Buy Unity3d pro For $99

I think it was from their mailing list (the one you can join when downloading unity)

"This offer will expire on September 2nd"
http://unitycoder.com/blog/2011/08/24/unity3d-20-discount-until-2nd-sept/
(didnt find any forum topics about it, so I put it there)

 

Upgrade Today to Save 20%
Unity Pro 3.4's advanced graphics and collaborative features power the development of some of the hottest titles in online and mobile gaming. For a limited time, you can save 20% when upgrading to Unity Pro (or purchasing Unity iOS or Android publishing) by entering the rebate code UFPRO0811 in our online store (https://store.unity3d.com/shop/). This offer will expire on September 2nd.

Haven't Tried Unity Pro?
Your Unity license allows you to activate a free 30-day trial of Unity Pro with iOS (requires Mac OSX) and Android. To try Unity Pro, select Help → Enter Serial Number… (or Unity → Enter Serial Number… on OS X) and choose to reactivate your installation as a Pro Trial.

Enjoy Creating,

The Unity Team

 

Die thread, die.

 

Is anyone here asking for Unity Pro to be cheaper (e.g. $99) AND also not demand royalties on sales? Do you assume UT is a charity? Non profit group? Why don't you use Blender Game Engine then? I think they may have shadows in there. (No disrespect to Blender/org/community)

If one is only having some hobby/fun gameDev time in their spare time, why would one pretend to be given a pro tool for free/$99 (a part special cases like marketing stunts, etc...).

At times even hobbies can be expensive, for example your hobby could be
- collecting rare items that are not cheap, guess what... you have to pay for them or exchange something for it
- your hobby could be about making music with computer and hardware synths... does this mean Apple should give you a Mac Pro for $99 and Korg/Yamaha/Rolad/Arturia/Spectrasonics/etc... should give you their hardware and software instruments for free? Just because one of the hobby-guys/girls could be the next Mozart?

No, if you have talent you can create something with what you can afford or use indie/free versions then get sponsored/investments for better tools, work on some job you can do and save up for your pro tools, etc...

Most software in a variety of fields has free/middle/pro versions (they need to make money somehow) free stuff is most times part of a monetizing strategy anyway. Totally up to Unity what they do with their pricing, if you think they offer good value for money, buy it a the current price or save up for it. If you think it is too expensive use something else. Simple.

 

I've got work to do so I'm not going to linger around the forums on a 'Stupid' day. But I will leave you with some parting wisdom:

Unity Free is for the Hobby market, and more. You have no overriding need for the Professional version.

If you can't achieve anything with the Free version, then you aren't going to achieve anything with the Pro version. I don't know what it is that makes people think that the Pro version is going to make any difference to their productivity. Quite simply, you've got what it takes or you don't. If you're struggling to do anything useful with Free, you really might as well either give up and move on, or try harder and put more into it.

This entire thread is utterly rediculous. The Free version of Unity is incredible. I used it myself for a year (when it was $399) and coughed up for Pro when I was ready to move up. Talk about ungrateful.

Edit: Millions and millions and millions? Take a moment and think about that claim.

 

I never said to forbid anyone to get into game business. Did I say that? NO.
I say UT cannot depend on hobbyists for their bottom line, that's business reality.
And certainly teenagers who wants everything to be FREE. I never discourage anyone not to use Unity, provided they if they want PRO features, they should PAY THEIR DUE with their own money. If you think you should get all the features for free, I think you are the one who should grow up and move out of your mom's garage. Seriously, real world don't work like that kid.

Again, you are just thinking "I DON'T WANT TO PAY THAT MUCH". "Hell, I don't want to pay anything". But when people do the same to you - asking you make the game you work for years on to be free, I will bet you will be screaming and kicking. LOL. Its the typical selfish thinking younger generation have these days. Its all me me me. If you can't afford Unity Pro, use Unity Free. If you don't like that, there is Blender game engine. No one is forcing you to buy Unity for $1500.

Oh and for once in your life get off your lazy backside and get a job flip some burgers instead of being a couch potatoe, $1500 is not that hard to make. Seriously.

