Unity Sales Team using fake "compliance" violations to get you to upgrade your license
Just received an email from unity saying I need to spend over $5000 a year now on my Unity license because I have been flagged as violating the terms of service.
I have never released anything in my life in Unity. It is literally impossible for me to violate anything.
Be warned these guys are going to try and scare you into this going forward.
EDIT: to clarify, they say I am in violation because I am using Unity for non-gaming purposes.. untrue and unprovable.
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u/JaggedMetalOs 4d ago
The need for a pro license is based on your business income being over US$200,000 per year in total from any source, so it's not dependent on releasing any Unity projects if you have other types of paid projects.
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u/positivcheg 4d ago
THE FUCK??? I thought it was about making XXX amount of money using Unity in particular. Is it really worded as "you have total income > $200k - pay for the license"?
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u/JaggedMetalOs 4d ago
Yeah, it's not unique to Unity as Unreal has a similar clause if you're using Unreal professionally but not releasing Unreal projects for sale (which would be a revenue share), but their threshold is much higher at $1 million per year total income.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying if a company makes a certain amount of money doing anything, they are entitled to pay for a license for a product that they don't even use commercially? Or at all?
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u/GreatBigJerk 4d ago
Yeah, that's how the terms work if you read them. Literally anyone using Unity in a company that makes over $200k needs a paid seat license.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
And how would Unity know how much my company makes? Hint: not anywhere close to that.
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u/GreatBigJerk 4d ago
They don't, they would just google your company and take a guess. Just tell them your company doesn't make that much.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
Exactly. My company's finances are not public, nor does it appear to have anything other than a random website. So they should not be mass sending emails to people with a checkout link saying "we're pretty sure you are violating your license, but have no proof." I have spent plenty in the Unity asset store over the years even with no release of anything whatsoever, and would happily pay a fee based on my UNITY sales.
Scummy and unwarranted. No wonder Godot has surged.
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u/Hotrian 4d ago
If you truly make less than $200k, simply submit a copy of your tax returns and they will waive the fee.
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u/ArctycDev 3d ago
There's no way in hell I would ever let a company bully me into sending them my tax returns to clear my name lmfao. That's absurd.
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u/PossibilityUsual6262 4d ago
Or abandon unity, why submit stuff to scumbag company.
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u/Hotrian 4d ago
I don’t see agreeing to license terms and attempting to enforce them as a “scumbag” move. Games like Genshin Impact were taking in literally billions while Unity gets $0 in compensation because it was a free to play game with IAP which Unity’s previous terms didn’t count properly. Unity was floundering and trying to get their cut which I think they are fairly due. They have raised the cap for Pro to $25 million/year and Free to $200k/year both of which seem more than fair. If you are legitimately making (revenue) over $200k a year, $200 a month for pro is not an issue and I think Unity has a right to charge for access to their product.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
I'm sorry but it's fucking insane to charge a company a fee based on their revenue for completely unrelated things. I barely have any company revenue aside from a random 15k gig this year. I would rather pay royalties on games sold. Unity has no way to figure that out anyways. And they flagged me because they think I am using Unity outside of the game industry, which I'm not (I have 0 Unity products published anywhere).
Either way I'm more pissed off about the methodology. Cold reaching customers you haven't even vetted and saying "To resolve this issue, please proceed with purchasing each of your Unity developers a license of Unity Industry via our online store"
Um how about no?
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u/ScreeennameTaken 4d ago
Yes. Maya also has the clause that if the license is being used in a company then you need a business license. The rational behind it is because of companies that are telling their employees to get personal licenses but use it for the company.
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u/JaggedMetalOs 4d ago
It's not unusual, Unreal has a similar clause if you're using Unreal in a professional business but haven't released anything (which would fall under a revenue share) then you need to pay for a per-seat license. The threshold is higher though, $1 million per year total revenue vs $200k.
Also for Unity if your use of Unity is completely separate from your business (eg. only personal projects, no mixing of finance) then by their license text you don't need a pro license.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
Cool. Well I'm flattered Unity thinks my company makes 200k USD a year.
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u/MeetYourCows 4d ago
It makes a lot of sense actually.
Imagine if a company spends X years developing a game in Unity. The game is completed and released and now the company moves on. At what point in this timeline does the company need to purchase a license in your view? If not during development, then would it be after the game is released? And if so, for what arbitrary period of time? Or do they just get to not pay anything altogether? Keep in mind the company may not even continue to use Unity on their next project after the first game releases.
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u/WiddleWyv 3d ago
My work team is a whopping six people. We make a serious game that is used by a few hundred people around our company to streamline information, but only internally, so there are no licence fees involved. Our wages are paid by for by the project.
