Official Unity 2023.3 coming April 2024 with updates for graphics and performance

Obviously they can and do change their minds on a whim, but so far, there is no "new versioning", so far, there is an exception, only for the 2023 cycle.

 

Wait what? It's supposed to be an exception? :/
Alright @LeonhardP or @UnityMrAndyPuppy can you please confirm or deny this? Is this the start of a new (or rolled back) versioning or is this indeed an exception, if so: why?
Either I got something completely wrong or why dont you just say: "Hey, 2023 LTS is coming a little bit later than usual, sorry, our bad." and be done with it instead of adjusting the versioning

Edit: Sorry, I am utterly confused by this move and just want to understand :')

 

I also understood it only to be for the 2023 release cycle.

 

Yeah, that's why I was asking, bc I wasn't sure if I got it right, is it a new versioning or just a temporary one or something else. But I feel you folks are probably right, it is an exception. Honestly it feels like a bad decision to make it one :/

 

I'm wondering if I have this right. Here's my attempt to translate this. Correct me where I've got it wrong.

Unity: "The 2023 LTS will be available in 2025, because we decided to do just one tech release for 2024, and we're (inexplicably) holding off the 2023 LTS till we add it on to that. So there will be no 2024 tech release at all, just a 2023 release delayed by one year so we can fit the stuff from 2024 into it. And this is a feature, not a bug, because we're trying to get things to you faster."

Is this what they're telling us? I haven't been following this right along, I just saw this, and I'm trying to make sense of it. My apologies if I'm grossly misunderstanding.

If I have it right, then my question is this:

Why don't they just do a normal 2023 LTS release, and have a single tech release for 2024, and give us the 2024 LTS early? Then we have 2023 LTS without a huge delay, and the 2024 LTS comes early.

 

Yeah, this is my interpretation too. And probably it went something like this:
- okay, so end of 2023 cycle soon, plus we have a unite, what major stuff we can dangle in the front of them?
- nothing really, just some sweet incremental progress
- that's unacceptable, we need to rebrand 2024.1

Or something like that. Obviously I may be wrong.

 

Well ... I know this kind of comment doesn't go over well, but ... what the hell? It makes no sense. Unless there's something else going on here, it's just dumb.

Is the business model changing at Unity, and is this their way of de-emphasizing and winding down the game engine without actually disclosing that this is what they're doing?

 

no i don't think so
i rather think they're coming to their senses in that doing releases based on yearly schedule is cca nonsense: (any) sw is ready to be released when it's ready, not when calendar year changes

 

I have no idea. What I see is that they've cut the tech stream down to one, and put the LTS on alternate years. It seems like the effort is cut in half.

As though Unity is doing something else that's a higher priority, and the game part of the business is on the back burner now.

 

That's true to individual features but not any SW. Actually it's bad for any individual SW under perpetual iterative development. Scheduled release is great because the users could know when they can expect certain bug fixes. You don't need to put any new features in there (in theory) to release 2023.3LTS. You just need the cumulative bug fixes during the 2023 development cycle. But marketing won't be satisfied with it, and also the uneducated masses don't get their hype-fix either. Quite frankly, the constant need for "the new shiny feature" and if they don't give any, the "we are switching to unreal, unity is garbage"-crowd is toxic and gives you this situation. Obviously I hold my right to be wrong and this is only my own (bitter) opinion.

 

it's what macOS came to, too - same BS, annual 'feature fix' - it's probably great PR/business plan but \o/, UT is steering away from this with this release schedule change and that's not bad in itself
they have still many platform changes to be done so i'm indeed not thinking they will stall engineering effort with this at all
we'll see ^^

 

LTS release dates are getting later and later.
It would be better to call it just 2024 LTS instead. And skip 2023 LTS altogether.
It will make at least Unity honest and get the 3 years support cycles.
At this rate, we will soon see LTS support ends right after it gets released. LoL!

 

Is there any chance to see the Editor scene objects pipette in 2023.3 ?

 

When did Unity start using the year for their major version, anyway, and what was the reasoning behind that decision?

 

2017 and it was a concious move to align releases with the subscription model of frequent updates; as opposed to the old setup of a new major various release (and perpetual fee) once every 2 or 3 years.

 

When will 2024.1 Tech stream be available?

