New Unity Pricing

[teak421]

@Magnex;549168

I don’t really mind the subscription thing since most of my tools already do that anyways or they have yearly paid major upgrades which is almost the same thing in terms of cash flow. The plus edition seems perfect for my needs at least when it comes to mobile stuff. Not sure how to continue with desktop things now though. I was planning to use Unreal when they announced the earlier prices which had worse tiers but now with the recent changes I’m not sure. I dislike royalties and I assume the cost of having my accountant reporting detailed platform specific data quarterly would cost (4x 1-2h fee) over half of the plus tier annual fee alone.

Hmm… have to follow how things go.

If you dislike royalties UE4 is not for you… For me, paying them 5 percent for producing such a great engine is quite worth it… in the same way, paying Steam 30 percent for access to their large customer base…

teak

[teak421]

@;549342

I respect the fact that you want a different model to Epic’s. Sure, why not!
I like Unity, but what I don’t respect is a corp that changes the rules arbitrarily.
That kind of uncertainty is unhelpful. The fast 180 hints that this was all a test.
What will the market accept etc… Its disingenuous, or at worst its manipulative.
What will the price be next year, the year after, 2 years / 5 years from now etc?
Game dev is hard enough without Venezuela / Argentina like price movements!

Steam is also heavily saturated though. So where is that 30% going? Sure its the going rate thanks to Apple. But is it worth it?
What do you get in exchange exactly: promotion / search prominence / MP server time / tech support. Anyone got useful indie links?
If a game makes 10k sales, is there a comparison chart showing how Steam stacks up versus 3k spent directly on marketing?

Worth it? Talk to the folks at Factorio…

teak

[Magnex]

@teak421;549324

If you dislike royalties UE4 is not for you… For me, paying them 5 percent for producing such a great engine is quite worth it… in the same way, paying Steam 30 percent for access to their large customer base…

The problem is mainly what the royalties will cost me total in the end (royalty cut + reports) and they will be there forever until the products drop below the limits. I never saw option to report annually with would be a cheaper process. I’ve already paid the platform share to various places for years so it does not bother me (btw royalties calculated before platform cut). The new Unity plus is only $420 year with unlimited products and $200 000 limit so it will be cheaper for what I’ve had with our products.

I’ve been using Unreal for a year now on/off and probably will continue with some personal projects (maybe VR).

[anonymous_user_138c2332]

I see it this way, Unity = mobile, UE4 = desktop.

[ambershee]

@;549342

So where is that 30% going? Sure its the going rate thanks to Apple.

Steam predates the Apple App store by around 5 years.

[Nebulon_Ranger]

Pay to own option

Updated: If you subscribe to the new Unity Pro for a minimum of 24 consecutive months, you get to keep the version you have if you notify us that you are stopping your subscription, and choosing pay to own. At that point, you will stop receiving access to Pro tier services, new features and upgrades. You will receive the next 3 patches. We reserve the right to grant access to additional patches in the event that we find severe bugs. If you later resume subscribing, you will still own the perpetual license you elected but again start receiving updates, fixes and services. Once you have subscribed for another 24 consecutive months, and should you elect to cease this new subscription, you will be granted a new perpetual license of the current version of Unity.

As a SONAR user, it feels to me like they tried to take a page from Cakewalk (who started doing this in 2015) only to yet again fall flat on their ***. CW’s version of this is after 12 months, and Platinum costs less monthly than Unity Pro.

It’s essentially rent-to-own, but Unity somehow managed to **** even that up.

I realise it’s not a truly direct comparison (Unity is an engine and SONAR is a DAW), but digital audio authoring is another field where software can get expensive extremely quickly.

[masterneme]

Money is worthless compared to time, the most valuable asset, the speed in which you can develop with UE4 is lightyears ahead of anyone on the competition and we have the best community period.

Even being indie UE4 is the best deal because you can make unlimited prototypes for free and find the hidden diamond that will bring you the money. If you have a team with 3 or 4 guys you’ll be losing money until that happens and if you fail you’re doomed.

All the math that makes Unity worthy assume that you’re going to succeed which is very stupid because this is a very competitive market, we live in a world in which 9 out of 10 businesses go bankrupt before the 5th year.

We have access to all the UE4 capabilities from the get go and without the anxiety of getting results or getting out of business.

The average indie dev doesn’t even get the minimum salary and that is a fact. That average dev would be keeping all his/her money using UE4 because of the 3000$ condition of the license, with Unity he/she would be broke.

5% is an effing bargain.

[anonymous_user_dd205574]

@;549342

I respect the fact that you want a different model to Epic’s. Sure, why not!
I like Unity, but what I don’t respect is a corp that changes the rules arbitrarily.
That kind of uncertainty is unhelpful. The fast 180 hints that this was all a test.
What will the market accept etc… Its disingenuous, or at worst its manipulative.
What will the price be next year, the year after, 2 years / 5 years from now etc?
Game dev is hard enough without Venezuela / Argentina like price movements!

You should assume there will be changes in commercial outfits, as they are subject to market forces. And not just that, people retire and people with new ideas come in. Even so if they push things too far, there will always be free options on Github.

[anonymous_user_0df12f74]

The new changes help somehwat, but this part is a bit outrageous when you need to commit to 12 months subscription for Pro:

If you pay for 24 or more consecutive months of a new Unity Pro subscription, you get to keep and use the version you have when you notify us that you are stopping subscription and choosing pay to own. At such point, you will stop receiving access to Pro tier services, new features and upgrades. You will receive the next 3 patches. We reserve the right to grant access to additional patches in the event that we find severe bugs. If you later resume the subscription, you will still own the perpetual license you elected but again start receiving updates, fixes and services. Once you have subscribed for another 24 consecutive months, and should you elect to cease this new subscription, you will be granted a new perpetual license of the current version of Unity.

