Unity 2.6 is out (and free!)

Okay, here we go again

At first I must say, that I am of course happy for Version 2.6 beeing free. Now I can have more than two installations at the same time.

The first thing I did, after hearing the news, was that I recommended this to a friend of mine at work and I must say it is a pleasure to see how happy he is now, planning his game. I think he often tried with Blitz or DarkBasic but never got it finished. I think this will change now

I think what upsets many Indie-Users (including me) is not the money they spent on Unity ($200 is not much if you see what you get for it). It is how they are treated from UT now. Somebody dropped the bomb into the forum and 20 pages later in this thread there are still questions left unanswered. The e-mail we got was something along the lines of "Thank you for your money! If you don't wanna lose your invest, give us more! And do it QUICKLY! And... by the way this is really generous of us".
Well, really generous is:
Buy Softimage XSI Foundation $600. Foundation is abandoned, get a License Upgrade to XSI 7 Essentials for $995. The price of XSI 7 Essentials was $2995.
I guess, that's life, huh?

I think there are some points that must be made clear. I was always under the impression that there is a "silent agreement" that goes like this: Buy Indie, make money with it and when you are ready, buy Pro and we give you your money back that you spent on Indie. Ok, that's really generous
Some people asked if this "silent agreement" will be still in place on 01/01/2010. Not answered. For me the email reads like this: Well we changed the Name from Unity Indie to Unity because this way we can get rid of our files about "indie-buyers" and when they ask for their $200 during the upgrade to pro, we will tell them: You are a "Unity"-User, not Indie.
Oh, and of course, we will tell you the same at the moment when we start the new Indie-Edition - For the freeloader who wants more

In short: The trust is gone. Yesterday I thought: Well, then I will buy iPhone Basic with my discount, it would be nice to have this. But today I am thinking: What if they pull that same stunt again and this, of course, 60 Days after 01/01/2010?
The store already says:
Upgrade to Unity Pro from Unity or Unity iPhone Basic $1499.00
Hmmmmm...

So, now I am off doing something useful

 

I was probably too harsh when I said that, but what I meant was that it takes quite a while to get a definitive answer from someone (or no answer at all), so it feels like a ghost town sometimes, especially when you know that some unity developers are on (also the mods too). I still cant find any documentation on the toon shader that helps my problem :-/ ...

 

You can always try the IRC channel if you need a response right away. Forum Moderators aren't Unity experts (some might be), they're moderators, keeping the forum tidy, and under control.

Having a few unanswered questions can be incredibly annoying, though it is far from correct to generalize the entire forum, and many developers efforts to answer what questions they can.

 

I have looked at unity, hell I bought it because I like the things you get.

Sorry Jashan I am obviously not as high up Maslow's hierarchy of needs as you are, money still counts to me as it does to many other people. 3 months ago I had $250 more in my account and no Unity indie license - now I have minus $250 in my account and no unity license and that's the bottom line.

 

I have to agree with this

I bought unity indie 6 months ago and feel completely ripped off now

Now, all you unity fanboys can rationalize all you want but the fact remains that some of us were not treated right

Is it great the unity indie is free now? sure it is for a lot of people. That's not really my complain

The problem is the we should be compensated more than the ridiculous discount offered on the pro license.
What kind of offer is that?

"Hey, we want to give you something in return for your investment so if you invest in our even more expensive product we'll give a slight discount?"

Yeah, that's not going to happen

If this was a decent company, they would recognize our situation and show some appriciation by offering a more substantial compensation. Instead they're forcing us to upgrade to pro if we want anything out of our recent investment other than looking like idiots for trusting this sorry excuse of a company. I'm sorry but that's just wrong.

I'm very disappointed by the email from Unity and i will now move on to other engines, preferably from a company that isn't run by greedy bastards who doesn't give a rats ass about their customers.

Fortunately, there are plenty of viable alternatives to Unity, i'm just sorry i wasted 200$ on this p.o.s company in the first place

Go ahead fanboys, flame away

 

That's quite the first post. lol

 

The people who are good with Unity Team...

Don't pay for the indie license

Is Rich

Mommy or Daddy bought the license

The rest are dissapoint.

 

The first post definitive Troll.

 

Some of us bought our indie license with our own money that we earned.

And we're happy with the license. And we're fine with what Unity just did, because we bought a tool that we rationalized was worth the price we paid, if not more.

