New products and prices coming soon

Thank you for clarifying this! But sounds like the "perpetual" price will be 3000$ for 24 months? That's huge.

 

I love their terminology. "streamlined"... That's just code for, we are charging you the same damn price, but forcing pro users that don't use mobile to pay the mobile addon prices.

What did anyone expect with the new CEO? A different pricing model? I mean, this is just DLC for game engines.. The never ending summer pass...

Pathetic Unity... Pathetic.

 

Very disappointed to see the end of perpetual licenses, as a freelancer subscription software feels like a direct tax on my monthly income, not to mention a substantial price increase for a range of features I'll never use.

• Clients generally have a preferred system for Analytics.
  
• Their in-house teams prefer GIT, SVN or whatever they use for non Unity projects.
  
• It's quicker for me to build locally or use the clients CI system over Cloud Build.
  
• I don't know of any clients that would care about Unity Certification, and as a professional developer with many years experience I don't need that to prove my worth.
• Not sure what Asset Store packs are or why they'd be useful?!

All I'd be paying $125 for is to remove the splash screen? I hope that at the very least Unity will reconsider the revenue cap and custom splash screen for the Plus subscription.
The likelihood for me (and others like me) would be to stop using Unity, much like with Adobe products, and switch to/recommend alternative engines.

 

Small note: please no memes and no massive bold shouting text - I had to remove memes and remove formatting from a post - it's not fair on others who have real concerns and want to be heard in an equal way as well... thanks for understanding - keep this thread for information and Q/A

 

I understand generally your style is to get a big hate on for something and I'm not taking that away from you, but slandering an individual will get posting privileges revoked, be it a forum member or a member of Unity staff. You also forget that for all the personal users, they got a better splash without the personal wording they hated so much. This is kind of really nice for all free users. So please be civil - you can criticise but not insult.

 

Actually it is... I only paid $1500 for my initial license, and the $650 upgrade. That is 5 years of up to date engine for LESS then they now want me to pay for 24 months.. SO tell me how this is logic again?


A wait, I am using actual logic and real math. my bad...

And before you accuse me again of personal attacks, I used the exact same language you did.

 

" personal users, they got a better splash without the personal wording they hated so much. This is kind of really nice for all free users"

I dont think any pro users gives a sh.t about free users. do you? All they do is saturate a already over saturated market and they dont support the engine financially.

I personally would like to see an end to the free users and have them pay at least 20$ a month.

 

There was not a single personal attack on anyone. Its an attack on a business style.

 

One thing that i didn't like is that there is only one Pro package that contains every single platform, so, in the end you are paying for all of those platforms combined.
Sure, that's an amazing improvement in comparison with the current model with multiplatform, but if you only want 1 platform, for example PC, you end up paying 50$ more every month for platforms you know you're not going to use.

I really think the option for only one platform should still be there.

I'm also not a fan of subscription model, so if anything, i'll be choosing the pay-to-own, or go to personal.

 

I'm afraid that the wording " 24- or 36 month prepaid subscription" could just mean a 24-36 months compromise, so $3000-4500 for the perpetual Pro license? I really hope that option comes with a nice discount...

 

Agreed and new CEO for any company brings change. So nothing wrong with mentioning CEO.
Getting annoyed at "over moderation" in such threads. No one insulted anyone.!!

 

I could not agree more. I now have to double my payments for that functionality. Madness!!!

 

So... does the splash screen still say "personal edition"?

 

No it will be "Made with Unity"

 

It now says "made with Unity" apparently.

 

Is support for third party version control included in all of the new unity products? Currently it is included only in pro and referred to as a "Team Licence".

 

Ok, Lets get something clear, for a one man indie like myself who uses a Mac and a PC the cloud build is useless to me as is the seat management, the editor skin is neither here nor there. Curated asset store items are of little value to me as I buy what I need when I need it, not what you think I might want. The courseware thing sounds like something I'll never need. Basically the only thing I would want is the revenue cap upped a bit and to get rid of your crap splash screen and have my own.

Your Plus edition sounds like the snake oil sales that people like Parallels use which goes something like "Sale only $79 plus $200 of free crap shovel ware you will never use, where the non sale price is also $79"

Unity you F**k up this every year with pricing and it leaves nothing but a bad taste. Oh and I can't stand subscription models and I guess until enough of us vote with our feet you will keep shafting people who just want to pay a price and get a decent pro perpetual licence that covers all platforms.