Even when UE4 was subscription based, you received all updates for the version you paid for, as in pay for 4.5 and you get all 4.5.x updates for free (people used to get a 1 month sub when a new version came out).

I hope I’m reading that wrong, re-subbing for 12 months to get a bugfix is absurd. It doesn’t matter to me since I don’t use it, it’s just one of those dirty little marketing “tricks” that cellular companies (along with many others) use to make their deal seem better than it actually is. Always hate seeing it happen.

[anonymous_user_dd205574]

I am not excusing Unity. If the upper management at Epic are changed you might see similar changes too. Its a you accept with commercial software, or any third party software.

[I_Am_DreReid]

I think i’ll stick with the free version

[anonymous_user_3c8274f2]

Honestly, the new pricing model is why I decided to use UE4 instead of Unity. I like Unity, but I just can’t afford the new cost of it.

[anonymous_user_f937f330]

fair price for developers

[Magnex]

@SlyBunny;558303

Honestly, the new pricing model is why I decided to use UE4 instead of Unity. I like Unity, but I just can’t afford the new cost of it.

What do you mean can’t afford the “new” costs? they are now cheaper than were before. The new plus is only $400 a year for small indies and studios and pro cost for real pros (+200k/year earnings) got almost halved. Both plus and pro include all engine features, platforms and custom splash.

[HavocX]

@Magnex;558538

What do you mean can’t afford the “new” costs? they are now cheaper than were before. The new plus is only $400 a year for small indies and studios and pro cost for real pros (+200k/year earnings) got almost halved. Both plus and pro include all engine features, platforms and custom splash.

With the changes, Plus is a good deal for indies releasing on mobile platforms.

But Pro is much more expensive compared to the old option of upgrading the perpetual license.

Earlier you could upgrade every two years for a total of $1500 (including mobile) making the cost per year $750. That cost is now $125*12 = $1500.

Twice as much for a mobile developer and four times as much for desktop only!

[anonymous_user_3c8274f2]

@Magnex;558538

What do you mean can’t afford the “new” costs? they are now cheaper than were before. The new plus is only $400 a year for small indies and studios and pro cost for real pros (+200k/year earnings) got almost halved. Both plus and pro include all engine features, platforms and custom splash.

I was okay with paying, what, $75 a month for Pro, but $125 is ridiculous. The Unity Plus option might be okay for some, but I don’t care for the limitations compared to Pro (such as no option of buying source code access, or only 50 concurrent players versus 200 for multiplayer). Also, I primarily make PC games, not mobile, so it really jacks up my development costs. Especially when I can’t write it off as a business expense (cause I’m working as an individual).

[Magnex]

@HavocX;558605

With the changes, Plus is a good deal for indies releasing on mobile platforms.

But Pro is much more expensive compared to the old option of upgrading the perpetual license.

Earlier you could upgrade every two years for a total of $1500 (including mobile) making the cost per year $750. That cost is now $125*12 = $1500.

Twice as much for a mobile developer and four times as much for desktop only!

Why do you say plus is good for releasing mobile platforms? it includes desktop too. Basically the plus is the old pro in cheaper form but with 200k income limit. For multiplatform devs the new pro is a lot cheaper now, 225 down to 125. The new pro is more expensive if you go desktop only but you have no use for majority of the services included either. So why would get pro instead of plus?

[anonymous_user_3c8274f2]

@HavocX;558605

With the changes, Plus is a good deal for indies releasing on mobile platforms.

But Pro is much more expensive compared to the old option of upgrading the perpetual license.

Earlier you could upgrade every two years for a total of $1500 (including mobile) making the cost per year $750. That cost is now $125*12 = $1500.

Twice as much for a mobile developer and four times as much for desktop only!

Exactly. Epic’s 5% royalty is much more reasonable when you have pretty much no development budget. If Unity offered a royalty-based model I’d be back to using Unity, but that definitely won’t happen…

[Magnex]

@SlyBunny;558649

I was okay with paying, what, $75 a month for Pro, but $125 is ridiculous. The Unity Plus option might be okay for some, but I don’t care for the limitations compared to Pro (such as no option of buying source code access, or only 50 concurrent players versus 200 for multiplayer). Also, I primarily make PC games, not mobile, so it really jacks up my development costs. Especially when I can’t write it off as a business expense (cause I’m working as an individual).

There are not really massive limitations in plus and for example the multiplayer CCU is for development purposes (beta testing) and not for live release use. As for the source access since you mention you are an individual you already lose the chances to access it even if you had the cast to pay for it. You can only only get it as bigger size company with rep.

@SlyBunny;558651

Exactly. Epic’s 5% royalty is much more reasonable when you have pretty much no development budget. If Unity offered a royalty-based model I’d be back to using Unity, but that definitely won’t happen…

However the 5% is per product until end of products life while with Unity you can have unlimited products with the same cost so there is a great difference when doing business, unless doing a single product for years

Without budget or income might as well go with the free versions and only upgrade when succeed.

[anonymous_user_3c8274f2]

@Magnex;558655

for example the multiplayer CCU is for development purposes (beta testing) and not for live release use.

As far as I know it’s for live releases, too. I could be wrong but that was how I understood it.