Just because we're not angry at Unity, doesn't mean we're immature, fan boys, or whatever other terms you can come up with.

 

I feel the pain for all indie users including myself.

i'm still thinking Indie licence buy button was an smart way to hide the donate button, honestly i'm disappointed and upset.

 

Dude. My dad is so old ... he thinks computers are a fad. He'd give you a smack you just for suggesting such a thing.

 

Do you actually have anything remotely intelligent to add to this topic?
Because based on the quoted post, i'd say you're the troll

 

Touché!!!

I will not say anything more, until a manager of Team Unity talk about this.

If is necessary I will waiting forever :cry: Im tired.

 

Yeah right. I'm perfectly fine, happy, even with what UT have done. I've bought more than one Indie license over the years, too. None of those three conditions apply to me at all.

 

You left out:

Rational people who can think

I'm betting (hoping) this is the majority of people, and it's a small minority making most of the noise.

--Eric

 

* I did pay for the Indie licence
* I was a student not long ago and thus am definitely NOT rich
* have to pay for my stuff myself

I still am not mad at unity. Thank you. Drive through.

 

Yeah I hope the same. All this noise is plumbing the depths of absurdity. Thankfully, the "depths" are not deep.

 

All I can add to this is, wow, seriously, just wow. This tool at the level that it can be used in Indy being free, just wow. I would assume that the free indy version has the same limitless restrictions that Indy did (meaning you can still make money off something you didn't pay for)

I am glad they went that way for Indy, seriously. Torque should follow that example. Yes I own Pro, yes I own all of Torque products, and you know what, this going free will drive practically -all- people considering Torque Indy to Unity. This will hurt them, hands down. Was it a smart marketing decision, I got 2 words for that "Hell Yes". $200 a pop is nothing compared to you bet in 1 out of ever 50 downloads of the free version, that person will buy a pro license and frankly their userbase over the next 2 weeks will explode.

I have already told all of my friends. So let me go back to that one major word.. "wow"

Good move Unity, good move.

 

Meh. All I use Unity for is iPhone stuff. I got Unity Indie and iPhone Basic six months ago and it's been my plan all along to get Unity Pro so I can get iPhone Advanced. So it works out pretty good for me, I'm saving a few bucks. I honestly dunno how I'd feel otherwise.

I think the 60 day refund thing souds fair, but again I'm not in the same boat as some folks and might feel otherwise if I were. I really can't say.

Good news for new users fur sure.

 

Good news, and thankyou for the refund folks

 

Eric, aside from the trolls and flamers, there's a few of us here unhappy with what I think are valid comments.

I'm glad for everyone who can now use Unity for free.
I'm happy the 3.0 will (presumably) be free for me when it rolls around.

I still feel I've been demoted from "paying customer" to "freebie user" without my consent.

And that's not how business relations work in my book. Not even when it's "just" a $200 business relationship.

 

Indeed, for example this post, which is quite reasonable, and I agree with all of it.

--Eric

 

This thread->

 

Two points
1) I can't believe I clicked that link
2) I can't believe I actually read it till the end

I am mesmerized.

 

Unity 2.6 seems faster.

 

Yeah, IIRC they did quite a bit of performance optimizations aside of all the other cool new features. It's another one of those "hey, this could easily have been a major release" update - Kudos to UT!!!

 

I think making it free is great news. Especially for young people.

Just a question tho, are indie users still able to upgrade to pro ( minus original indie purchase) for the remainder of 2.x? (like the original deal when purchased)

Does the time limit only apply if you want the "discounted" deal price?

 

Have all the emails gone out already which have the offer for those who purchased the indie license?
I really want to pick up the indie Iphone package.

 

How do you figure that?

They aren't giving anyone a "deal". When we purchased Indy, it was always part of the deal that we get the $200 credit towards Unity Pro. So the $200 discount is not something new. If UT was giving us a "deal", it would be $400 off the Pro price! How did I get $400? Well the deal always was $200 off, so if they want to give us $200 more (because Indy is now free), that would total $400.

In addition, anyone who bought:
Unity Indy + iPhone basic 3 months ago paid $600

The new price is $150 (if you recently purchased Indy). So someone who bought it last month paid $350 for Indy+iPhone basic, thats $250 less than someone who bought it 3-6 months ago.

Anyway, this $200 off is not a deal, that was always the discount for pro! What they are saying is now if you wait 2 more months, you lose the $200 rebate even though we always told you that you would get $200 off (there NEVER was a limit to how long that rebate would last).

