Hi, I noticed on a lot of pages that lead you to buy Unity the runtime fee is not mentioned sufficiently
Just a small banner on top saying it will be updated
To me this seems quite misleading and it should actually be included more prominently that there will be additional fees
An example the Plans and Pricing page does not include any mention of the new fee:
(Real-time tools for 3D, AR, and VR development | Products) - interestingly there is another page that compares the plans where the runtime fee is mentioned, but conveniently the blog posts by unity directly link to the products comparison page where the runtime fee is not mentioned at all
Also in the order summary it is hidden away:
To me this design seems to be intentionally misleading and “downplayed”, and could maybe be seen as a “dark pattern” by regulatory bodies
Nah. I’ve seen far worse dark patterns that are still legal, specifically phone/internet services. You know, the ones where every other statement ends with an increasing number of asterisks (sometimes more than 4!) and at the bottom of the page there’s this 8px fine-print where you are supposed to look up what ***** actually means.
I would argue the * pattern is already established and usually it’s clearly visible because after the price you see the * and you already know there will be hidden fees.
So I think Unity should at least copy this to every comparison/pricing page and add the * at the end to indicate the hidden fees
Maybe it’s simple, because the first Unity version that has the runtime fee won’t be released until the end of the year. All current versions do not have the fee.
Isn’t that specific to LTS versions? Anyone starting a new project needs to know, because if they start in 2023 (and why wouldn’t they?) they’re committing to the license with that fee.
Those pages also don’t show other info, such as the income cap. In practical terms, regardless of which license you buy initially, if your game hits the relevant threshold then you’re paying for both Pro licensing and the Runtime fee. That’s probably what has to be clear to people.
Unity 6 (aka 2023 LTS) is when the fee is supposed to start. Unity 2023 Tech releases don’t have the fee but if you will need to move to the LTS then you’ll eventually have to deal with the fee.
As @Ryiah mentioned, according to my quotation in above post, Runtime Fee applies from Unity 2023 LTS (Also named Unity 6) released in 2024 and onward versions.
There’s enough vaguery in the quoted language that I’m not confident of that interpretation, but I’m happy to accept that they’ve made it clear elsewhere. When it matters to me, I’ll confirm it first hand anyway.
They’re certainly making their communications less clear than they ought to be by complicating what a “supported” version is and writing around the renaming of their product and such.
Also, it doesn’t really matter, by the time the new fee goes into effect they might change their minds again (especially for “details” like what we are discussing here), so having a good understanding on what they communicated a few months ago doesn’t matter.
For me the quoted statment is very clear.
However I do agree, that such information is hidden away and really need to dig in, to find it, instead clearly show it on comparison page. There is where should be clarification which versions applies to which fees. Not somwhere in arbitrary hidden web page.
