Categories

Unity founder says we ‘f*cked up’ with price increase and company prepares to backpedal

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

David Helgason, former Unity CEO and current board member, said the company “f*cked up” on many levels with its price increase. The company said it was planning to backpedal on the fee by making “changes to the policy.”

Helgason stepped down in 2014 and was replaced by current CEO John Riccitiello. Helgason heard the outcry from game developers upset about last week’s new Unity Runtime Fee, which targeted developers with a new fee based on their numbers of downloads, after meeting threshold amounts. It didn’t go over well and led to a boycott of Unity Ads and ads from its IronSource division.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.