 

No, see my reply just above.

Thats my beef, the deal when I bought Indy 6 months ago was that I could upgrade to pro for $200 less. Now, today, in order to get the $200 discount we must upgrade within 2 months even though we were told that the discount had no time limit in the past!

What we should get, if we buy pro within two months, is $400 off the purchase price ($200 off for the rebate we always had, and $200 for this new deal). Now if we fail to upgrade in 2 months, the original $200 off should not expire, this is not what we signed up for 6 months ago.

 

It is $400. You upgrade to Pro, you pay $1100 because of the deal. Normally you'd pay $1300, because Pro costs $1500.

--Eric

 

Even though it probably took a while to send out all those mails, you probably should have received it by now. If you haven't, make sure to check your spam/junk-folder ... and if it's not there, you should probably contact sales@unity3d.com - email has become a rather unreliable medium so I wouldn't be surprised if a few people didn't get the message (that's what I like about forums - they are still "reliable" even though spam is also becoming more and more of an issue on forums).

 

And still a non working download page.... :x

 

That's weird - I just tried it and it worked flawlessly for me (and I'm not having such a great Internet connection here): http://unity3d.com/unity/download/

Could it be you maybe have cookies or JavaScript disabled or something like that? The page automatically detects whether you have are on Mac or PC and maybe it does something that breaks when you have certain browser settings disabled.

 

Yes, but the question is, if I do not upgrade within two months, do I still get a $200 discount (the discount that was in place when I purchased Indie version)?

In other words, if I buy it by end of year I pay $1100, but if I wait until Jan 1st, I can still buy it for $1300 and not the $1500 full price.

They do not clarify this... If it is that way, then I am okay with it.

 

Well, I hate to make assumptions, but I'm about too.

No where in the Unity e-mail does it say they will be charging the $1500 price for Indie license holders after Jan 1st. They merely state that their offer expires on that date.

Does it mean that after Jan 1 you no longer have an Indie License, and therefore have to pay $1500, yes, I understand that is the important question. I'm going to assume that after Jan 1st the upgrade cost will remain at $1300, so Unity Tech will honor those who have already bought the Indie License, and will not have to pay $1500 to obtain Pro.

Assumption, but it's my gut feeling that after this deal the cost to upgrade will be just as it was for all these past months.

 

UT can simply reply and end the discussion

 

It's just after 7AM on a Saturday at Unity's main office, so I'd give them a bit of time, but I agree.

 

Yeah, they should be up drinking Guinness in about 3 hours.

 

I'm yet another Indie owner who feels ripped off by UT's new licensing model.

I bought my copy about 7 months ago, and although I understand that things move quickly in the tech field, I'm still a bit shocked that basically I've chucked $300 down the drain.

It makes you wonder what UT will do next e.g why upgrade to pro (or iphone basic etc.) when they could decide to cut the price of any of their products in 1/2 in 6 months etc.

I'll view UT in a different light from now on.

 

When i upgraded from indie to Pro some months ago i didn't have this offer upgrade and i have not payed yet my Pro license with games made in Unity...BUT i'm happy that Unity will grow faster now.
And i'm happy for new customers that have the opportunity to start develop with Unity without extra cost.
And if these new customers believe in Unity Project they will Have to Pay (before or later) Unity products.
If you bought Unity indie, think as you have payed a Pro coder for more of two months with only 200$.
Think wider, stop to complain and start to talk about new Unity 2.6 features!

Ps: To be completely fair I agree only in one thing: extend time limit to take the upgrade offer.

Bye

 

Hey im happy to pay for the upgrade either way, but as it was stated. It is not a $400 discount. It states $400 off the upgrade to pro not the full pro price. The upgrade is $1300 not $1500. So that would be $900. Before this I would have paid $1300 not $1500 to upgrade, so how does it make sense to give an upgrade discount off the full price. Then it wouldn't be called an upgrade rather it would be just buying the full version.

Whats concerning is that I think they think that oh now that unity indie is free, even current indie licensees have to pay $1500 for pro. This is clear by them only giving current indie owners the deal till the end of the year to upgrade. This is also clear by getting an upgrade for $1100 with a $400 discount, which implies we have to pay $1500. Current indie owners should always have the $1300 upgrade with no time limit. Basically I feel its a way for them to squeeze more money out of people if they don't upgrade now. And unfortunately a lot of people wont have the money in these tough times to take advantage of the deal, so they will end up loosing the $200 they spent on indie and pay the $1500 to get pro.