 

Sorry but this outright nonsense, and you know it

Just because something is labeled PRO (which is just a marketing name btw), doesn't make it more or less professional compared to the product without the label.
What if there was a Unity, and a Unity AAA (also 1500 USD). In your logic, most here are not entitled to use the AAA version, because they are not in an AAA business. Infact PRO suggest this already.. (top of the line, top of the business use..)
There used to be an Indie version, that would make it for indies only, right? if you say yes: why do you have the PRO instead? you're an indie afteral.
In your logic, you should now only use the free one.

Soo, the unlogic element here? it's the same thing you just said about "pro" vs non pro.

Pro means nothing in product names, it is MARKETING.. nothing more..
(it makes the buyer believe it's the best and it's used by the big boys everywhere.)

Having more features, doesn't make it more PRO at all.
Professional in a product is just a word (with no direct valid meaning), marketing folks use towards potential buyers...

Tip: don't be tricked by a label put on by the marketing department.

 

Even 1200 is out of reach for me, unfortunately :/

Ah yes. I see. And everybody has to ask you now if he is in the right crowd, right? Geez! Money always comes from the right crowd

Torque started to go down the drain because of more than one reason. One of it was the number of bugs. And because there was and is tools like Unity. And a wrong marketing strategy. The old owner had none at the end, and had given up at Torque. Torque recovers pretty well since it is back in the hands of Garagegames i would say. And Torque still has a very huge userbase. I wouldn`t really call Torque stinking anymore. It has become a valid option again.

But that was not my point anyways. I just mentioned all those hobby engines and tools to show how big the hobby market really is. It is HUGE.

 

By reducing everything to semantics, I think you're nullifying your own argument

Indie is a label too. The marketing department for which is the community itself.

But it's enough to point out that Indies make money also - if anything, lately, they seem to make more money than many established development studios. The point being, it's talent and execution that leads to success, not the tools we use. There is a Pro version of Unity, because UT have mouths to feed and bills to pay... whether you choose to call it Pro or Advanced or Bob, is irrelevent.

 

Younger generation, haha

My son, i started making games before more than 10 years. And i wasn`t really young anymore. Well, i am not really old, but i am definitely not a member of the selfish younger generation. I have even already learned not to use capslock all the time

That said, with all this experience, you think too short and too intolerant.

I had my portion of real life already. I know that i will never ever earn a dime with my games. Making games is a hobby for me, and it will stay a hobby. The market is too strong nowadays for hobbyists. Not that i haven`t tried it. But who will buy a hobbygame, even when it is really good for hobby needs, when he can play the top hit from the last year for a dime? Or even for free in the net? Which hobbyist is able to compete with AAA titles? Success stories like Minecraft are very rare.

And i have already told you where your marketing idea is wrong. You will not sell a game when you price it 1000,- per copy. Even when you think it deserves it because you have put this much effort into it. This will not work.

 

I said that already, it's a label.. and nothing more. Don't rely too much on just a label..
Well, they had the 200 USD version aswell, and they canceled it out.. that would make less income, now wouldn't it? Still they manage to live normal lives (all the empolyees etc..) how can that be? Cutting your feet off, in income terms.. but still manage to regrow them.. magic.. or is it...

that's what i'm saying... But "I am da Bawss" said the opposite.. PRO is for professionals... the rest is not.

 

I hate to have to reply yet again to correct people but here goes:

Why unity pro?
The pro version has professional features not found in the indie version that appeal to a professional. The definition of professional is someone who makes a living from what they do:

pro·fes·sion·al   [pruh-fesh-uh-nl]
adjective
1.
following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.

Now the thing most people concentrate on is just render to texture or more pizazz on the shaders. This isn't actually the primary reason one would use pro, but certainly a contribution.

The professional version of unity has a built in very cool profiler capable of deep-profiling your code, your graphics costs and memory. This is something a professional game developer will be able to understand and utilize to the full in order to maximise the product's potential. Your average hobbyist isn't doing it for a living (definition of professional is to do it for a living) and will not need this feature of pro.

Other people doing it for a living will also need features which 9 out of 10 people do not need like robust asset management, and the removal of a branded splash screen so they can insert their own branding to maximise consumer awareness or for other reasons of polish.