 

Presumably Q4 2024 around the release of the LTS.

 

Reading through the comments, there's a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism.

Current version naming scheme is fine and its going to be raining cats the day a software company can't be flexible enough to skip, merge or add a new release.

I mean, come-on. They are pushing interesting features to be in LTS sooner. It's -good- news.

All in all, I am more interested about 2024 - seems like it's going to be a big release that does a lot of updates in the core. Maybe the mythical RP merging or .Net Core implementation. Looking forward to it.

 

(which is why the yearly naming and schedule makes no sense, they should be flexible and not forced to release a specific number of versions per year, even though they are not ready)

Yes, as always, the big release with all the stuff we want and need is always the one that isn't released yet.

 

You're not proposing solutions last I checked. And their explanation of the yearly naming being indicative or when the majority of work was done is fine by me. So no, it does make sense.

As always, big releases with all the stuff we want and need have been released.

Funny how opinions work.

 

I am proposing they drop the yearly schedule and have arbitrary numbers for releases, which they will release when they are ready.

But you don't care, what you are here for is to whine about the community doing "criticism just for the sake of criticism" and lick some boots.

 

Now you're proposing it. Thanks.

But you don't care, what you are here for is to whine and not add anything constructive to conversation and try to bring down others who dare say something positive.

Been using Unity since March 2010. Ups and downs, ups and downs and that's how it is. Plan correctly and the risks are managed. It has served me and my team well, well worth the investment and effort.

 

So ... Unity 6?

 

If it is not Unity 666 I'm switching to Unreal.

 

Any info on when splashscreen toggle will be available for the free tier? Would it be become available before the official LTS release, like in beta version?

 

Unity 2023 is not in beta stage and possibly have a LTS version on mid or end of 2024, then in teory for a year users only can remove the splash screen paying $2.000 for the Pro plan because Plus plan was removed.

 

There are two versions of unity 2023: 2023.2 Beta and 2023.3 Alpha

 

Sorry, I made a mistake, you are correct, Unity 2023.1 is final, 2023.2 is Beta and 2023.3 is in Alpha stage, then your question is very important, Unity 2023 beta will be make the Splash Screen optional?

 

They said the 2023LTS will get the splash removal which probably the 2023.4LTS or if they want to run it in a while in the wild (potential bug avoidance), then 2023.3 will get it at some point. I see very little chance for this to appear any earlier versions since this is a business/economic decision.

 

An absolutely scummy move. Just shows that they aren't truly sorry and will revisit this once everyone calms down in a couple of years.

People that pay for plus $400 a year, now have to pay $2,000 a year if they want to remove the splash screen on earlier versions. People didn't understand this when they were praising Unity for letting the splash screen be removed.

Really pathetic move.

 

If you aren't making much money, that means you can just use the new version with the splash screen removed without issue, right?
If you already make a lot of money you are on the pro license anyways.

Or am I misunderstanding it?

 

Well, first of all you have to wait until the end of 2024 before that is even available.

Second, if you are middle to late or launched your game, you don't want to update to a new version of unity. This is standard as it can introduce bugs and issues into your project.

So say you pay for plus $400 on 2020 LTS to remove it. You need to update your game. Now you have to either

1. Pay 2k to remove it
2. Update to 2023 LTS which can break your game and cause a ton of issues and puts you on their new TOS.

That is the reason they are doing it to force people onto their new runtime fees.

 

i think the announcement of it being LTS for .4 now slipped many of us by as its always been .3 before

I think theres a gap for those who have a free license and who would like to remove the logo, but, now the only choice is 2k for pro until maybe april next year and assuming you upgrade, historical versions now wont have that option in free, and the plus option will have gone, so its not like the $400s will still have that option for long.

 

I would have been happy to pay $400 to remove the logo in 2020LTS. They removed that and want to force me onto their runtime fee.

 

Well if you have >200k in revinue they give you the choice of go pro for 2k and then the threshold is 1M, or, stay free and pay runtime..

 

That is if you are on 2023LTS. I am talking about 2020LTS.

 

So you have over 200k$ in revenue? And 2k$ is too much?

 

Well they said the runtime fee wont apply to pre 2023LTS so, it sounds like noise making.

 

No use arguing. I don't know how to say it so you understand.