Again I am happy to pay for unity for the $1100 and probly will. I just am disappointed in how they decided to take care of they're current loyal customers.

 

+1 ++ I have a 2 Pro license and i'm very happy

 

Yeah I am all for a free unity too.

But here is a premonition: you upgrade now and 8 months from now Unity 3.0 comes out and then poof the price goes up and you have to pay to upgrade to 3.0. So if your lucky you got to upgrade for $1100 or not and had to save up the $1500 cause you missed the deadline and now you have to save up even more to make the $?000.00 3.0 upgrade cost.

Again this is a premonition and not based on any facts.

Thinking more about it now I think it would have been more accurate to say:

"Unity indie is now free and you can no longer get the upgrade price for indie to Pro, but for a limited time we are still accepting upgrades and also giving you a $200 discount. After which you will have to pay the full Pro pricey"

The good in all of this is that you still get to have the awesome unity engine to use on every computer and for your whole team for free. Now that's awesome.

 

I have chosen a refund. If my now free Unity 2.6 makes me money and I need to climb the ladder, well, happy to buy a fully priced 3.x Pro license.

The point is: how long this free Unity 2.6 can go before becoming technologically obsolete? All in all, I think a couple of years. A lot of time to mess around with and grow a reputation.

 

No I truly feel UT will continue to update Unity(free)to current tech so it doesn't become obsolete. However I think there will be a few features here and there on each new release that don't make it to Unity(free). Which is perfectly fine. UT is a business and if they didn't entice their customers to buy Pro then whats the point, they wouldn't make money.

 

Price and value are not the same thing. Otherwise, Unity should set their prices at $100,000 a seat and make even more money, right?

Some people perceive the price to be the value which is why some luxury goods sell really well at higher prices.

With software, the value of Unity Indie has gone up with 2.6 not down, as its had improvements, and Unity being free adds value to your unity Indie license.

The price has gone to zero, but the value has gone up.

Nobody has any reason to complain. If you bought recently, unity offers you a refund. If you didn't buy recently, you've not lost anything and you've had months of usage of the software before the price changed. And at any rate the price changing doesn't change the VALUE of what you bought.

But they are generous and so they are giving everyone a bonus discount if they decide to upgrade.

I think part of the reason so many are so bitchy about this is that unity is TOO generous with their customers. You don't see Adobe giving anyone a discount, on the contrary, they make you buy the same software over again every year! Nobody seems to complain about Adobe "ripping them off" and yet, from my perspective they are one of the few software companies where the value you get is way below the price. (I don't complain, I simply don't buy their product.)


Its because Unity is so generous to their userbase that we have people who feel so entitled.

But they will pass and the community will be much better in a few months with so much more new talent in it.

 

I have taken a little time to let the anouncements sink in...

All in all I do think Unity(Indie) going free is a wise step, in that it will promote Unity to a very wide market -- also given that is now PC also -- but on the matter of the offer I feel that the gracious thing to do is to extend the offer to a longer duration, possibly even to include a discount deal for v3? Else pro license uptake will stall until V3, somewhat understandably?

I don't know about other country economies but just before Christmas should perhaps become extended to be inclusive of the turn of the tax year so that small business capital expenditure versus tax offsets would be of a minimal burden time wise (which for UK is April) but as I say other country's fiscal cycles probably differ which makes it difficult.

IMO I personally feel UT may compromise on the feelings of upset for those who gave their money for the Indie license; the reason for which could, as I see it, perhaps a wanton to be seen to be governed by the developers and not to be potentially perceived as being increasingly dictated to by "bean counters / marketing / PR" etc?

I vote for an extension to the offer beyond two months personally speaking.

 

I don't think they should do anything. They've been more than generous. By what right do they owe anyone anything? They've given discounts and even offered a refund because they know some people are going to be irrational about this.

But that's not good enough? They should go even further?

I submit that any proposal you would make for "Addotional compensation", if they had made it originally, would not have changed the complaining. People would just be asking for even more "compensation."

And what exactly are people wanting compensation for? Unity has just moved forward with a bunch of new features and improvements, and given us increased value for our product.

Nobody has any reason to complain. Everyone has benefitted here, and on top of that, they are offering discounts to those who might want to take part.

 

Cool
Then where do the complains come from, I wonder...