Signed a disgruntled user who wants to pay for his tools.

 

I'll happily trade any of the "features" in the Plus license to get rid of the splash screen (like the seat management? Who needs that?)

If they're going forward with the current plan, I think I'll just cancel my subscription altogether and go with the Personal license instead. Plus does not seem to have any advantages for me.

 

I've never been more happy that I got off the Unity bandwagon, than I am today. I just officially stopped following Unity on Twitter as well, now that they've gone down the subscription only path. It's the same thing I did with Adobe.
Subscription only software is a path to corporate welfare once the user is "locked in", which is as bad as it can possibly be for a product that requires so much investment of time and resources to "make" something. At least what you make in most Adobe products can be exported to a format if you need to switch software. Once you choose Unity, you're locked in, and with a subscription, particularly if you plan to make something you'd like to support, even when you aren't making revenue from the product, you're paying out the Unity dole in perpetuity. Combined with no source access, Unity is now one of the worst engine choices on the market IMHO, even if it costs less per year/per product and nothing up front.

My suggestion to everyone is, start looking at some of the open source alternatives, including the free ones. I've gone all free open source for the past year and haven't regretted it for one second.

 

"Existing perpetual customers will be able to purchase either a 24- or 36 month prepaid subscription to Pro that allows them to keep the software as a perpetual version at the end of their commitment period. The 36 month prepaid pay to own option will be available to new customers as well."

This roughly doubles my cost assuming a two-year upgrade cycle. Isn't that a bit extreme? Please correct me if I'm overreacting but that's what it looks like.

 

New pricing scheme and they still sequester the dark skin behind a paywall. "Give us $35 a month or get eye strain", lol.

 

Same, i would trade all those for the splash screen option, i think as a business model more are going to go to Free from any paid version, than from Free to Plus or Pro. XD IMO

And for all those saying Unity Splash Screen is crap, remember what it used to be?
The latest Unity Splash screens are a lot nicer, still i would replace it with my own, but as far as splashes go its not bad.

@hippocoder
Keep up the good work, i can only imagine some of the posts people are posting, whether they are overly harsh or spam.
Although i'm interested to see that meme one, was it the Fry meme with Unity/EA text on it?

 

Unity should allow a custom splash screen in Plus, creating a proper gap between personal and pro. How many solo indie devs care about courseware, or project packs? Does anyone think paying $1080 a year to remove a splash screen worth it?

If you are paying $420 a year to rent a piece of software, you shouldn't be forced into having their logo on the front.

Adobe Creative Cloud for $50 a month you get ALL of their software and you don't get a Made by Adobe logo watermarked on videos, animations, websites etc. CC works because to buy all of that software up front is very very expensive.

Upgrading Unity every two years costs $2250 (Unity Pro with Android and iOS). Now with the subscription pricing it will cost $3000 a year, $750 increase for two years. Not massive, but if you are a solo developer.

If you are a solo developer, you don't need concurrent builds in cloud build. If you are a small company, you'd be making over the earnings threshold (ideally or bust), so why have flexible seat management in Plus?

Make the Plus splash screen custom, people on free with easily upgrade, small to medium sized companies+ will still use Pro because it has all the extra services they need.

 

@SaraCecilia Can you please explain what are the Asset Store Project Packages included in the Plus and Pro subscriptions?

 

Im from Argentine and i purchased Unity Pro and Android Pro 5.X Perpetual because the dolar value in argentine it's too expensive and every month it's more expensive, so paying for every month is more expensive every month.

I love unity but when my Unity Pro expires i can't continue using Unity in argentine, pay dollars for every month it's too expensive in my country.

 

They deleted the comment now, but something like "Our Unity splash screen is so cool though" on Facebook. Lets hope Unity are listening to the indie developers...

 

(We are reading all of your feedback regarding the splash screen.) We're considering a semi-customizable splash screen for Plus. There will be updates in coming months.

 

With the 100k rev limit the seat management as sales perk in Unity Plus sounds kinda same joke as the dark skin in pro has been for years.

 

Same here in Australia, We have to add nearly 50% to the prices Unity quotes and it's just way too expensive here.

