Report: Unity considering revenue-based fee caps, self-reported install numbers
Enlarge / Unity CEO John Riccitiello (credit: Unity)
The recently promised "changes" to Unity's controversial new per-install fee plan for developers could include hard limits based on a company's total revenue and developer self-reporting of installation numbers, according to a new report.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier cites a recording of a (threat-delayed) Unity all-hands meeting in reporting that the company is tentatively considering limiting total fees to 4 percent of a game's revenue. That change would potentially ameliorate concerns that some developers could literally bankrupt themselves with games that generate lots of installs but relatively little revenue per player under the currently proposed fee structure.
Bloomberg's report suggests this limit would apply to "customers making over $1 million," and it's not clear how smaller games and developers would be impacted by the potential change. For comparison, Epic's Unreal Engine currently charges a flat 5 percent royalty on all developer revenue after the first $1 million from studios using the engine.