Unity is introducing a new pricing structure for the use of its game engine from the beginning of next year.

Until now, developers have been able to use the Unity engine for free, but now a “Unity Runtime Fee” will be introduced. This fee depends on the revenue that developers generate with their games and on the number of installations.

If a developer creates a Unity game that generates more than 200,000 US dollars in revenue per year and is installed more than 200,000 times in total, he will have to pay 20 cents per installation to Unity in future. Pro developers who already pay for the enhanced Unity editor will have to pay at least 15 cents per install to Unity on top of their existing subscription fees if their game generates more than US$1,000,000 in revenue per year and is installed more than one million times in total.

Previously, Unity had derived its revenue mainly from the sale of the Unity Editor and the extended development environment, not from the game engine itself. This change in the pricing structure could have an impact on developers who use Unity to develop their games.