General Gaming "F*** You, We're Not Paying" - Inside Unity's Runtime Fee Fiasco

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

"Fuck you, we're not paying": inside Unity’s Runtime Fee fiasco - Mobilegamer.biz

MOBILEGAMER.BIZ

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A major partner told John Riccitiello personally that it will not pay the Runtime Fee – and in the strongest possible terms.

 

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Sources from inside Unity and across the mobile games business and have told us:

 

• September’s Runtime Fee policy was “rushed out” and driven by Unity and IronSource’s intense battle with Applovin over the mediation business
• The firm’s long-term profitability problem and tumbling share price were also a factor
• Unity/IronSource has been offering some partners money to switch their UA and admon from Applovin
• There was resistance to the Runtime Fee idea within Unity, but those concerns were ignored; it was announced before many staff knew anything about it
• In the second version of the policy Unity had planned to go with a 4% revenue share, but the reaction to the first announcement was so fierce it got knocked down to 2.5%
• The new policies effectively never really applied to larger partners anyway – most will be able negotiate their own rates through their account manager

 

One Unity insider told us that a major mobile game publisher – and one of Unity’s biggest clients – met with John Riccitiello himself days after the first Runtime Fee policy was announced. They told him, in the words of our source: “Fuck you, we’re not paying.”

 

Multiple sources told us that in the week of panic that followed the first announcement, Unity planned to announce a 4% revenue share for games that earned over $1m, slightly undercutting Unreal Engine’s 5%. But the response was so fierce it was knocked down to 2.5% in the tweaked policy announced a week and a half later.

 

 

[Mr.Vic20]

One of the most impressive forced errors of the year! 

[Keyser_Soze]

It's rumored that Genshin is looking for developers of a different engine. That game uses Unity so if they lose Genshin that's a monumental loss.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

16 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

It's rumored that Genshin is looking for developers of a different engine. That game uses Unity so if they lose Genshin that's a monumental loss.

 

Pretty much everyone suspects that HoYoverse/miHoYo is exactly who told Unity to go fuck themselves.

[TwinIon]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Multiple sources told us that in the week of panic that followed the first announcement, Unity planned to announce a 4% revenue share for games that earned over $1m, slightly undercutting Unreal Engine’s 5%. But the response was so fierce it was knocked down to 2.5% in the tweaked policy announced a week and a half later.

It's incredible that they screwed up the obvious solution so badly that they're going to end up lowering their potential future revenue share by 37.5%, and that's before you consider the loss of potential revenue from devs that avoid Unity because of this whole fiasco.

 

Hard to recall a more impressive self destruction.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Pretty much everyone suspects that HoYoverse/miHoYo is exactly who told Unity to go fuck themselves.

 

NIKKE just celebrated their 1 year anniversary. They are on Unity too. I wonder if they are considering a change as well. 🤔

[Brick]

I hope Riccitiello can never find work after this again, but we all know he will. 

[Keyser_Soze]

6 hours ago, Brick said:

I hope Riccitiello can never find work after this again, but we all know he will. 

 

Bobby Kotick will replace him and make unity great again!