Why Unity 5.0 is STILL a good deal

Good points.

/agree

An all inclusive, affordable price for all platforms, except consoles.

I can see the marketing copy now...

"One Price.
No Royalties.
...Ever!"

Cheers

 

consider separate all license.
Separate all : windows = $xx/mo, osx = $xx/mo, android = $xx/mo, ios = $xx/mo
Separate in group : windows + android = $xx/mo, osx + ios = $xx/mo

 

Ya I would totally buy another license of Unity Pro if it included all add ons. My company owns the license I use and pays for it and it's add ons. But I would get one for personal use if it was $1500, I could afford $1500 but not $4500.

 

Come on guys! Let's Team up!!!

We want new-tech supply chain for our economic...

 

Yes this is my issue, I don't really have a problem with spending $1500 for unity pro, or in my case upgrade for $600+VAT, seems like a great deal to me... I don't know what people are complaining about, it's the $4500 or in my case extra $3000+VAT I have an issue with just because I want to make a mobile game that uses .net sockets. That's where it really stings for me.

 

You missed all the add-ons that you need for Unity to meet out-of-box functionality of UE4.

Marmoset.
Houdini.
Materials.
Visual scripting (Playmaker)
A decent FPS controller (UFPS)
A decent terrain composer
Per object lighting
AND MANY MANY Other things.

I can't even access post processing effects unless I drop $1500 for pro.

...For every seat on my team. That's not cheap at all for upfront costs. I'd rather not design and code my game around hopes and dreams that my Kickstarter will fund addons and licensing costs.

Unity lacks decent tools for rapid prototyping. Blueprints and BSP/CSG helps both on the art side and programming side.


After using UE4 for a little bit, literally the only thing I can say is "better" about Unity is the ease of use of C# vs C++ (for beginners) and Unity has had more time to properly document all of their features. I'm NOT saying UE4 is better. For beginners to coding, I would go Unity every time. For Artists...I'd pick UE4 in a heartbeat.

Learning something new is always more difficult than doing something you're familiar with...since when does that mean it's not worth learning the new thing.

 

Sure, that's assuming you need those particular things. There are also plenty of things that Unity is more suited to than Unreal. You can't compare the two different sets of tools against one project's requirements and assume the same conclusion will bear out for all other projects.

 

It's a safe bet that Unreal is going to look better than Unity free. This isn't really something anyone needs to waste cpu cycles figuring out. However Unity free is really free, and thus you don't pay royalties or anything. And if you do manage to get 100k, then paying for unity pro is hardly much of a problem for most people.

That's not saying unity can't make Free more attractive or Pro more appealing to free users though. With sensible and clear feedback why people might be stopping from upgrading to pro or might not find free good enough, can help everyone get a clearer picture.

 

For me it's more or less exactly what techmage said - I'd find very $1500 attractive, but not the $4,500 required to jump to mobile Pro development.

 

/agree

 

Well maybe Unity needs to do a $1500 Pro bundle and IFF you make $50,000 you must fork over the rest of the add-on charges. They'd need to way to know though, or maybe not because if you're making $50,000 with Unity nearly 100% of those types are inclined to pay because face it - they worked to earn that money. It's the criminals that aren't inclined to work to earn money and for them Unity Pro 100% free is the only 'satisfactory outcome' in their minds.

I'd even buy Unity Pro under those terms and I don't need Unity Pro.

 

What if you have multiple developers? All working on iOS/Android game and it doesn't sell at all?
Plus the fact that you have to upgrade all your employees licenses every 2 years (Desktop, iOS, Pro)!
Licensing costs it's a huge showstopper for the majority of Unity users and it's sad cause I still feel they can capitalize a lot by lowering/adjusting pro prices/terms while keeping everyone happy.

 

That actually wouldn't change anything for a lot of people, since our jobs would push us over the $50k limit anyway. In fact, it'd make a valley-of-death in the middle. People with low income could (sort of) afford it because the price is at its lowest. People with >$100k incomes can afford it because they've got plenty of income. For people in the middle $4500 is still a huge outlay...

 

Great! So You are a frequent user of AU Vizio.
Then PLEASE, instead producing negative emotions about great product, help the one-man-army of Neo, to make te plugin even better by submitting all those "absolutely ridiculous typos" with the correct one. English language is not his maternal language, so it is understandable that he makes some mistakes. But WE, the helping comunity of Unity lovers are here to help each other.

 

It has nothing to do with needing or not needing tools. You have the tools. It's your choice whether you use them or not. Having tools that you don't need doesn't make an engine less useful for you. I don't see how anyone can logically say, "You can buy a plugin from the Asset store therefore it's better"...when you get all of those features and then some out of the box in the competing engine.

