I'm looking at the "Runtime Fee Eligibility" section [1] and it looks like you need to have revenue before you start getting charged per install.
For the 'Unity Personal' / 'Unity Plus' it looks like you need $200,000 in revenue over the past 12 months AND at least 200,000 installs over the lifetime of the game. If you don't meet both those criteria then I don't think you pay the per-install fee.
Am I reading this right, or am I missing something?
This is an edge case, but free (or almost free) games are given away on Humble Bundle. Some people may also believe that the game has earned its money, so they do not want to charge for it. A fee will be charged in such a case because the game once brought a profit. Some classics today are even open-source.
So this raises a good question, does this essentially end the inclusion of all Unity games in Humble Bundle and Choice? These programs result in a ton of installs for very little revenue per install going back to the dev.
A real common thing is for a game studio to release a new installment in a popular franchise, and then make the previous installment(s) available through a Humble promotion to advertise it. This is a great model, gamers get cheap and good games, the studio gets more exposure for its franchise that leads to full price purchases in the future. (Worked on me with Divinity Original Sin and some others)
It feels like Unity has just killed off this model. Screw them, I now hope Unity goes out of business ASAP.
It’s only after you start making at least $200,000 a year and 200k installs:
> We set high revenue and game install thresholds to avoid impacting those who have yet to find scale, meaning they don’t need to pay the fee until they have reached significant success.
> Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee:
> Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs.
I know you can get a rough estimate through the marketplace apps, but as a non game-dev, are you signing the rights of discovery on your company financials at any time? If you’re on the threshold, how do they determine to start charging or not unless they have access to your books?
Is that accurate?
I'm looking at the "Runtime Fee Eligibility" section [1] and it looks like you need to have revenue before you start getting charged per install.
For the 'Unity Personal' / 'Unity Plus' it looks like you need $200,000 in revenue over the past 12 months AND at least 200,000 installs over the lifetime of the game. If you don't meet both those criteria then I don't think you pay the per-install fee.
Am I reading this right, or am I missing something?
[1] https://unity.com/runtime-fee#unity-runtime-fee-eligibility-...