The free version is not a trial. The free version exists with 90% of the features of pro, and even has lightmapping that basically looks just as good. With hard work, you can cull as good as umbra does, you can lightmap better than beast does, and you can even have realtime shadows - in the free version of unity.

But make no mistake when you buy pro, you are pretty much interested in the profiler. It is not just a label, its a targeted set of features which narrowly aim at a professional developer. Not a label, but a direct product description.

 

Why this division all the time? Why should a hobbyist not be allowed to use a "Pro" feature? Unity is a tool. The useage of the Pro is not limited to being a professional, it is just limited if you can afford it or not.

 

I don't understand you Tiles. A hobbyist is allowed to use a pro feature, if he pays for it. Very few hobbies are free. Most hobbies are expensive, certainly more expensive than $1500 over time.

 

Unity Free is plenty sufficient for the "hobbyist" and he can always buy Pro to get more advanced features.

 

I should ask the same question the next time I pass a Porche dealership.

Really, this is such a silly question. I've been working in games for 23 years and I've never seen a software company as big as Unity give away 90% of their product for free. People should be thankful...this forum wouldn't exist if it wasn't for these guys so give them a break.

 

Hm, have i misunderstand your posting? Reading your posting sounds that just Pros are allowed to use Pro features. And the pricing hurdle is this high to make sure that only Pros are allowed to use Pro features. Not that a hobbyist accidentally uses a Pro feature. Which would be a drama ...

So you are this rich that 1500 is nothing for you? Congrats. For me it is ways too much. I usually buy a car for this money, and have to save months and years for that. 1500 is too much for 95% of all hobbyists. That`s the whole discussion about

 

Then you missed the point.

 

No I don't think so. The discussion was about price points, and you're hijacking it to use as a soap box for a completely illogical argument.

Baffled, and Out.

 

Just because you cannot understand an argument doesn`t mean it is illogical.

That the discussion about a cheaper Pro version comes up again and again is based at the fact that the price is too high for hobbyists. There is no soap box, and nothing illogical about it.

 

Thats not a very smart comment is it? It means to me, in my country, from my culture and understanding, that you are saying that everything should be cheap just because it is your hobby.

I think I shall make life my hobby. Then my gas and electricity bills should be very cheap. My car tax and insurance surely should not cost anything because I have announced that my entire life is just a hobby.

 

UT were aware that giving Unity for free they would bring in a lot of people asking for even more to be given them for free

in that sense, some sections of the forum have paid the biggest price: from being a professional / business-minded place, they are now a social / hobbyist place... nothing wrong with that, but I feel the professional / business aspect should be more relevant: a Pro only version of the forum (or a separation between gossip - collaboration parts and the rest) would do the trick

 

It's illogical to expect everything for free or dirt cheap.

What you don't seem to realise is that there are real people behind Unity3D, and they have real bills to pay and mouths to feed. As I've said before, if the numbers add up and it makes commercial sense to lower the price of Unity, then I'm sure they'd entertain the idea.

But they're not going to do it because someone thinks they deserve it. Because that would be, well, illogical. They aren't a charity, they're a business and as such they need to make money. What they don't need is business advice from people who can't see the wood for the trees.

How is this so hard to fathom?

 

I do agree with that. If Unity Pro price would drop down to lets say 300$ that would for sure wouldnt do any harm to bussines. It would just mean that much more people would buy licence and more users would flow into forums. Initial profits for company would stay the same, and all hobbyst would be able to use engine with all features. But it wouldnt be just that, i am pretty much sure that income would increase a lot. Noobody here is counting in UDK or Cryengine, where with 300$ licence Unity could gather a huge ammount of those developers to their engine. Tons of peoples are using this two engines just becouse they found 1500$ too much to pay for Unity and rather satisfy with harder to use engines even that they maybe dont like them. I think that lowering Pro price down to 300 would cause +500.000 new developers on forums and a whole lot of new income. So for those who are pointing out bad bussines side for this i dont know if it really is.

But what i do agree is that with so many new members and users of Pro licence offical Unity support would fail unless if they would hire tons of new people just to answer support questions.

