Personal license used by multiple users on the same project

I have started making a simple game a few weeks ago with a friend. We both are working with personal license.

There are some things I am concerned about.

I understand the Personal license is for "smaller" projects, and Personal should refer to individuals. I have read the EULA though, and I might be missing something, but the only thing I found so far is that it is not allowed to mix content made with Personal and Pro versions.

What happens if we both work on the same project with Personal edition? Let's say, my friend builds a city and I put the cars, game logic and other stuff into it. Therefor we both worked on the same project.

I also see team license is coming soon to the Personal edition, although if I interpreted it well, it would be just a couple of helping functions for teamwork, not an actual "team license", so it's something different.

Also, the EULA states that no matter what, assets made by third parties could be used freely in my project, no matter what Unity version they were made by (just like we use the Asset Store). Although in this case it's my friend who makes the buildings / map / anything specifically for this project. What determines if it was coming from a third party? What if he publishes the map he built, and I start using it?

Our plan is to start making a game with Personal license, like a team. We want to make a playable version and then if it worked, update our Unity versions to Pro. However, Unity tags everything you make, and if we publish that project we made with Personal, but finished with Pro, that would still mean the project was made with Personal license (at least some parts of it). Could we get in trouble due to that, would we have to rebuild the whole project?

So, in a nutshell, my questions:

1. Can we work on the same project with multiple Personal editions? Can we publish it? (I know about the $100k limit)
2. If we can't, can I use assets made by my friend? He probably could not be called third party, or could he be?
3. If no, and no, what if we still make the project, test it out, collect enough money and then we both buy Unity Pro? Can we publish the project we made with that?

I might be totally wrong about the EULA, so feel free to bash me

We appreciate any help we get. Unity support seemed to be pretty unresponsive regarding this case.

 

Yes to both.

 

You mean not only technically, right? I realise it's the same binary for Pro and Personal, but you mean it's fine by the EULA as well?

That would sound really great.

 

Yes, it's fine by the EULA to create games with multiple Unity Personal licenses and you can publish the games you make.

The only time you'll actually run into limitations (other than the $100K one) are when Pro licenses become involved as you cannot mix Unity Personal and Unity Pro. You either have to be entirely on Personal or entirely on Pro.

 

I can see that for a team... kind of... like having 2 people on Personal and a third on Pro. I'd see it like hey that is awesome we have one Pro sale there already and in time hopefully they will make enough money for the other two to buy Pro as well. But I guess that is not the way they see it.

Anyway what about mixing Personal and Pro on the same project over the project lifetime just out of curiosity? To make it simpler let's say you started a project in Personal then decided to buy Pro for whatever reason. Surely you can continue on your project with Pro, right? Or is the expectation that no I am sorry you will need to trash that work and start fresh in Pro? I find that hard to believe but have seen some conflicting posts on it.

 

I don't see why you wouldn't be allowed to. After all if your company suddenly hit the $100,000 mark mid-project, such as through a Kickstarter campaign, you'd have to upgrade to Unity Pro.

 

Exactly! There just are a lot of posts scattered around the forums with people saying one thing then another saying something completely different. No worries for me... Personal is all I'll ever need. The stuff I do is for experimentation and fun to try to make games "better".

 

That's something I wouldn't be worried about, the EULA states that the only thing you can't do is developing stuff with Personal and Pro simultaneously. As long as you go Pro with all your licenses, you should be fine.

Thanks a lot guys!

 

The personal edition is badly named, they don't think personal means what literally any other software developer thinks it means.

 

Fortunately, the details are described in great detail. No one needs to guess or make assumptions about it means. So the confusion is primarily by those who can't read or fail to comprehend, or make assumptions without research or verifying. In short, folks not really suited to the complexity of game dev.

 

The only thing it's missing is regarding teamwork with the Personal edition. Even we were like, ok, the EULA says nothing against it, but let's do some research based on other devs experience, just to make sure. It would be dumb to start working on something and then realise the license / financial aspects won't let you progress further.

And we are the type that can read.

 

You might be better off simply contacting Unity directly than trying to research as the answers on the forums aren't necessarily going to be accurate or consistent as noted by @GarBenjamin.

 

The $100k limit is what makes it "personal". Yes, in some cases a second or even third could sneak under that limit. But that's very limiting, won't work for established teams, and won't continue to work if your game becomes a significant earner.

In my country it'd often be difficult to fit even two people in under that limit if they both have full-time jobs.

 

Worth noting the EULA changed between 4.x and 5.x to specifically exclude individuals income from your day job.

 

Woah, really? I missed that.

Edit: Sweet, looks like you're right. Sometimes it's nice to be mistaken.

 

1. an individual (not acting on behalf of a Legal Entity) or a Sole Proprietor that has reached annual gross revenues in excess of US$100,000 from its use of the Software during the most recently completed fiscal year, which does not include any income earned by that individual which is unrelated to its use of the Software.

 

I tried... like I said in my starting post

 

What was your case number? I'll check up with the team if you haven't received a response yet.

Regarding upgrading to Professional from Personal, and like mentioned above by another user, we do state in our FAQ (http://unity3d.com/unity/faq) that purchasing a Pro license is required in order to continue using Unity once the 100k limit is reached (because this may happen once teams start making sales.) So doing that at a later point is possible for you as well if you have plans on upgrading.

 

I have received an official answer from Unity support after all which is quite the same we could read here earlier. Thanks!

 

Or by gamers who see "Personal edition" and they think whoever made game is breaking eula by selling it. Especially so, since many software has "personal" editions that forbids commercial usage.

 

If they are seeing the splash they have already bought/downloaded it. They won't care at that point.

 

...or they've seen gameplay of it.

Anyway, what if let's say download is a demo for IGG/Kickstarter campaign? Such splash would reflect badly on the dev and may lead to campaign failing, even if game itself is good. That's the problem I'm dealing with.

 

I'm curious of whether or not a studio could do the ol' switcheroo the last second and buy 1 pro license to sell their game for $100,000+. Of course, any real studio would want the team license benefits of Pro and to support the Unity team for giving them a great tool to build their church on.

 

Statements like these only seem to come from developers and they never have any evidence to back them up. I know I cannot think of anyone who would immediately quit if they saw it, but I've only asked my immediate gamer buddies.

 

Are any games on IGG/Kickstarter with ongoing campaign that use Unity5 and have playable demo for download? Exactly.

 

How is this evidence? Once again we're back to the issue of developers believing it is necessary with no proof either way.

 

If you're putting yourself in a situation where you genuinely feel that the presence of the splash screen puts you at high risk then make the purchase.

I'm a developer myself, and I haven't ever considered whether or not a software vendor is obeying their many licenses when selling me software. Not once. If I were to ever consider it, the fact that they're openly advertising what they're doing implies that it's probably ok for them to be doing it

 

Yea... If you truly believe your campaign is failing because of a splash screen ...well... not much is really going help you out there.

 

Personal Edition.

 

I didn't start campaign yet because I don't have much to show currently and I want to go with at least playable demo, representative of game's future quality, but this IS something people will take issue with.

Yup, as in (in minds of most "average joes" and even some journalists/developers) "for personal, non-commercial use only".