The company behind indie game hits like ‘Hollow Knight’ and ‘Cuphead’ announced last week that after a threshold it will charge developers each time a Unity game is installed|Jillian Northrup|CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Facing intense backlash, including death threats that led to the temporary closing of offices, the developing engine Unity has decided to make changes to its new pricing policy—Unity Runtime Fee.
The company behind indie game hits like Hollow Knight and Cuphead announced last week that after a threshold, it will charge developers each time a Unity game is installed. The Unity Runtime Fee was set to take effect in January.
It made users furious since the company is lauded for supporting individual developers and indie games. Some developers started to disable Unity ads in their games and threatened to file lawsuits; the popular game Slay the Spire even said it would jump ship.
The backlash is the latest calamity to hit the company. Its shares plunged below $30 last year after hitting $201 in 2020. The game company laid off 8% of staff—roughly 600 employees—in May, and CEO John Riccitiello called game developers who don’t think about monetization “f---ng idiots.”