"Unity Technologies weighs its options, including a possible sale of the company"

It's worth noting (because people seem to forget) that UT has changed their prices on several occasions. Unity Indie was $400 to start with, then after a while it changed to $250, then eventually $0. The basic licenses for iOS and Android were $400 each, then eventually became $0. So far they haven't changed the price for Unity Pro, but clearly they do watch the market and adjust things as needed. (There was that one time they attempted to raise prices for Pro upgrades, but abandoned that after a lot of negative feedback. So yes they do listen to customers.)

--Eric

 

They even changed the price of the WebGL add-on before release. That's the other situation where too much negative feedback caused a change.

 

Actually, possibly, maybe... if it has to be... never thought I'd ever say something like... Microsoft might be, perhaps, in some way... the better choice!

*runs to take a shower*

 

I honestly can't see how Microsoft would in any way be good for Unity, as described in my previous post. Very much the opposite, in fact. Someone mentioned Facebook as a platform-neutral option, which is a good point, but on the other hand...Facebook.

--Eric

 

Facebook? Not interested. Help yourself.

Not a Microsoft fan, but they have changed quite a bit since the days of having to actually call Redmond, WA for support, on the phone, been there.

Visual Studio rocks, even Express. Microsoft doesn't screw everything up.

As mentioned elsewhere removing cross platform support would most likely not happen. I can't see the price rising much higher than it already is for Pro, Mobile etc. Sub only perhaps but I think that is more likely with Autodesk than Microsoft. I think one of the biggest negatives is having to see Microsoft branding on Unity... yuk!

Microsoft buying it then somehow gimping or killing it... for 1- 2 billion? Would that happen? Maybe, time will tell.

Perhaps Amazon...hmm... I would rather have Unity builds etc. on their cloud than Microsoft's, I guess.

Hope UT doesn't get sold at all actually.



(I am actually still mad at Microsoft re: Caligari, sigh... but wait... before they killed it they gave TS away for free for quite a while... so nvm ;P )

 

Not immediately, but it would happen eventually. Also I guarantee they would drop the option to purchase Unity, and would require subscriptions.

Yes, even if they had good intentions initially...it's just not in their best interest for it to exist the way it does currently, if they owned it. It would be best for everybody if they didn't buy Unity, but continued the partnership they already have (such as sponsoring free Pro WP8 add-ons).

--Eric

 

Ok

I know I can't actually guarantee what they would do. I think the pure sub option though is more like Autodesk.

As I said, time will tell.

Cheers

 

"Guarantee" being colloquial speech for "really really sure".

Wait, I know...speaking of forced subscriptions...Adobe! ::runs away::

--Eric

 

Agreed!

 

Is that an [Official] refusal to comment?

 

Maybe they'll get bought out by Ikea and the manual with be converted to picto-graphs.

EDIT: lol, sorry. That was going way back in the thread.

 

Will Swedish meatballs be available in the Asset Store?

 

I hope Unity travels back in time and buys Unity in a hostile takeover, to prevent them from being bought out by anyone else.

--Eric

 

Ha!

Yeah, and here's a picture of Unity's new "booth babe" at GDC:

 

Absolutely agreed. Once you go public there is a ton of regulation and other crap. Revenue recognition is a real pain, and they wouldn't be as open about new features. If you think we hear little about new versions now, publicly traded it would go bye-bye. Our users ARE pissed mad because of how my employer has royally botched the transition.

 

/agreed

As long as no one steps off the path and on any Lepidoptera

 

Microsoft now supports Apache Cordova in VS for cross-platform applications, all that new HTML5/CSS/WinJS apps for WinRT is the way to cross-platform apps, they are making ASP.NET to be open source and not to stick to Windows platform, etc.

With Unity, integrating it with VS, TFS and other development tools, they can achieve that developers for any platform could and should use MS tools, even if they aren't developing anything for Windows itself.

 

Well, since now, we are all speculating about who would me most ideal to purchase Unity, I'll put in my 2 cents.

I think the company most ideal to be purchasing Unity would be a company that makes games. Hopefully one of the better ones.

Microsoft, facebook, Google, Autodesk, Apple all would me bad in their own way.
Hope this post doesn't come back to haunt me later in the event of one of these entities purchasing Unity.
In fact, this entire thread would hopefully be deleted before an ownership change

 

Oh, I can see how it will be under the Apple - no platforms, Apple's only, no Windows editor, Mac only, no C#, Swift only, no game running in editor, test it on a device only. Screw Autodesk, I vote for Aepol.

 

Whether Unity gets sold or not, they really need to make the pricing more flexible, $75/month is ridiculous considering there is a more powerful tool for $19/month, not to mention you cannot pause/cancel at anytime like with UE4.

Maybe they could have discounts if you pay for a year up-front, like say $29 month to month (cancel at anytime) or $228 for a year upfront (which comes to $19/month).

It would be nice if they offered cloud storage with a pricing scheme like this too for Unity Cloud Build, which by the way if Amazon bought them would surely offer.

 

And the discussion goes full circle.

 

Time to unwatch this thread, @Eric5h5 is speaking my mind, no need for my presence.

 

It is only $75/mo if you don't want mobile. Otherwise it is $150 to $225 per month depending on how many mobile platforms you want. Yet it is only a fair comparison if you don't expect to make a profession of it.

The biggest factor for someone selling a game is going to be royalties not subscription. That 5% royalty may not seem like much, but you only need to make $18,000 per platform per developer to hit the yearly cost of Unity's subscription.

As an indie trying to make it a profession, you will most likely be making more than the break even point.

 

It's just speculation at this point, and no good is coming of it, with constant references to how this amazing superior engine costs $19. Since it's just mindless babble now, I've locked it.