That makes no sense lol.... No use repeating myself.

 

• Upgrade to Unity Pro for the price of Unity Plus for one year (limited time offer available from October 16, 2023 until December 31, 2023); or

You can upgrade to Pro for the price of the Plus for a year, and when 2023 LTS comes out you can use the Personal version for FREE and not have a splash screen if you upgrade to that version.

How is that scummy? It gives you -over a year- to finish and launch your game. If you're not successful with it, you don't pay anything more than what you pay already and if you are, you just have to pay for Pro - or invest in migrating to 2023 LTS and not pay anything.

 

Right. I agree/understand that. The problem is after that year, you will have to pay 2k to keep the logo out of your game. I am sure people will need to update their game if they find bugs or want to add more content.

When you are middle/end or launched a game, you don't want to update to a new version of Unity. This is how its typically done especially for larger games.

In my case, I will be on 2022LTS. I was going to pay the $400 to remove the logo. Now I have to pay 2k to remove it and I don't want to update my project to 2023LTS (which launches end of 2024) and will likely introduce bugs and other issues. Plus I have to be on their new TOS which I never agreed too when I started making my game.

 

Only if you're still on non-2023 LTS and have not released your game. If you released it, you should have revenue.

There lies the real problem. You don't want to upgrade to 2023 LTS due to TOS. Because having over a year to switch to 2022 LTS -> 2023 LTS is far from being that much of an issue and if it is - you should be able to calculate the cost of that migration and find out if it costs more or less than the 1400$ you will pay for Pro.

 

I really don't know how else to explain it as I have explained it multiple times. I will just leave it at this. (This is my last response)

1. They are a large company.
2. They dont care about you.
3. They only backtracked because of the pushback.
4. They did scummy/illegal things like saying you can stay on the same TOS as your version in 2019 then changed their TOS to revert that. Trust is broken and cannot be restored in 1 blog post.

If you like what they did and accept their apology, great! I am happy for you

 

I think we all get that, but, if you only needed plus to remove the logo, you will have that free in 2023lts, yes, until then you may not, but if you were already paying you can continue for 1 year on the plus payment. until the 2023lts kicks in.

If you then make >200k and are on the free one you have 3 choices

1. pay 2k get pro now have a cap of 1M
2. if you meet the 1M cap or maybe 200k cap if you choose not to you can pay 2.5%
3. if you meet the 1M cap or maybe 200k cap if you choose not to you can pay per new user..

you have valid choices.

unity needed more money, they did it in a crappy way, they have now changed to a less crappy way.

It sounds like you are currently not paying plus, so are just mad now cos your only way to get the no logo is to pay 2k, because you hadnt paid before. we all miss out on things.

 

I think there is a legit worry about people accepting the new terms to remove the splash, then Unity instantly changing the thresholds and fees.

 

The sky is blue and big corporations who aim to make profit want to make money.

They F***ed up - they know it. They are going to lose money on it. But the community reaction has been more about "oh no, look! Capitalism is bad! I want free stuff wah wah" than "This is seriously hurting our business".

I am flabbergasted that everyone who uses Unity Personal (& don't pay a dime, so what, 90% of the user base?) don't understand that Unity is losing money. They have -full- access to the game engine for FREE and still think Unity owes them something. Yeah, they could get bought by Microsoft / Meta and then it's really going to go down the drain.

Otherwise, nothing has changed and our team is still getting the same value for money we pay (multiple Pro licenses). So business as usual.

 

I do not understand how them losing money by going after explosive growth and neglecting the tools we actually use is our problem though.

 

That's a different subject. You don't think you're getting the value from the money you pay. But if you paid Pro before and pay Pro now, how has anything over the past few weeks changed that value?

 

Yes, I haven't liked the direction the company is taking for a while now and I find the editor experience for the stuff I'm doing to be getting worse. I have blocker bugs that I've reported almost a year ago that aren't fixed and will probably never be.

The past few weeks solidified that things are just going to keep getting worse, because the value proposition has been getting worse but, as exemplified by their recent actions, Unity seems to think that the value proposition is amazing / getting better.

So I should rip off the band aid sooner rather than later.

 

Hi there,

Who can tell me is 2023.1.x (and 2023.2) production ready, or it's better to wait for 2023 LTS?