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Unity's new pricing fee and the future for my mini-games projects

Hello everyone. It's me Antony, back with another blog in 2023. I know I've been absent for a while without a new Blog for a long time. We are now on September 18 - past the half of 2023. Now that I'm working and my 7th semester has started, my time for Blogs decreased to some occasions. At least it is good to be back at work.

I'm still waiting for any news related to the new civil service exam of this year - with some to the education and health departments; and the subscriptions to be open in case I plan to apply for another public job. Like I said before, I may give it a shot, but it will be the same thing as before - Reserve my days and my spare-time for study. If I fail, it would be another civil service performed, with my money being spent for nothing.

For the calling process to work as a teacher, I definitely gave up due to the lack/low number of vacancies for mathematics teachers. My mom said for December they might re-open the subscriptions. However, I'm not sure I plan to do that in case I'm going to wait for too long until they reach to my position and then I announce my interest for that vacancy.

Enough of that, let's go for the important. For today, I'm pretty sure you're all aware of the recent news involving Unity - especially their new pricing fee based on game installs. In case you're not aware, I'll leave the link to their disclosure along some fragments here in this Blog:


Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November.

We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed.  Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

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.
* Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

With this new policy, as of January 1, 2024, we will offer Unity Personal to anyone regardless of how much revenue they make to provide more flexibility in how creators manage their licenses. Once a game passes the revenue and install thresholds, the studio would pay a small flat fee for each install (see the table below).

To adjust for scale, Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscribers will be eligible for volume discounts that rapidly reduce the per-install cost of the Unity Runtime Fee. This means that in addition to other benefits, the cost of Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise licenses can be offset by the savings as the game grows.

Finally, we structured our fees so that they take into account the variability of game monetization between more established regions like North America and Europe versus emerging gaming regions such as India. A breakdown of the pricing and discount structure is below.

Unity Personal and Unity Plus
Revenue Threshold (last 12 months): $200,000 (USD)
Install Threshold (lifetime): 200,000
New installs per month (Standard rate): $0.20 (USD) per install
New installs per month (Emerging market rate): $0.02 (USD) per install

Unity Pro
Revenue Threshold (last 12 months): $1,000,000 (USD)
Install Threshold (lifetime): 1,000,000
New installs per month (Standard rate): $0.15 (USD) per install (1–100,000), $0.075 (USD) per install (100,001–500,000), $0.03 (USD) per install (500,001–1,000,000), $0.02 (USD) per install (1,000,001+)
New installs per month (Emerging market rate): $0.01 (USD) per install

Unity Enterprise
Revenue Threshold (last 12 months): $200,000 (USD)
Install Threshold (lifetime): 200,000
New installs per month (Standard rate): $0.125 (USD) per install (1–100,000), $0.06 (USD) per install (100,001–500,000), $0.02 (USD) per install (500,001–1,000,000), $0.01 (USD) per install (1,000,001+)
New installs per month (Emerging market rate): $0.005 (USD) per install


The recent news triggered a mass outrage and revolt reaction among the users with this new pricing fee for every game installed. One of the reasons for this policy came from the new CEO - John Riccitiello (former CEO of EA who has some controversy about microtransactions, among other things); as the company's revenue dropped - not reaching their expected income. Some (if not, the majority) game developers announced they're abandoning Unity Engine for another game engine (Unreal Engine 5 as an example since it is being praised for its graphic features).

Although the company came with apologies to everyone for this news and inform of upcoming changes related to the pricing fee, I don't think anyone would take this kindly since some developers are moving to other game engines.

Question: Will this affect me as a game developer on my spare-time?
I guess not since I haven't sold anything from Unity to the Internet (from Steam or on any other place) and most of my mini-games were (are) made for fun while learning C# Script / Java Script programming.

Plus, I started on Unity while following some tutorials from YouTube.

My first RTS (Real Time Strategy) mini-game (Dragons):

My first attempt of making a mini-game was this one. The original idea was trying to adapt the Mega Bloks Dragons: Krystal Wars - consisting the Norvagen, Vorgan and Draigar in a great battle (similar to StarCraft and WarCraft series). For the mini-game there would be a fourth nation: the Drajittar Kingdom. What I did (based on the tutorials from Guto + Game Dev YouTube channel) was: the selection box, the resources, the villager (the first unit in a RTS) walking, collecting resources, building structures, a class system and the day-night cycle (although this one was based on GamesIndie's tutorial).

The buildings and the resources were made with 3D Studio Max - with the exception of the trees as the stalk was made in Unity. I tried to make the villager for the mini-game, but the results weren't promising from that time. I may redo the character and the buildings on Blender.

However the project didn't went forward as the tutorials from Guto's YT channel halted for a good time (with the last videos focused on the Fog of War). And probably I may change the game to avoid any CC infringement if I would release the game - with something inspired on Warhammer Fantasy, D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) and Might & Magic.

My first TPS (Third Person Shooter) mini-game of Claymore:

The next project was the Claymore inspired mini-game. I tried to include Priscilla from my first Blender project along her walking and standing animation. However, after I updated Unity, the model's limbs and head stretched in a disturbing way.

I plan to revisit it by reimporting Priscilla - made from the 2.8 version or from the new version; along the props, swords and the enemies (preciselly the Yoma).

My War Thunder / IL-2 Sturmovik BOS inspired game:

After I started making WW2 planes, I decided to search for any tutorial on YouTube for a War Thunder / IL-2 Sturmovik BOS based game with the Spitfire, Bf 109, P-51D Mustang and the P-38G Lightning as my first planes.

I plan to revisit it and learn new things after a comment on the video - telling me to use physics. Also, I plan to introduce new planes like the FW 190, A6M Zero, Hurricane, La-5 / La-5FN, IL-2, Ki-43, P-40, P-47 and more.

My CoD Zombies / Left 4 Dead inspired game:




And lastly, the project involving WW2 firearms and Minecraft-styled zombies. This one had some further development than my previous projects, but there are some things requiring adjustments. But at the time I was working on it, I made the player's HUD, the weapons script, the bullet holes script and once again, the class system.

So these are my projects I made with Unity Engine. Like I said early, they are still in development, but I'm not sure when I plan to conclude it due to my time being dedicated to my university, job and other things - which slowed the development of these mini-games.

Now, a question that might come to me: Will I plan to move on to another game engine, like UE5?
For my current projects? Not yet. If I plan to do that, I'd have to learn from scratch how to start working with all the tools from UE5. And it would a good time to move all the projects from Unity to UE5. Fortunately I only have me as a developer, programmer, 3D modeller, story writter and sound developer, with my brother to assist me with some things.

For now, I plan to conclude the mini-games with the current engine.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoy it. I'll be back with more Blogs in this year - if nothing change in order to make me occupied like job, studies and civil service exams. I plan to share more artworks and other things I did in my time. Until the time comes, you will be surprised to see it. See you next time.

My second Youtube channel:
My Blogspot:

Note: Don't you dare to download these images and re-share it without my permission. If you do, please, leave the original author name.
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