 

Lets hope Adobe let you customise where their logo goes on your video productions as a watermark too

 

I think this is a miss-step... the middle pricing tier is not offering enough value for the price you pay. As others have said, most of the 'services' are not wanted or needed by the majority of Unity customers. I've been a paid Pro user since version 2.x, and these pricing changes are making me consider downgrading... again as others have said developers that are focused on PC-only are getting shafted. Because there is not enough value to me in the 'Plus' tier to warrant the price, and because I despise subscription pricing, I'll most likely just move to 'Personal'.

Thus Unity has converted a long-term paying customer into a non-paying customer. I'm sure there are many many others in this same situation. How does this make sense?

Removing the forced splash screen from the paid 'Plus' tier should be fix #1.

 

Exactly, remove, not just change the colour / position of the Unity logo (depending on what scheme they quickly think up), (unless you can make it white on white )

 

*LIKE*
Put this in bold or something, or edit your original post so any new arrivals that come to complain can see its being 'looked into'
Thats some nice Community Managing skills there, keep going!

 

My thoughts -

Unity Pro is getting more expensive, I think this was to be expected now they are giving the engine away for free. Also to be expected is the amount of whining going on here, people want everything for free these days and will laughable comparisons to try and justify it.

Unity Plus seems to have been invented as a way to soften the price increase, although it doesn't seem to offer much value compared to Pro.

John Riccitiello said in the keynote that mutliplayer is the future of mobile, but Unity's multiplayer CCU limits seem ridiculously low, any half decent f2p mobile would exceed these.

Seems Unity 6 will launch March 2017 and will expected to last at least 36 months.

I honestly don't see what the big deal is about the splash screen. All games have splash screens, I don't believe gamers care.

People are freaking out because they forgot mention there would still be a perpetual licence. Looks like it will roughly the same price for mobile devs, but will be twice the price for desktop only users.

Also Runevision said this on Reddit:

 

When will the new versions with this new splashscreen will come out for ios and android builds? Need to wait 5.4?

 

Thank you for that.
I know it seems like something simple but for Indie Devs this makes a lot of diference. Sometimes its the major factor between someone buying your product or not

 

Move the customizable splash screen option to Plus and I think you will attract a lot of customers that are coming from free or current 'Indie Pro' users.

 

At the moment, if you want to remove the splash screen, there is no different between a solo indie developer or a 25 person team, you have to buy a pro licence. To support indie developers that want to pay but are below the earnings threshold, Unity should allow you to remove the splash screen, not just customise it.

If you are a 2-3 person team, you'll buy a pro licence, otherwise you earnings are at a loss below this threshold. Solo indie devs would start on Plus, and upgrade to Pro once they become more successful. Plus should be the commercial option between bedroom hobby/student and successful company with staff.

 

if plus removes the splash screen then i'm in. But pro prices are way too much money.

simple view
Free = splash screen with personal edition = $Free
Free + No Ad = $20.00pm
Plus = same stuff no Ad + Darkskin = $35.00pm
Pro = the same but = $75.00 pm

 

Are all the requirements comming back to Assetstore, like this Asset will work for Plus subscribers and future updates will work for Pro (we think, but we dont know). Should all assetstore contributors need to test with all versions of subscriptions??

Are this a way back to Pro only features so I need to know that this type of game I cant do because I dont have the right licence?

I don't feel that the Made with Unity Splash are a quality sign for a game, if it was I would not mind it, but as it is today I would not pay to get it on a game.

It feels like it is a terrible idea, have Unity given up on being the gameengine with the largest userbase? Is this back to: You should never do a game with new Ideas because it can break you if you cant keep up with the subscriptions, just do what the big studios do, take a average superhero and do a sucky game. I feel this is a step back.

I do 10 games that dont get published for the one that gets out, and the few games that get out are not a
economical succsess, I do it because i like it, nothing else. If i have some money over i buy something that intresst me in Asset store. I tried to get more people intressted in doing games, to show them that it was possible but now they need to think twice because if they need to get Unity for a few thusand dollars every year, I think I need to describe the few mounths to a few years development without pay first.

If I used bad English... I'm not a English speaker...

