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Unity (U) on Runtime Fees: the impact of this business model change to have minimal benefit in 2024

The controversial Runtime Fees aren't expected to be a boon for Unity next year.

Donovan Erskine

November 9, 2023 1:50 PM

Unity

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Unity’s (U) latest earnings report is out, providing a breakdown of the company’s financial performance over the past few months. It also touches on one of the most controversial decisions in Unity’s history: the implementation of Runtime Fees. As Unity continues to navigate the mess that it’s found itself in, the company doesn’t expect Runtime Fees to be financially beneficial in 2024.

The note about Runtime Fees can be found on page four of Unity’s Q3 2023 earnings report. It’s here that the company admits it doesn’t anticipate that Runtime Fees will be instantly beneficial, but will eventually show a decent return as customers adapt to it.

This more or less checks out with the intense backlash that Unity received back in September when the company first announced Runtime Fees. After numerous devs spoke out against the policy, many of them vowing to stop using the Unity Engine moving forward, CEO John Riccitiello stepped down. The company has opted not to reverse the decision, but is hoping to ease the blow with some tweaks made to the policy.

Despite clearing earnings results for the quarter, Unity (U) stock was down in after-hours guidance possibly due to the lack of guidance for the upcoming quarter. Stick with us as we await more information during Unity’s upcoming earnings call.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_