Installation Fee?

On September 12th, 2023, Unity Technologies, a software development company best known for its cross-platform engine of the same name, announced that it was introducing a change to its business model, updating its subscription plans and adding a Unity Runtime Fee. The fee, which will become effective in January 2023, means that the company will charge developers up to $0.20 per instance of a Unity-based game being installed.

The fee would affect all Unity games that exceeded the installation threshold of 200,000 copies (or a million copies for Unity Pro and Enterprise users) and a revenue threshold of $200,000 (one million for Unity Pro and Enterprise users).

All in all, the fee appeared to be a substantial blow to video game developers and indie developers in particular, who voiced their objections on social media platforms immediately. Unity later backpedaled on some of the most concerning aspects of its new policy, saying that it will only charge for the first installation of the game and not repeated installations by the same user, something which they initially said they would do.

How Did Game Industry React To Unity's Installation Fee?

Unity's announcement was met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from the gamedev community. Several game developers stated that they would use other video game engines in the future and abandon Unity altogether if the changes are not reversed, and shared their letters of concern on X.

The list of indie developers and publishers who posted their letters includes Innersloth, Mega Crit, Ironoak, Massive Monster, PixelRift Studios, Aggro Crab, DuskDev and many others.

Moreover, it appears that some developers are planning to file a class-action lawsuit against Unity, while others are predicting that large publishers like Blizzard and Nintendo are also likely to sue.

Were Unity Higher-Ups Involved In Insider Trading?

On September 12th, X user @Jakob_Wahlkberg shared an article about Unity Software Inc's CEO John Riccietello selling 2,000 shares of the company just six days before the announcement, while another user posted a list of recent stock sales by Unity insiders, including co-founder David Helgason who sold 12,500 shares worth over $9 million on that day. On September 12th, 2023, Unity stock lost seven percent of its value. There has not been an official comment on the rumors.

Unity Installation Fee In Memes

The ordeal has been inspiring memes, too: most notably, the famous 4chan greentext about bankrupting a company by pirating their game one million times has been brought back to demonstrate how ridiculous Unity's installation fee was (although the company has since said that they will not charge for repeated installations).

For the full history of Unity Installation Fee Controversy, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.