 

Ok, this is what is currently offered:

• Personal Edition : No dark theme. For nice folks who spread the word, make some money via publishing in all platforms you can imagine with a "Made with Unity" short intro, asset store and freelancing. Some services available.
• Plus Edition : Dark theme included. Fine people who pay ~840+VAT, make some money from above, plus some more services available.
• Pro Edition : Really nice people who think that they make the magic happen for the rest, make some money from the above plus they can publish without "Made with Unity", even more services available.
• Enterprise : They will really make the magic happen for the rest - aka they will pay the bill.

What many people want :
- Pay something - but not much - to get rid of this "Made with Unity" intro and let dark theme go free.

What seems interesting is that most people do not care so much about services like analytics, ads, cloud build, curated asset store items etc. They really seem irrelevant to many. Room for improvement maybe in terms of communication - execution ?

Unity Connect, QA & Documentation hires, turn to quality instead of quantity, certification are nice. People who make money from multiplatform publishing, or have the funds to invest on cutting edge VR got a nice cutoff of their bi-annual costs and some services that work for them.

Please consider giving some love to the other people who like using dark theme and dislike the "Made with Unity" intro without spending a fortune. Chances are, it will be to your benefit.
What is better than world domination ? " Moaaar world domination ! "

P.S. Joachim smiling awkwardly at the keynote - priceless. But I liked the keynote really, small bits of imperfection are appealing and human.

EDIT Thanks @Ostwind and @schmosef for clarification on the dark theme !

 

Plus includes the dark theme.

 

Unity splash screen has a bad reputation among players.
There is a lot more bad dev than good dev. And a lot of bad game made with Unity than good one.
Every good/big budget game has paid to not have the splash screen. So only bad game kept the splash screen
By bad: crappy, slow, Ugly. Players have understood this. You can have bad review only because you have the Unity splash screen.
It's the opposite with the Unreal logo...

I don't know how Unity can reverse the situation.

 

I've been asking for a middle tier for ages but this went about it in the absolute wrong direction.

Unity Plus should be for desktop/web only with dark skin and no splash screen with premium services as an extra monthly fee.
Unity Pro should be for all platforms with all premium services free.

You didn't give people more options, you took them away. I develop games for desktop, I don't give a single crap about mobile, but yet now I'm forced to pay for things I don't need. I don't use any of your services, nor do I plan to; why am I not given an option without them? I don't need course-ware, I know how to use Unity. I don't need "flexible seat management". So what's in it for me? None of your selling points benefit me. So basically, we made the useful stuff more expensive and tacked on a crippled tier to say "look! It got cheaper!".

What is "optimization" for Plus users?

 

Just would like to add that the move since Unity 5 to normalize all the engine features across all licenses was a very good decision. However the one glaring omission to this is the stratification of the UI, all because of this ridiculous light theme/dark theme boondoggle. This is a potential sticking point to those who write custom UI interfaces (particularly asset store developers) and in an ideal world Unity would just move to the dark UI across all licenses.

UI color stratification isn't a feature, it's a bug. Stop charging for it.

 

I think that's a good step forward. Plus seems weaker to me, needs a bit of boosting imho.

The new pricing is a steal for anyone who is cross platform, but for a desktop (windows/mac/linux) crowd, it is more expensive, no other way to slice it. But I understand the need to bring all platforms together under one price. That makes a lot more sense than piecemeal. Hopefully a compromise will get worked out.

I'll be honest though, charging for dark UI is going to make you look silly. I would recommend Unity as a company just make dark UI available to everyone.

I've had to lock many posts complaining about dark UI because its been discussed to death, but each time I do lock it, I think "it's absurd to charge for this".

But splash removal, no. That needs charging for. It IS valuable.

I'm not against change, just want it discussed a bit more.

 

You have some link that confirms ?

 

Someone earlier equated profiler and performance reporting, just to clarify, they are not the same. Performance reporting is a service, basically crash reports. The profiler will remain available in all versions, including free.

"Game Performance Reporting, currently available for users with a Pro 5.x license, is a service that tracks and reports exceptions in your games to a website for easy browsing."

Some info about performance reporting: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/analytics/getting-started-game-performance-reporting

 

The suppression of the perpetual license result in an increase between +200% to 500% of the price.

 

Exactly, a splash screen robs me of credibility...

Spoiler: Collapsed