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Unity is dropping its unpopular per-install Runtime Fee | Cross-platform game engine saw the downside to "novel and controversial" plan

Cross-platform game engine saw the downside to "novel and controversial" plan.

It certainly was novel — Unity, maker of a popular cross-platform engine and toolkit, will not pursue a broadly unpopular Runtime Fee that would have charged developers based on game installs rather than per-seat licenses. Unity, whose then-CEO John Riccitiello had described in 2015 as having "no royalties, no [f-ing] around," was "quite simply not a company to be trusted," wrote Necrosoft Games' Brandon Sheffield. A massive wave of layoffs throughout the winter of 2023 and 2024 showed that Unity's financial position was precarious, partly due to acquisitions during Riccitiello's term.

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