Unity has begun a major overhaul of its business, to turn the page on the controversy that put the company in serious trouble last year. The new CEO has just announced the pure and simple death of the Runtime Fee which had developers screaming in alarm, and is even taking advantage of the situation to make its free offer more generous. Is this enough to get back on track?
Today, the world of video games is largely based on two different engines: Unreal Engine and Unity. The first has established itself as an essential tool for many AAA studios, especially since the deployment of UE5 which is full of extremely powerful tools. The second occupies a rather different niche: thanks to its simplicity and its very attractive pricing structure, it is particularly popular in the independent sphere, and has allowed many amateur developers to offer us countless nuggets like Cuphead, Subnauticaor even Hollow Knight to name just a few.
Turning the page on the Riccitiello era
But this romance almost ended last year because of the more than questionable strategy of the former CEO, John Riccitiello. This controversial character had already distinguished himself in the worst possible way during his time at the head of EA Games. Known for his love of the agent, he was the Grand architect of the FIFA 09 loot box scandal. In 2011, he again angered the gaming world after publishing a clip recorded during a shareholders meeting. He had dropped a very bad example to illustrate his monetization philosophy.
« When you’re in a six-hour session of Battlefield and you run out of ammo, if it charges a dollar to reload, you’re not going to think long about the price at that point. ” he explained. A reasoning that says a lot about his vision of the video game industry.
Undeterred by the criticism, he continued his maneuvers after arriving at Unity by significantly modifying the advantageous economic model that made the engine successful. After showing off his tact and elegance by calling developers ” p*tain d’idiots “, he tried to impose a very expensive license on the most popular games: an Industry formula at $5,000 per year and per seat, compared to $1,500 for the Pro license in force until then.
But most importantly, it launched the now infamous Runtime Fee. As a reminder, this was a new clause forcing developers to reach into their wallets every time a player installed one of their products. The announcement was experienced as an exaction, even a real death sentence on the part of studios and developers, especially independent ones.
Buy Cult of the Lamb now, cause we’re deleting it on Jan 1st.
— Cult of the Lamb (@cultofthelamb) September 12, 2023
Unsurprisingly, this case sparked a furore; many developers announced their intention to abandon Unity Engine and move to other engines, leading to a dramatic drop in the company’s stock. But while the house was burning, “Ricci” continued his shenanigans; he notably sold loads of shares ahead of the crash he himself orchestrated.
The controversy grew to such proportions that the board of directors decided to eject this parasite once and for all.
A new CEO with his feet on the ground
After a short interim by James M. Whitehurst, a former IBM veteran, the company found a new CEO in the person of Matt Bromberg. For the past year, the latter has spared no effort to put out the fire started by his predecessor and put Unity back on the right track. On September 12, he sent a open letter to all developers to communicate to them the new roadmap that he has been concocting since taking over.
« Over the past 20 years, we’ve partnered with brilliant designers and developers, artists and engineers, publishers and platforms, to build a world where great games could be made by anyone, for everyone. We called it “democratizing game development,” and it remains our core mission today. »
« However, we can’t continue this mission in conflict with our customers; at its core, this has to be a partnership built on trust. I’ve been able to connect with many of you over the last three months, and I’ve heard time and time again that you understand that price increases are a necessary part of what allows us to invest in our product. But those increases don’t have to take a new and controversial form. We want to deliver value at a fair price, in the right way, so that you can continue to feel comfortable growing your business over the long term with Unity as your partner. “, Bromberg explains in his letter.
A new, more reasonable pricing
To achieve this goal and restore Unity’s image, his first decision was to cancel the Runtime Fee for video game developers. As of today, the Discord package is definitely dead and buried, to the delight of customers who can finally start planning again.
Secondly, he also guaranteed that the base plan, Unity Personal, would remain free… and he also took the opportunity to reach out to smaller studios. Until now, developers could benefit from this free plan until the annual revenue generated by their activity exceeded $100,000. Now, this threshold will be raised to $200,000 — excellent news for small studios that often need time to break even.
On the other hand, to compensate for this shortfall, he also announced a substantial increase in the price beyond this free threshold. From January 1, 2025, the Unity Pro formula, which becomes mandatory from $200,000 in annual revenue, will see its price increase by 8% to reach $2,000 per seat per year. Seasoned professionals will be the most impacted by this decision. The Enterprise formula, which becomes mandatory beyond $25 million in annual revenue, will see its price increase by 25%.
To compensate for this increase, the company promises to strengthen its offer — especially with the release of the new version of the Unity 6 engine, expected in a few weeks. Bromberg assures that this will be the version ” the most stable and powerful Unity to date ».
Overall, these new measures are very encouraging. The new pricing structure suggests that Bromberg is much more in tune with his customers than his awful predecessor, and his willingness to give smaller studios some breathing room is certainly commendable. It’s too early to say that Unity is back on track yet, but this strategy is already much healthier and closer to the company’s original philosophy, which bodes well. Whether it will bear fruit remains to be seen.
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