 

Well, it's easy to say that now but the reality is, there'd follow threads saying $300 is too much. There's a lot of Free users who don't know that many of us paid for the Indie version originally (and it had hardly any of the functionality that the Free version enjoys now).

I'd love to see a $99 price point - hell I'd buy ten more copies and give them out to friends. But it has to be justifiable for them. I don't want to invest my time, money and staff on tech that sinks because the publisher ran out of money.

 

Maybe a pro only forum is not such a bad idea. I own pro but I'm not rich. I saved up for it. So it has nothing to do with "rich only forum". In the end, there are features in pro that are not present in the free version, therefore even the Free users will gain by not having to go through forum posts not relevant to their feature set. UT may not want to do it, maybe worried about loss of traffic? I could setup/ host a pro only forum but how do you certify one as a pro if you are not from UT and UT may not look at the content of a 3rd party Unity Pro forum.

As mentioned earlier, many hobbies cost money, be that fishing, snorkelling, wind surfing, painting, ghost hunting, or game development. If I can't afford a top of the range thermal snorkelling kit i'll have to buy a budget one,I could try to ask a shop to give me a $1000 kayak for $99 but I doubt they will accept, they will say... If it is just a twice per month hobby, and only during summer months, you will do just fine with a $400 second hand kayak... (just an example). If you do it once a week for 12 months per year you would benefit from investing into a better piece of kit

 

Well... I'm not sure I agree that Torque is garbage, or that GG doesn't have a good, passionate talent pool. If that were true, then at least a couple of the Unity team wouldn't be here. Yes, Torque gets it's fair share of young people, but hey... so does Unity. like the OP To their credit, GG is trying to rebuild, never an easy task. For the $99 crowd, Torque is a viable option.

Unity, as I've come to see the company and toolsets, is a solid upper-midrange (thus far, but tracking toward genuinely high end), exceptionally easy to use, broad platform game engine and IDE with a company focused on creating industry (game business industry) quality offerings while still making that level of product available to indie hopefuls. It is testimony to Unity's success, as near as I can tell, that UDK ever released an "indie" licensing model. Not too many years ago Unreal quoted me $750K base, plus some interesting additional expenses, plus royalties on a project. And still would if presented the same type of project again I think.

But again, I'm confused. What's the point of lowering Unity Pro to $99? You'll need 3D modeling, art, sound, etc... to finish your game (yes there are opensource tools that can do some of that but you need the skills to make quality). Most people end up buying some additional tools along the way, that cost more than $99. You also need additional Unity licenses to target more than Win/Mac/browser. Browser development is still dominated by Adobe products, which aren't $99 btw. To get those additional licenses you'll need to pay for developer program fees, which only mobile are in the $99 range.

What's in that Pro stack that makes folks think they can't live without it? In this case, the magic $99 feels more like "that's what I can currently afford, but I want it" than any injustice on Unity's part. In the 4 yrs I've been using Unity, I've never had any reason to think the Unity leadership team is blind to business economics, arbitrary in product direction, ignores customer feedback, or neglectful of "indies" needs in favor of "the rich" or big business.

I do not blindly trust. I do not build temples to any product, company or brand. I do allow people and business to build trust over time, but will call the ball if I feel it's justified. There are lots of high end products I could argue I need, and have not, for one reason or another, been able or willing to invest in over time. I can wish it was free for a day, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lobby for companies to lower prices that aren't unfair in the market any more than I'll pirate a copy under the "I'm just testing it to see if I will buy it... just as soon as I make money off it" premise either.

Unity Pro isn't most people's sole source of food. So, need? Ironically, from what I've seen of Unity's business practices, if Unity Pro license is going to make the difference between you being able to eat or not in a short term situation, tell them, they may cover you until you get on your feet. They may not be a charity business, but they sure have demonstrated more "heart" than many of the companies I've dealt with over the years.

Cheers,

Galen

 

In the end it will be down to how the market goes, they may be forced to lower the price due to competition, they may have a change of heart and go for free/$99 + royalties on sales (yack!)... They may release a smashing fantastic 4.0 version and increase the price to $2000. They could pull a C4D and have 4 different versions designed to push most customers to go for the top version. They could go for subscription based model where you pay $500/$1000 per year including 4 support phone calls per month...(subscription, yack!)

