Unity 2.6 is out (and free!)

[HiggyB]

[luge]

First I couldn't make it through all the posts in this topic as there is just way too much noise. There are some good points in there, but many people upset that they paid $200 for a now free product and just as many people telling them STFU about it.

Second, I purchased the Indie version at the beginning of summer. I had been using the trial version, and it was about to expire, so instead of using a few simple methods to by pass the time limit, I purchased it knowing that I wouldn't have alot of time over the summer to use it (being the busy season for my business), but wanted to support the company and their product, and I would have a little free time to start learning the ins and outs of it.

I think alot of people had the same idea of supporting the Unity Tech and it's great product, but now feel they are not getting the same support in return. Also they are thinking that in the future, the new features will be mainly for Pro, thus making it more attractive then the Free/Indie version. Only time will tell if this will be true or not.

That said, I'm not too upset about buying a product that is now free, but I do feel slightly insulted about the upgrade offer. The real problem I have with it, is it's only an extremely limited time, with Christmas being a month and half away. UT should really (must) extended the offer for another 3 months, then I think it would be feasible for alot more people to upgrade.

Also as pointed out in several other post, the discount is really only $200, as I was already eligible (for all of 2.x life time) for a $200 discount on Pro. But you are offering a bigger discount on a less expensive product (iPhone Basic) which I really have no interest in. I know this won't happen, but the discount for Pro, a more expensive product, really should be greater then for the less expensive product.

These points have been raised in some fashion or another in this topic, and I am a little late in 'chiming in', but I felt it was important enough to raise them again.

[Angel38]

Well...

Epic Games release today the Unreal Engine 3 for free, you can do it noncommercial projects for Pc.

you could use this tool to learn the engine and having a job as a developer of AAA video games.

Is a good news too.

[ryanzec]

I would not worry about them starting to only add features into the Pro product. I think they will continue to improve and add new feature to both products (like the animation editor for both and the profiler/external SVN support for Pro in 2.6). Of course only time will truly tell.

[Nintari]

This summer I paid $200 for Unity and do not regret it. It's a great product and I am very happy to see that they are making the indie version free. I have already started pointing students and game development enthusiasts to the website to download the indie version.

What I am not happy about is that I have till Dec 31st to invest in Unity Pro. The holidays are upon us and people are already budgeting to spend their money on their friends and families. If the Unity Team extended the promotion deadline by 3 or 6 months, I think they would find a lot more indie users jumping on it. It makes better business sense for them to do so as their conversion rate would likely be better.

Just my $0.02.

[SamK]

[David Montgomery-Blake]

Just wanted to say "congratulations" to UT in the official topic. I think this is a very bold and very intelligent move; and like all bold moves, will ruffle some feathers. Good luck; it is definitely a good time to be a game developer!

[sleekit]

Looking forward to Torque going free purely to count the ruffled feathers

[bambamyi]

[AbsoluteBreeze]

bambamyi, name calling and getting personal isn't really a good way to get your point across.

[zumwalt]

Looking through the looking glass subjectively, first Higgy rocks, ok, past that point, I've only been a follower of Unity since 2007, so only got 2 years under my belt using it, I purchased Indy originally, saw that I really wanted pro becuase at "that" time, the only way to build for Windows was through Pro, so I paid the difference to go from Indy to Pro for the simple solution to build for windows.

But wait, you come along and you can buy Indy, which by the by, allows you to build and run and use the editor on Windows and Mac without having to own pro, but you throw up a stink about the $200? Indy for me was $250, Pro was same price as pro is now and Higgy helped me get through the process of going to Pro from Indy.

But wait, I wanted iPhone (some flavor) and they hooked me up with a trial (when at first I wanted to simply shuck out the cash for Advanced, but the trial hook up showed me all I needed was Basic), so I shucked out the entire iPhone basic cost....

I frankly don't care if they charge / recharge / repay / don't pay / or even don't care to repay any costs. The product is still worth more than what they are charging in total. All said, they could charge $4,995 for Pro and people would pay because it is that damn good.

But wait.. (yea I like this phrase)
I have owned iTGE since January of this year and it doesn't have a simple build to iPhone feature and it costs $$$ more than Unity to own but doesn't work. On top of that it currently has no functional path to Snow Leopard and no news on if / when it will work for Snow Leopard, so I am waiting on a (year later) functional product to test on the iPhone.

So lets look at this the right way, the cost of iPhone Unity Basic + original cost of Unity Indy allowed you to IMMEDIATELY build to iPhone with a few clicks of the mouse button, a few more clicks and it is deployed to the apple store, 15 minutes of your life time spent and you have an an application that is making you money.

But wait... your major complaint is those who are getting Unity (Unity Indy old) for free and making games. So, while you sit in these forums, calling people names whom you don't know, have no idea of the marketing advantage this gives Unity, what kind of ripples and signal it send even to what you call AAA engines, those engines now are also Free as of this going free, and I bet it was BECAUSE this went free, those "free" owners are making a game and laughing at your wasted efforts on a non-understanding of long term economics.

This is one of the few products that I will defend till my knuckles bleed and my feet have blisters from the hot coals on fire, simply because I have grown with it over 2 years and I fully understand the logic behind it. And NO, I do not work for them.

Edit:
Forgot to mention, Blake you rock to bro.
FYI, I have owned Torque products since 2005, 2 years prior to Unity, and I did in 1 day with Unity that took me a year to do with Torque products.

[bambamyi]

and Unity Evangelist being smartass is good thing then? How about Unity focusing on getting new customers rather than those customers whose been following the tool for quite awhile and also paid for it... Yeah I am pissed. I have been a owner since Nov of 2008. I paid for it and now you guys are offering it for free and to make things worse make the upgrade price 4 times the price we paid for. You know what? I have browsed through the thread and HiggyB's attitude is totally annoying and ignorant. Not to mention the fact that he's trying very hard to be smartass about the whole thing. We are the customers who paid for your tools... treat us with respect.

Open your eyes people.

[jonaphin]

[Angel38]

[foq1978]

Now that Unreal Engine is free for non-commercial products, would you please consider enabling real-time shadows, reflections, render to texture (so we can display , etc. for indie users (especially those who originally purchased the indie version)?

I wouldn't mind keeping the Unity logo at startup at all.