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Why Unity 5.0 is STILL a good deal

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by hippocoder, Mar 20, 2014.

  1. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    I wasn't though. I was still happy to shell out for unity licenses even when wasn't doing well. This is because I prefer how easy Unity is to use, and how fast it is to build a game in.

    See, it's like this:

    - if someone charges $10 an hour programming, and spends 8 hours in unity, it cost 80 dollars worth of time to complete the task, which he could have spent on another task.

    - if someone has to spend 16 hours doing the same task in UE4 then it rapidly adds up (really fast actually) just how cheap unity is.

    Lets say the game takes 6 months to complete in Unity. That's a year in UE4, and if it costs $10 an hour, with 8 hours a day, that's $29,200 UE4 cost, meaning Unity saved you $14,600.

    So for me, Unity can't not always be cheaper to use and run, at least until UE4's had a couple of years. It needs a couple of years to streamline and speed up it's workflows. It's still beta.

    But yeah, hobbyists can use whatever they want. Free really means free though, and $19 is still a barrier to entry, no matter how you look at it.
     
    ikelaiah likes this.
  2. ShilohGames

    ShilohGames

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    hippocoder: I agree the workflow is more efficient in Unity if we are comparing only coding to coding. Compiling C++ code and then restarting the editor is a waste of time, even on very fast computers. That is one area where UE4 could be improved. However, UE4's BluePrint feature largely levels the efficiency playing field and probably even tips it a tad in UE4's favor. With BluePrint, some tasks are significantly easier to do quickly in UE4. Overall, the time I save on tasks I do in BluePrint probably makes up for the time I wasted compiling C++ code and restarting the editor.
     
  3. Teo

    Teo

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    So that's the reason why you like more Unity and not UE4? C#? Haha.. solid reason, what can I say.
     
  4. JasonBricco

    JasonBricco

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    That's a huge reason for why I do. C# is a very wonderful language to program in and I would much prefer it over C++ (though of course it isn't the only reason).
     
  5. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    If that's all you took from it then that's fine. I have loads of solid reasons why I use Unity. If I didn't, I wouldn't.
     
  6. Grafos

    Grafos

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    I see what you are saying, but you can see, even by the first reply to your comment, that your argument that Unity's workflow is faster/better is open for debate. Apart from blueprints, might I add features such as, advanced particle system, material editor and a cutscene editor sorely absent from Unity Pro. You need to spend more money on those, and get 3rd party support.

    But even if what you said was the objective truth, unity's marketing would have a hell of a time trying to convince people they are actually the cheaper choice when on a first glance there is such a huge difference in price.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2014
  7. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    A minority when compared to all users? Certainly. But when compared to paying Pro users? That could be an entirely different story.

    On the note of "making so much", if you're running an effective business it really isn't "so much". Assuming you need iOS and Android it's just $103k per year per licensed developer* and, while that sounds astronomically high to a hobbyist, if you're a business and you're not doing at least that ballpark you're running pretty uncomfortably as it is*. (Which could be why Epic picked that price point - lowering costs for startup businesses and making "Pro" level features affordable to hobbyists seems to be a pretty effective way to strike at the most vulnerable areas of Unity's market base. To everyone else both price points are low enough that it probably wouldn't factor significantly into the decision.)

    * On desktop that $103k becomes somewhere around $36k, which in any country with decent pay isn't enough turnover to have a developer in the seat you're licensing.
     
  8. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    Why? It's simple math. At what point of a business's income does the 5% royalty end up costing more than the licensing cost of Unity plus assets? That should take less than 30 seconds to calculate for a given business.

    But lets not forget that, either way, at these price points the licensing cost will be dwarfed by other costs. So I'd put them to one side and go with the tool that lets me get the job done fastest, because saving one month of development time is likely to save more money than any amount of nitpicking prices will.
     
  9. Khyrid

    Khyrid

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    I actually used Unreal in College and made the switch to Unity. Many times I have been tempted to go back to Unreal, but I always stayed with Unity because it's apparent that they are different at the top. They are very atypical of a standard business. They actually listen to the community. I get the feeling that they are somewhat naive in comparrision to their competition, but that leaves them more human and down to Earth, which to me is paramount. Maybe I'm wrong, but so far that's the impression that I get.
     
  10. Deleted User

    Deleted User

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    I doubt it's quite as innocent as that, they need high tier indies to get any use out of that 5%. The $19.00 a month is tiding them over until they can get the engine into a state where other competition is nullified, it feels like Tencents thinking not Epics. UE has the financial backing to resolve many of the quirks / complaints indies have had about previous engines and they also realised Unity was the only engine that could stand to dominate. Which I firmly believe it still can IF Unity pick up the pace and beat Epic at their own game.

    As a feature set for 3D games I doubt anyone could deny UE4 is in front of Unity Pro, as an ease of use workflow tool as subjective as it is Unity still wins it for me. I still have the same issues / doubts with UE4 as I did with UE3, at least now if Unity 5.0 is a flop for whatever reason at least there is a choice.
     
  11. Arowx

    Arowx

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    What if Unity were to scrap the free version and release a single Pro version for $10 a month PC or Mac, with $10 per platform.

    Then a developer could subscribe to the basic version and release to PC and add on additional platforms for the time it takes to port and release on those platforms. The more platforms developers release on the more money Unity gets in subscriptions.

    As Unity's main benefit is it's wide platform base this plays to it's main strength, and also allows hobbyists to pay for the development of Unity at a price point they can afford.

    Best of both worlds IMHO.

    Of course Unity Technologies would have to run the numbers, how many Free users would adopt a paid for Unity.

    But as of http://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/07/09/another-million-unity-developers-in-the-house/ Unity had 2 million developers so lets say only 25% take up the subscription model 0.5 million x $10 a month = $60m a year.

    Or the Unity Democratisation Page http://unity3d.com/company/public-relations 2.9m registered developers, 630k monthly active developers.

    And you could even leave the previous 4.x Free version available to let people to try the engine.

    Of course this depends on the number of developers with a Pro version at $1500 a pop as you would only need 40k pro developers to make $60m.

    I can see why they are probably loath to drop the Pro version.
     
  12. chrisx84

    chrisx84

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    I actually would for sure subscribe to Unity if the price was about the same as UE4, CryEngine and Essenthal.
    I'm still going to use Unity 5 free when it comes out if the monthly price hasn't drop by then but would love to get my hands on all the pro tools.
    I'm on a tiny fixed income so $75 a month is out of my reach but can do like $20 a month.