Totally up to market conditions and their commercial goals. For now, for me I'm ok with having saved up and paid whatever I paid when I bought the product, at that time I though it was good value for money. If they lower it to $99 I hope they have a good reason/plan for it. I would prefer them being more active in maybe a pro only forum and have the funds to fund customer tech support on forums instead giving the product away for free/cheap unless they indeed made more money that way

 

If your hobby is to photograph, you can either buy a cheap camera, take some nice pictures and be happy with it, or you buy an expensive one in order to get better results.

But i have never seen someone, who demands an high-end camera for 99$

 

I don't see why so many people would buy Unity for $300. Unity obviously found it wiser to offer the Indie version for free.

It seems to me that it is because Unity offers -so- much for free that you all feel entitled to the Pro version for cheap as well. They could just as easily have offered that for $300. Who would have complained if they didn't know it was free before? It's practically the full product for 1/5 the cost. And then they could instead have offered a demo version, limited by some means, to people wanting to try Unity out for free.

@Tiles, I can't imagine Germany being -that- much poorer than Norway or the rest of Western Europe. Anyone I know spend thousands of dollars on their hobbies every year, whether it's cycling, snowboarding, photography etc. I know cars are way more expensive in Norway than Germany, but I can't imagine you'll get much more than a hub cap for that price.

 

I'm grateful Pro isn't the price of 3DS Max, which is expensive enough in the toolset. I'd like to find a decent modeler for the price of Pro. (Most modelers I've seen are in the $3500 range - Autodesk monopoly).

The only other indie engine I've seen that had the quality of Pro was priced at about $3500. We are fortunate.

 

So I suppose when you buy your car with that $1500 dollars, did you demand the car dealership to give you a Lamborghini Reventon?





Why not? $1,600,000 is too much for 99% of the people in the world! Such injustice! We should all demand Lamborghini to price all their cars for $1500 dollars right?

 

Go with unity free -> make an amazing game -> earn money -> spend money on beer -> earn more money -> buy unity pro

 

Sorry, but no. In the real world, that's not remotely how it works with software. To some extent, people who are prepared to buy it at all, are going to buy it regardless of the cost (within reason). The rest pirate it. Dropping the price by 5X will not, ever, increase the paying user base by 5X. At most, sales would triple (being generous, really it would probably be much less), so the end result would be a huge net loss.

Indeed, the kind of car you can get for $1500 here is typically a 10-year-old piece of junk. I don't know anyone that saves for "months and years" for an ancient broken-down car, unless their only income is a part-time job at McDonald's.

--Eric

 

I agree with bier.

http://www.kongregate.com/ has $1500 price to the top ranked game each month and have accepted Unity games since last year or something.

Problem solved.

Put your effort into making a good game instead of whining here. Because, as we all know, if you have Pro and still make crappy games then you're just a poser and nobody likes those. And chances are that if you buy pro before you've actually made a good game you'll not make a good game with pro either.

 

Damn, a picture of me driving my car.. in a public forum .. again. You paparazzi guys got nerves !

 

As I mentioned before briefly, try to goto a music shop and get a 10,000 guitar with all the pro features
for 99 dollars, it wont happen, if you want to pretend to be "a pro" you have to pay like a "pro"

Whats next want to make movies as a hobby ? Maybe Panavision will sell you
a $20,000 camera for 99 dollars to play movie maker. ( with all the "pro" features of course )

 

I have no idea if there is enough of a market for a price reduction to make sense. One thing nobody has mentioned is that we have no idea what the agreement with Umbra, Beast, FMOD, Allegorithmic etc is. Did Unity just lay down a lump sum to licence it for all of us? Or does Unity have to give them a cut of every Pro sale? If $300 of every Pro sale goes to other middleware providers, then a $99 price point is just impossible.

Anyways, I'm sure Unity has crunched the numbers and come up with the price point that makes the most sense for them as a business.

