Unity 5 Pro/Free feature split

My thoughts exactly. Furthermore, out of curiosity I looked at my own bank's loan repayment calculator and with a 2 year loan term the repayments to get Pro + iOS + Android comes to only a few dollars more per month than the subscription would cost*. There are of course downsides in that you're taking on a longer term commitment for a higher total figure, but if what you want is indeed "pay off Unity at subscription rates until you own it" the option is certainly there for many of us.

* If you make it a 3 year term then the monthly cost becomes significantly less than the subscription. the total figure of course increases accordingly. Also, I didn't take bank fees into account for either case.

 

What they're saying is that Unity can simply choose to cancel the sub and gift it after the 12 months are up since this isn't a loan, and there is no interest or credit involved. Obviously, this would probably work if there were 2 subscription plans, with a cheaper one being sub only.

It's not something to reject outright if a lot of users would jump on it. Trouble is aside from a few forum users, I've not seen any real data this would be the case.

 

Essentially that is the idea, which is why I think this discussion about credit agencies is a bit weird. It wouldn't have to be treated any differently than Unity currently handles subscriptions. If I'm not mistaken you are required to subscribe for a minimum period, at least initially, of twelve months.

Why not simply offer the option to subscribe for a longer minimum period in exchange for a perpetual license once the minimum period has been achieved?

Most of Unity's developers do not appear to be using the forums though.

 

I know what the definitions of these words are. The fact remains that if you had `a subscription` for say 2 years, and paid $1800 total, it'd be nice to then be able to convert your `subscription` into a `paid license`. I don't care what existing box it fits into or whether its credit or a loan or whatever else. From my end, if I am paying a monthly installment I don't care if you call it a subscription or a loan repayment or a line of credit or a lease or whatever. That's your terminology, not mine as a customer.

 

A subscription to Unity is like leasing a car. You never own the car, but you can get a new model without having to pay extra. When you stop paying, you have no more car.

--Eric

 

Some leases allow you to buy the car at a discount price at the end. It would be similar to the perpetual to subscription discount (which gives a perpetual licence holder a subscription at $40pm), but in the opposite direction.

 

That still saves them $420 over that year. Giving a subscriber a $420 discount on a perpetual licence seems fair.

I'm not saying this as a subscriber, just looking in and hopefully seeing both sides and giving a suggestion that is somewhere in-between the two views.

 

It was only an idea/suggestion/brain fart.
It seems to have picked up a bit of traction though.

 

Licensing is a very touchy subject - That said - I am going to wait and see what unity tech is going to offer.

I have said my piece on the subject multiple times. Unity is aware of Unreal 4 and even Cryengine.

I personally am going to just wait and see.

 

The thing is that rent-to-buy type plans always cost significantly more than outright purchase, where people here are asking for the same price. Also, just like Graham says, in my experience they're always handled pretty similarly to loans, including credit checks and stuff.

Any which way you look at it, you're asking someone to take on the full liability of a sale without giving them all of the money for that sale up front. Why would they do that unless there was another win in there somewhere for them? That win is typically that some credit agency steps in and pays the upfront cost so the seller effectively gets a full and immediate sale, then works the entire deal exactly like a loan (they pay the full cost of the thing, you owe them that money plus interest and/or fees... typically dressed up in a fancy name but otherwise known as a "loan").

I'm not money savvy enough to understand the specifics of why nobody just offers higher cost purchases over time without involving 3rd parties, but since I've never seen it I can only imagine there are good reasons.

 

Unity charge a lot more with a monthly subscription.
Why do you think, they will let you switch to a perpetual license, so easily ?

And there is a good chance, that perpetual license will disappear for Unity 6.0...
(100% of my prediction has come true so far, despite non believer..)

So avoid subscription by any mean, it's more expensif, and it will avoid showing Unity that it's possible to go for a full subscription model!

 

There's no risk if it's merely rental sub and then gifted after unity earns 1500 (or 2k if this plan costs more). It happens after 12 months. If the user cancels the sub, then the user loses the right to be gifted unity at the end of it.

It's not credit. It's not a loan. It's a sub with a decision from unity at the end. Unity's said though, this won't change so no point in talking about it.

 

Costing more would be perfectly fine in this case, too. How accounting at UT would have to word it for it to work is another problem