{"id":27084,"date":"2024-09-18T15:20:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geimers.com\/?p=27084"},"modified":"2025-03-31T15:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:05:55","slug":"unity-reverses-its-controversial-installation-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geimers.com\/en\/unity-reverses-its-controversial-installation-fee\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity Reverses its Controversial Installation Fee"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Last year, around this same time, Unity, the company behind one of the most widely used game engines in the entire industry, sparked massive controversy by unexpectedly introducing an installation fee. As we mentioned in our article, this strategy was proposed and implemented by then-CEO John Riccitiello, a greedy and unscrupulous man with a long track record of misdeeds while leading various companies in the sector. It\u2019s worth remembering that during his tenure as president of EA, he once proposed in a shareholders’ meeting to charge real money for players to reload their weapons in\u00a0Battlefield 3<\/em>. He was also the mastermind behind the introduction of loot boxes in\u00a0FIFA 09<\/em>.<\/p>

Returning to the Unity case, just days before announcing the new fee, the CEO himself sold 2,000 shares of the company, knowing that once the change was announced, their stock price would drastically drop due to public backlash. By that point in 2023, he had sold a total of 50,610 shares of his company without buying a single one. Following the enormous uproar generated after the new fee was made public and the wave of criticism it received, Riccitiello was forced to resign as CEO barely a month later, although he remained as an advisor to \u201censure a smooth transition.\u201d However, the damage was already done, not just to the company\u2019s reputation but also to its stock price. By May 2024, Unity\u2019s shares had fallen by more than 60%, leaving the company with a total valuation of $6.7 billion as of today, a far cry from its historic maximum valuation of $57 billion reached in November 2021.<\/p>

This past May, the transition was finalized, and Matthew Bromberg became the new president of Unity Technologies. The new CEO brings extensive experience in the industry. His most recent role was as Chief Operating Officer at Zynga, the leader in the mobile gaming market. Before that, he held various leadership positions at Electronic Arts, including Senior Vice President of Mobile Strategy and Operations. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of Major League Gaming, one of the most renowned and long-lasting professional esports organizations.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The new CEO of Unity immediately cancels the Runtime fee<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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One of the main challenges Bromberg has faced has been the massive loss of trust caused primarily by the backlash against the installation fee that was attempted before his tenure. Regarding this, he decided to reverse course and cancel the fee with immediate effect in hopes of regaining users\u2019 confidence. This was officially communicated in a Unity blog post:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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After a thorough consultation process with our community, customers, and partners, we decided to cancel the Runtime fee for our game customers, with immediate effect. This modification does not affect non-gaming customers in the Industry sector.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

We\u2019ve decided to return to our per-seat subscription model for all our game customers, including those adopting Unity 6, the most stable and high-performing version of Unity to date, which is set to release later this year.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

If we change the Editor software terms in a way that affects you, you can continue to use the version of the software you currently have under the terms you originally agreed to, as long as you remain on that version.<\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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How much do subscriptions cost after the recent changes?<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Alongside the removal of the Runtime fee, Unity has had to increase the prices of some subscription plans to remain financially stable, leading to some changes in the larger subscription tiers.<\/p>