 

I agree with you on a lot of this, but I really wish we could get past the stereotypical 14-15 year old, I'm 15 and (I voted yes, but that was because I hadn't read these brilliant counter-arguements) I would have voted no. Im, however, NOT one of those guys who never finish a project, I've finished 2, non-commercial, but still 2, and if I had more time to complete them, they would have been much better. I just want everyone to know that some 14-15 year olds can complete projects, provided they aren't as mature as a two year old and expect everything to be handed to them when they wine for it. When I wanted a computer, my parents made me save up to buy it, same for my iPod and a lot of other things. Anyways, back to the arguement at hand, why don't they make a really good game with basic, and prove that they deserve Pro and can actually use it?

 

To be quiet frank if your the type of person that say the difference between $1500 and $1200 would stop you buying a license your not the type of customer they are going to care about, the company would not stay afloat trying to cater to that group of people... I'd say a big reason for dropping the cost of unity basic to $0 is the overhead of the sales where probably costing more then the sale itself so why not just make it free.

Just remember to when they sell a license for $1500 they probably only see 1/2 - 2/3 of that money after all the taxes, royalties, cost of sale, bank fee's, currency exchange etc.

At $99 a license they would be luck to see what $60 a sale... Good luck keeping a company with 100 developers and various licensing agreements afloat on that!

 

I completely agree with all of your points. I'm 16 and have finished multiple non-commercial projects (though, I am working on an iPhone game at the moment. I should really get back to that). Also, if you can't make something that people want to buy in Unity Free, you wouldn't benefit from the extras Pro offers.

 

Although a number of people are making good money with game sales and can afford Unity Pro, the fact is Unity released the free version knowing it would massively increase the audience, because there are FAR more people out there who cannot afford to spend $1500 on a piece of software when they're just starting up in game development or even if they have experience but don't have a product. I would bet probably at least 75% of Unity developers cannot afford Unity Pro at $1500 and many would even struggle at $99.

I think my idea still holds firm that we should have a `personal license` where you agree to pay Unity up to the first $1500 you make from sale of any products that were made with Unity Pro (and Unity Pro would be FREE with the license). Unity won't lose out on all the people who cannot afford to buy it (just like piracy), and chances are even more people will make even better products using Unity Pro versus Unity Free, making it even more likely they'll get paid. The incentive to make and sell a half-decent game is that after $1500 in sales you've paid off your `Unity Pro Loan` and the rest is plain sailing. Unity will get paid their $1500 sooner because the limit of having to buy Pro when you hit a given dollar level in sales is removed. It's like `Unity Pro on Credit` instead of a `debited` up-front purchase. And if you don't manage to sell $1500 then you simply pay whatever you did make, or nothing.

Think of it like buying Unity Pro with a credit card instead of cash, with an unlimited term of repayment.

 

Unity Team AFTER the price drop

 

More like:

 

Ok, let's stop with the 99 USD figure.. and keep a more mature figure in place..
And oh, stop the "PRO" means professional (as in UBER) features, only usable in the hands of PRO's. That's silly, very silly.
It's a marketing name/label nothing more.
The gap between the old indie and PRO was too huge. (back then many people complained about that fact quite alot, unfortunately to deafmans ears. They also got bashed by PRO users...)

Instead of making the gap smaller, through lowering the 1500 USD to a more indie friendly figure, UT choose too widen the gap more, by introducing a free version. So logically the complaining keeps going on and on and on.

Also i do now understand why (mostly) current PRO licensees, have something against lowering the price of the PRO version.
It's quite logical.. they have PAYED 1500 USD, and would not like to see others having to pay a certain fraction of that amount they payed (they feel ripped of in a certain way).
Same thing happened when Indie became free.. exactly the same to be precise.

This ripped off feeling, introduces the "PRO" is for Professionals type of comments, and the aggressive defensive attitude in the form of willing to keep the UT employees having a good life (income etc.), and that lowering the price means those employees would become poor or out of jobs..

This sounds like the licensees have a deep care about the social welfare of the UT employees, but this is kind of a false vision. The same agruments where held against the FREE version, but now we are a few years further, and guess.. UT still exists, and quite strongly i might add..
Just think about this.... and try to realize, that Price drops, does not mean, no food on the table for the employees at all.

 

I could have sworn that said "hungry hungry hobos."

 

it does ?

 

It did until I refreshed, quick rotoscoping job.

 

please stay ontopic, instead of jabbering about some pictures posted.