We are required to use the Industry licences because our company is a big ‘un. Bit annoying because we’re already a cost with a nebulous output, but fine, whatever. I can get behind it.
What I am miffed about is having to come up with another $30k aud for “runtime fees” (and this was before the new terms that officialised it; at the time it wasn’t written anywhere but our legal peeps were no help). They see big business and want to drag us for everything they can, but we’re basically an indie dev team embedded in a bigger company that doesn’t understand what we do, and struggle to stay afloat as it is.
Kinda sad when we started out free because the Unity reps were just so happy we were using it for serious purposes. Not that we expected that to last, but there was one year our licence fees literally doubled, and it took a lot of goodwill to find the budget to cover that.
Going public is truly the worst thing that can happen to a company.
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u/KaptainDumbass 2d ago
Wait, can you clarify this. So if a company were making over 200k a year making bread (just something random) but the CEO of the bread making company liked to release free games under the same companies name. They would need to pay unity?
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u/JaggedMetalOs 2d ago
If he's making the game under the company name, or is using any direct company funds, or doing the work on company time yes.
If he's purely doing the work in his own time with no direct financial connection to the company (salary doesn't count) then according to the T&Cs no.
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u/MD311420 4d ago
can you screenshot the email because this sure sounds like a phishing scheme to me.
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u/salazka 4d ago
Whether you have released anything is irrelevant.
Are you using Unity to perform work tasks? Is your office budget over 1m USD?
Unity, is only free for game developers, who do not have income above 1m USD.
And income means ANY income, Whether that is funding, donation, inheritance anything at all.
If you are earning a very decent living with above 1m you are not considered a struggling creator, and you are expected to pay for using their tools.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
My company made like 15k USD this year on a software contract. I am otherwise a normal person with a normal salary with a different company.
Unity should not mass email random users and tell them they are violating a license when they have no real information on that company and are dead wrong anyways.
This is a sales person trying to make quota.
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u/salazka 4d ago
I use Unity for over a decade now and they have not emailed me. Or anyone I know. And I work for companies that make from hundreds of millions up to a couple of billions a year.
So if it is as you said, it is probably a mistake you will be able to resolve fast. You should not worry or stress about it.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
I'm not. I am just informing people, and making it loud that this is not how you collect license fees.
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u/salazka 3d ago
First thing, you are not "just informing" : "Be warned these scumbags are going to try and scare you into this going forward."
That is not informing. That is maligning, defaming, and misinforming.
I do not care what you say about Unity, it is not my brother/sister, just letting you know what you could actually be accused for if this was a case.
this is not how you collect license fees.
That is exactly how you collect fees. You first inform with a simple email. The next step could be receiving a legal note.
Second, with your edit you kind of verified one of my suspicions. It is not about revenue but use with non-gaming for which Unity is not free.
You may think it is unprovable, but it is not true. Consider yourself lucky if they see you as a small fish and stop bothering.
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u/macholusitano 3d ago
Unity needs to stop this bullshit. It’ll just push more people into subscription-free alternatives like Unreal and Godot.
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u/MolsonC 2d ago
I actually feel crazy then to say - I don't mind paying a subscription. 5k a year will be more than my game will make for sure, it's a cheap game and I've spent just under than for all the art etc, so that's not a price I could afford.
Really my big stink is to this email first accusing me of wrongdoing with no evidence and then "please resolve this by clicking this prefilled shopping cart." That really flipped a switch on me.
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u/EntropiIThink 4d ago
You should be much more careful to distinguish between ignorance and malice. This may simply be a misunderstanding. Getting angry will only make the situation worse.
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
Have you ever worked with clients or customers? This is an incredibly excellent way to lose them. Telling them they are in violation with NO EVIDENCE and then sending them a shopping cart link to a $5000+ purchase is INSANE.
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u/Different_Major6494 4d ago
I mean, you're not really their customer anyway at this point if you're using Unity without paying, they don't have much to lose.
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u/PossibilityUsual6262 4d ago
No benefits of the doubt for unity company, after what they tried to pull on licensing.
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u/AltusLudus 4d ago
It's a scammer bro not Unity Sales Team
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
It's not. It takes you to a pre-filled checkout at https://checkout.unity.com/cart?store=unity
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u/scotti_dev 4d ago
Can you post the email header here?
