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Why are we doing this subscription thing? Our CTO Joachim Ante explains

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by SaraCecilia, Jun 5, 2016.

  1. Moonjump

    Moonjump

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2010
    Posts:
    2,572
    I see Plus as an affordable version of Pro for those who are not yet making large sums. Unity will need 3.5 Plus customers for each Pro customer they lose. Or 2.5 new Plus customers for each Pro customer that downgrades to Plus. I suspect the large difference in affordability will mean the numbers are far better than that for Unity.
     
  2. orb

    orb

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2010
    Posts:
    3,037
    I've seen many people who think they need Pro beg for cheaper Pro. Now it's here, so let's hope they all jump on it. It can only be good for UT if they do. I wouldn't rule out that masses of new Plus subscribers make up somewhat for the price reductions.

    Seeing the Plus vs. Pro price also has a psychological effect which may cause people to jump on a subscription. Retention may be low for those sort of users, but that's at least 12 good months for UT :)
     
    the_motionblur likes this.
  3. chiapet1021

    chiapet1021

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2013
    Posts:
    605
    I went to a Unity meetup last night, and Marc Tanenbaum presented some pretty cool stuff regarding Unity Analytics. He didn't have time to go into too much detail, but there are some aspects of Analytics that are Pro only, and I can see where larger, higher revenue development shops would want access to that functionality.
     
  4. the_motionblur

    the_motionblur

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2008
    Posts:
    1,774

    I cannot agree more to this point. As it is I teach ZBrush and realtime art at a University once a year. We had one release of Unity Pro in version 3.x but after that the University simply didn't have any more money to spare for such a minor lecture (once a year). All I can do every year is tell my students: "Yeah - Unity is really cool. If you want to check it out, please doenload it onto your laptops or iMacs and check it out after this course is done. We can't use it here since the university has more than a 100k/year turnover despite not actually making a lot of money or having a large budget. Sorry guys."

    And I don't want to start teaching Unreal really because I don't use myself nearly often enough to teach it and it's just overkill for the amount of things I am teaching anyways.

    Unity please make your program available for educational. It's in University already.
    The dark UI - fine it's a rather bad joke but doesn't harm anyone. This one actually is bad for yourself. Students are the ones that carry programs out into the world. Block it and others will take the place. You don't gain much revenue for educational institutes, anyways. Better take that image impression you make than the few extra bucks. Edu is usually not where the money for companies can be found. At least speaking for Germany.
     
    Moonjump likes this.
  5. Catacomber

    Catacomber

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2009
    Posts:
    682
    In some of the forums I use, I see developers moving to UE4. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.
     
  6. RHD

    RHD

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2009
    Posts:
    719
    I bought Unity Pro around version 2 I think it was and added an IOS license a bit later.

    It was horribly expensive but people at Unity happily emailed me back, even though I didn't have a clue, with reams of helpful advice on how to get my project to work.

    That was a long time ago and in recent years, although I upgraded my Pro license every release upto & including 4, lately even if anyone got back to me they didn't seem to know or care much.

    I have spent rather a lot of money on Unity over the years and spent once many months on a project that eventually went west because there was some bug in the web player software that Unity didn't have time to fix because they were bringing out a new version and I'd have to spend more money for the bug fix to use my project.
    No blackmail or anything.

    Every time I upgraded a load of existing work was destroyed or no longer worked on Unity's "enhanced" update and I had to spend days deleting or trying to fix things.

    I have not been contacted about my upgrade options as an earlyish adopter nor have my requests for information on the matter been met with any response.

    I think Unity is in danger here of shooting itself in the foot and you might want to rethink your current plans.

    I know I don't fancy any of the options I've seen.
    A year long commitment to £125 a month? Supposing I can't pay it??
    What then?

    One thing anyone really really needs when putting months and years of work into something is reliability and that is where Unity is falling apart.
     
  7. RHD

    RHD

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2009
    Posts:
    719
    Gosh!!:
    "How much do I have to pay for Unreal Engine 4?
    UE4 is free to use, with a 5% royalty on gross product revenue after the first $3,000 per game per calendar quarter from commercial products."
    Now that is my type of product!
    I'm going to download it and have a look...
     
  8. SaltwaterAssembly

    SaltwaterAssembly

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2016
    Posts:
    95
    Just want to say thanks Unity - the new Pro and Plus plans are amazing value and accessible to Indy developers. Have used Unity since day 1 and will forever sing its praises, especially now with the 'all platforms inclusive' prices (which I always felt was the only negative, paying per platform).

    Thanks again @Unity
     
  9. the_motionblur

    the_motionblur

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2008
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    1,774
    I am not going to tell you what you can and cannot afford. I am not going to tell you which one is the better engine for you or where you will get better support. I don't know anything about that because that is specific to you and your projects.

    What I can tell you, though is that when Unity was in version 2.x the userbase was so low that Unite was a very personal and intimate thing. Just look at any of the videos from the first Unite conferences if you can still find them. Unity has become one of the market leaders and the company and userbase has expanded. It's sad for the individual but it is inevitable that not everybody can get the same amount of support. Otherwise the company would not be doing much else other than replying to emails, any more.

    Also regarding the price - please just read through the thread and do the math. below 100k per fiscal year turnover you get unity for free and even less than Unreal. For less than 200k per fiscal year turnover you need only pay 35$/month. Plus you get dark UI and custom/no spash if you desire so. Only and onlyI above that do you actually need to pay 125$ per month.
    Unless you make more than 200k per year why do you compare the pro tier services to the version of Unreal where you make mostly no money from your games? Because that is what it is with Unity - you pay for a mixture between your personal company income and services not engine feautres.
     
  10. AlanMattano

    AlanMattano

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
    1,501
    When I move from one engine to other:
    Do not look the past. Adjust the final decision in function of the future: it depends on the future. In this case how software grows fast and well [ content and quality ].
     
    Catacomber likes this.
  11. AmbrielUwU

    AmbrielUwU

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2016
    Posts:
    18
    I feel like how long this engine has been out to the public, and the community that has developed are major reasons why you can get away with subs or pro versions ect ect.

    With UR4 being free with a royalties deal, CryEngine without any of that and now LumberYard (while more demanding then it is worth for me personality, it has some pretty special features that could potentially become pretty significant), unity has some pretty big competition with a considerably different pricing. And that should be taken into consideration.

    If you compare the costs of Unity with the costs of the other mentioned engines, you're comparing paying to not having to pay (outside of royalties, which exist here as well anyway).

    I like Unity, and that is why I use it. But, things change and it is probably a good idea to make sure that you have what is available for free on other popular engines, also available for free here, and if you're going to have subs and different licenses, make sure they have something the other engines don't without limiting what we have here, where we wouldn't be limited elsewhere.

    That is just my opinion. Longevity considering supply and demand and the growing options for indie devs while AAA studios dump third party software for in-house.
     
  12. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

    Volunteer Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2006
    Posts:
    32,401
    Unity doesn't have any royalties at all, under any circumstances.

    --Eric
     
  13. AmbrielUwU

    AmbrielUwU

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2016
    Posts:
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    I am not sure where I read this then, my mistake.
     
  14. AlanMattano

    AlanMattano

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
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    Was difficult for me to understand UR4 and CryE. scripting structure. Plus Unity is growing pretty fast and improving the quality side. From my point of view, everything can be done inside Unity. Also excellent and fast visual quality. I'm able to make a excellent game in Unity with no restrictions. And when you grow up you can pay for better Pro plans.

    And also there are other growing sides
    https://labs.unity.com/
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2016