Unity apologises for 4.0 VAT error

Unity has apologised after asking developers who paid for its new Unity 4 engine to pay extra VAT charges it mistakenly failed to add to the original pricing.

In a message to Develop, a developer said they had not been charged VAT for their pre-order, but three weeks later received an e-mail from Unity asking for an extra €341.

Other users have suggested they wouldn’t have paid for the engine, with an original upgrade cost of €1,365, had they been charged an extra 25 per cent on top. The total price eventually comes to €1,700.

Developers who refuse will likely be able to cancel their transactions, but will not be able to keep the engine at the original cost without paying the VAT.

Unity, however, has told Develop that the bug has only affected five per cent of UK customers, and has apologised for any inconvenience caused.

“When we launched the Unity 4 pre-order program, our online store had a small bug which affected around five per cent of customers – not adding European VAT to their pre-order purchases,” said Unity CEO David Helgason.

“We contacted the affected customers so that they can complete their purchases, and apologised for any inconvenience that this may have caused them.

"We’ve been stunned by the level of pre-orders from developers who are as excited as we are about the upcoming launch of the next generation of the engine since our announcement last month, and we look forward to unveiling more at Unite our annual developer conference next month in Amsterdam.”