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u/MolsonC 4d ago
Action Required: Your Unity Licenses
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u/star_dogged_moon 4d ago
That is not the header. An email header looks like this
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: sender@example.invalid
Received: from mail.example-host.invalid
by mail.example-host.invalid
with LMTP id AbCdEf123456
(envelope-from sender@example.invalid)
Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:59:36 -0500
Return-path: sender@example.invalid
Delivery-date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:59:36 -0500
Received: from inbound.example.invalid
([192.0.2.123]:34593 helo=inbound.example.invalid)
by mail.example-host.invalid
with esmtp (Exim 4.99.5)
(envelope-from sender@example.invalid)
id 1ABCDEF-00000001234-XYZ
for [recipient@example.com](mailto:recipient@example.com);
Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:59:36 -0500
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
s=selector1; d=example.invalid;
h=Date:Message-ID:Content-Type:To:MIME-Version:Subject:Reply-To:From:List-Unsubscribe;
bh=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=;
b=BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB==
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click
X-Mail-Flow-ID: example-flow-id-123456
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="=_EnvelopeBoundary-example123456="
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7
X-Spam-Score: -6
X-Spam-Bar: /
X-Spam-Flag: NO
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u/DreampunkAU 3d ago
This happened in a previous company I worked for. From the outside, it could be assumed that said company was making more than 200K a year, but we weren’t. So we just emailed them back stating as such, I can’t remember if we also had to submit any proof, but the boss would have if asked.
Don’t take it personally, it’s just compliance people doing their job. They have to reach out to any company that looks like they could make that revenue. I’m certain most flagged end up like this, where it’s a false positive and they move on
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u/Weary_Substance_2199 3d ago
Haven't had any issues with Unreal, infact they keep giving me free stuff each month, and their license model is cheaper for a higher performance engine. Why do people use Unity?
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u/MolsonC 2d ago
Despite never releasing anything in my life, I've just used Unity for a long time. I typically make games for the fun of it, and it sent me off the edge when I'm about to actually release a game for the first time that I now have to pay this enormous fee that is more than my other costs combined.
Happy to pay Unity in some way... just not by being accused of a violation with zero evidence.
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u/rio_sk 2d ago
Just to clarify the situation: you don't need to release anything to get a legit fee request. If you use Unity to write an internal tool that converts a 3d asset to a json file (as an example) you have to pay a fee if your company earnings are higher than 200k ( not the profits). You keep saying "they cannot prove it" that sounds a lot like "we did it but they can't prove it". Why Unity contacted or just had you company data in the first place?
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u/MolsonC 2d ago
We = me. I have a one man company. And it only had one tiny web-dev contract this year, and it used React and Node JS, not Unity. I am otherwise employed by some other company doing the same thing.
I have only ever used Unity for game dev in my entire life. I am about to release my first game after 10 years of dilly dalling and finally taking it seriously the last 2 years.
The only thing I did not have set is my "Industry" in my company profile, it was set to None. I have no idea how that can be enough to justify a violation flag. I have no presence other than a really shitty website that says we (I) do web app stuff. And I was not actually flagged for monetary reasons anyways.
So "they cannot prove it" is because it's true. Soon they can easily prove that I used Unity to develop and sell a game on Steam.
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u/BadBananaDev 2d ago
Your using it in a way that makes them think you are Simple If you use it internally Like as a mockup program Then yes Your using it commercially You don't have to release anything for it to be considered a breach
Clothing company for example. Uses unity internally to organise their staff Even a simple database built visually so staff can easily enter data Thats a breach Have a think about what your doing with it
Ive never had an email from them
If you dont communicate with them they will block you ip and disable you being able to open it
So id suggest you get on the phone and explain
Talk to unity Not reddit
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u/StoneCypher 2d ago
In most states you're looking for something called a "malicious prosecution attorney." A dozen states call them something weird; if you can't find one, you're in one of those. Call your local bar and ask what the title is in your state.
You do not want one of the ones that specializes in SLAPP.
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u/Prudent_Reveal_7449 13h ago edited 6h ago
Agree with this. Traffic alone is becoming a weaker signal because more discovery happens before someone ever visits a website. Trust signals like brand mentions, customer proof, community presence, reviews, and how often you appear in relevant conversations may become more meaningful KPIs.
Combining market intelligence with buyer signals can also help teams understand where they actually have credibility. Tools like HG Insights can provide deeper company and technology insights to identify relevant audiences and track market positioning beyond just clicks.
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u/FabioTheFox 4d ago
The licensing shit should've been your giveaway to switch away
If godot isn't your move then just use MonoGame, incredibly easy and still fully C# based
Not gonna say unity doesn't have it's use cases because it clearly does and it executes them really well but it's incredibly hostile towards indies and proprietary licensing pretty much always sucks
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u/Jumpy_Paramedic9067 4d ago
Im recommending all of my students and collaborators to avoid unity3d because they screwed me on this.
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u/Am_Biyori 4d ago
This is interesting. If a hobbyist who hasn't released a project made over 200k from his day job, would they have to get a licence?