what unity will cost, now and after? what limitations I have in free version?

Hi,

I know that unity is free, and you only need to upgrade for professional when you get $100k+ revenue, But there are things unclear I wish to learn about:

• Does the personal version (free) include iOS, Android, desktops, and consoles support?
• After I make the $100k revenue I have to get the professional version, for how long? can I just buy it once? what if I don't want to make games after my first game? what if the revenue starts declining and I want to quit?
• it says I have to buy professional version and android + ios plugins, whats the cost for these plugins? what about console?
• will my game still work even if I don't have any unity software?
• Could you explain more about "customizable splash screen" for free version ? will I be able to add my splash screen by any chance in the free version?
• in general what limitations I have in free version?

Hope you could help me with this, I am just evaluating before going deep,
and sorry if any of my questions looks dumb

Thank you in advance.

 

The answers you seek are at https://store.unity3d.com/ . As of Unity 5, I found I only needed to upgrade to Pro to get rid of the Unity splash screen that appears briefly on launch. If you don't mind that (and yes, you can add as many additional splash screens as you like), you can probably get by with the free version for a very long time.

 

@JoeStrout , Thanks for the quick reply mate!

Now I understand the splash screen matter, and The link had answers to my pricing questions.

But If you cloud help me with the rest please, I just want to understand when I use the free version, will I be able to launch games for consoles as well? how long commitment I have to make with unity?

 

You cannot actually develop games for the consoles without being officially registered with the manufacturers. Once you have become registered with them they will provide you with licenses.

 

Thank you fro the reply, it helped a lot.

Unity looks promising and a great tool, but after quick reading it appears getting license for console development is a big headache, Based on that, I don't think Unity will give me any advantage over cocos2d-x, which is free.

it is very hard to decide,

 

It's actually very straightforward to acquire a console license. You basically need a legally registered business and a single title that has shipped. These requirements are considerably relaxed compared to the past where you often had to pay a five digit sum of money in addition to meeting steep requirements.

Essentially these requirements exist to weed out those developers who are not serious about developing on their platforms.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/ID
https://www.companyregistration.playstation.com/

 

Now, I'm not that up on current developments in the Console market, as they are becoming more relaxed, but: When I last looked, getting a license to develop to a console had nothing to do with the game engine of choice, but with the internal rules of the console developers. As far as I know, you will still need a console developer's license from the console manufacturer regardless of whether you use Unity or Cocos2D. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) You should be choosing your game engine based on the features you need for your game. For this, I'd sit down with both Unity and Cocos2D and test them out side by side.

 

According to Wikipedia Cocos2D doesn't support the consoles whatsoever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos2d#Supported_platforms_and_languages

 

why choose a platform that would limit your development to only consoles? Unity's ability to produce games for almost every platform is pretty awesome. Sure, you can start with just console games, but if you wanted to develop a mobile game, you don't have to relearn a whole new IDE.

 

I don't want to target only consoles, I wish to target all platforms.
Unity main benefit is its consoles support, for mobile there are many free alternatives..

But it seems I must be a company to be able to do console development, and of course I can't do that in the moment..
So why should I use Unity for mobiles and pay, when I can use cocos2d-x for mobile and it's free?! in the end I am targeting same platforms, nothing extra.

Another thing, Commitment to unity is unclear.. after $100K revenue how long do I have to pay for the professional version? how far this will go if you get what I mean

 

You wish to target as many platforms as possible? Cocos2d-x only supports seven. Unity supports almost two dozen.

http://unity3d.com/unity/multiplatform

What if you later decide you want those games to be supported on the consoles? If you had developed with Unity it would be fairly trivial to port your game to them, but if you used cocos2d-x you'd have to completely rebuild your games from scratch in another engine that supported those platforms.

Additionally, if I'm not mistaken, Cocos doesn't have one language used across all the platforms. Unity only requires learning one language for all those platforms it supports.

You're purchasing a perpetual license when you buy Unity, but it only covers the latest (and previous) major release. There is an upgrade cost to go to the next release when it comes out, but it's discounted to half. Additionally Android Pro and iOS Pro are their own licenses.

To illustrate, if you purchase Unity 5.x for $1,500 you'll get 5.x, 4.x, 3.x, etc. Once 6.x comes out though you'd have to pay an upgrade cost in order to get Unity Pro 6. Or you could simply not upgrade if you don't need a newer release.

 

Unity is free. There is the issue of the the splash screen on free, however.

Making yourself a "company" is not that hard. If you want to do it, you can. Nearly all countries allow you to go into business fairly easily. You'll just have to do additional paperwork and a different set of taxes (tho' this usually will gain you money, not lose it, if you run your "company" correctly). Talk to a knowledgeable person in your country.

Unity targets many many platforms, so don't use that as a comparison.

If you are making more that 100K a year, you won't notice your monthly payment to Unity and you'll be more than happy your $75 / month is making you over $8333.33 /month.

As Unity is free and Cocos2D is free (and I'm unclear of their monetization scheme), download them both and use the one that makes you the most happy, the most effective and the most productive. If you're worried about the splash screen on the free version, then develop under the free version, and if you feel you have a viable product, go pro and remove it. You can even deploy your game, get your reviews and awards and then use the money from the release of your first game to pay for your pro license.

 

so, as long as I make $100k+ revenue each year I must pay for professional version?

 

If you make more than 100k you have to have a pro license for the Unity version you are using.

 

For the record: Not in Greece! (I guess that's also part of the reason we're doing so well over here! )

Otherwise, solid advice

 

if you make 100,000 in a year, you'll have to buy the pro version of 5. if you spend the $1500, this is a onee time cost, not a cost every year you make $100,000. so if you make another 100,000 in the second year and are still only using Untiy5 you do not have to buy it again. if you want to upgrade to 6, you'll have to buy the upgrade. I assume this will be less than full purchase price, but am not sure what it is.

alternatively, you can "subscribe" to pro, and that is the monthly rate you see advertised all over the site. this you would have to pay every month you use unity, after you make $100,000.

also, you should look up your country's laws for how you would handle the software purchase from an accounting standpoint. the software purchase might reduce your company's taxable income, but again, i'd ask an accountant from your country.

 

Normally it's half price to upgrade, but they have been known to offer further discounts during pre-order periods.

 

This is the traditional "worrying about Step 74 before having done Steps 1 - 73", in my mind.

Unity offers a free option you can play around with, and if you successfully finish your game, you can publish it without paying them. That's what you should do before worrying about if/when you make $100k/yr.