VALID REASONS TO PICK UNITY over a more advanced engine would be along the lines of:
I want to make lightweight Mobile games.
I want to make games that will be played through Web Browsers.
I want to develop lightweight games that are accessible on lower end machines.
I want to develop simple games that can be handled completely in Unity free (flappy bird/candy crush clones)
Flat cost and familiarity vs Royalties and the steep learning curve of picking up a new engine (similar curve as going from 3DSM to Maya)

HOWEVER, Most indies/hobbyists don't have long term goals of mass-developing simple flappy bird clones. A LOT of them want to make 3d Third/First person (action/strat/sim/etc) games. As such, they should be familiarizing themselves with an engine that's better suited for their long term goals. There's nothing stopping them from making Flappy Bird or Tetris on an engine like UE4/CryEngine in order to learn those engines.

 

Hi, please feel free to talk about Unity 5 and related subjects in the Unity 5 preview thread here -> http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/234931-Unity-5-is-coming-and-more!

Thanks!


* Closed *

Edit :
Sorry, I completely forgot that today is April 2.

 

? confused what you mean by this... in relation to april fools day..

 

Talking about April 1 is like an...excuse. These days some posts....disappear

 

50 - 100K is a lot for an individual freelancing with Unity and licenses are affordable - it's a cost of doing business. If you come up with a game with a dozen collaborators then there you have it - each collaborator would need to pay out of their own pocket the cost of the Unity Pro bundle. The company can always reimburse if it's successful and the remain partners. You don't need to buy Unity Pro for Blender/PSD artists and musicians at all for example. That's how partnerships operate.

 

I'm not saying it isn't affordable. I'm saying it wouldn't change the current situation for the (presumably many?) people in that bracket.

Also it's not just about being able to afford something. I could afford the $4500 if I felt my hobby stuff was worth it, but at this stage no single project is when it's just "nice to have" stuff for what I'm doing. For $1500 it would be a different matter, which is what the question I was answering was about.

 

I just pre-ordered Unity 5 for around £450, as I already paid for v4. A good freelance games programmer would cost over £300 per day. I personally feel that I got a great deal.

No matter what other vendors are charging, Unity is well worth its price.

I am a one man developer. Unity makes me so amazingly productive. I often get more done in an hour or so at home after my day job, than I do all day in my day job. Efficiency, man, it's where it's at!

 

I think Unity is still great. the only thing they need, that would neutralize the impact of Unreal Engine 4 is just to add profiler for Unity Free (now you must buy Pro for profiling) and allow stripping for Unity Free. It's enough for indie

 

Although if the profiler came with free, I will feel ripped off having already paid for pro. Well, depending on what else isn't in the free version. Profiler is the main thing I need so far.

 

Suppose you bought a new car for $ 40,000 , five years later the car will cost $ 20,000 . You will feel ripped off ?
Suppose you bought a powerful laptop for $1500 You earned $ 6000 per month using this laptop .
Three years later, you will be able to sell the laptop for only $ 300. You will feel ripped off ?
If you paid for Unity Pro and earned good money with Unity Pro , then why should you feel ripped off ?
The only reason you feel so - is that you are not able to recoup the money invested in Unity Pro.
World - is changing.
Things change.
Strong players(UE. CryEngine etc) are on the market . They offer the very good deals.
Unity should keep indie devs. Unity Free is pretty enough for most current indie's needs, advanced visual effects do not need for indie , which is a one-man team . But profiler would be a big help. Upgrading Unity Free is inevitable. You can resent , you can feel anything but a market ... it's a cruel competitive environment and Unity obliged to respond to the challenge of competitors and Unity team will answer by upgrading Unity Free.

 

It's funny that everyone wants just the one thing that will solve their biggest problems added to the free license.

Doesn't that apply exactly to what you said, too? If you can earn the money back with it why do you care what the free/Pro split is at all?

 

sophistry is not acceptable here
what for you are in this thread?
amuse your ego?
normal people find fun in meeting with friends, tourist trips to beautiful places, in parenting, in watching hilarious comedies, in the creativity (with the help of music, drawing, dancing, and yes - using Unity too) etc.
Your ways to find fun is a reasonable cause for you to seek the help of an experienced psychologist.

 

Everyone is putting forth their own Unity pricing suggestion ideas, So I thought why not put forth mine as well. If my idea is similar to something already presented, then consider this a supporting opinion

My idea for Unity Pricing

Unity Free - Keep it as it is
Unity Pro plus all its add ons - Both Subscription and One Time payment - keep it as it is (Or maybe rationalize it a lil bit)

Now Introduce a third system

Unity Compact
Subscription only - 20 bucks a month plus 5% royalties(just like Unreal 4).
This system to have all the features of Pro plus iOS Pro Android Pro add-ons, The only difference is people using this system get features six months after people with Unity Pro Subscription get it

For example if someday Unity introduces the new GUI, then compact users get the Pro features of that only 6 months after the Pro users get it

 

All that would do is further fragment the Unity ecosystem. And it would do nothing to address the real problem for Unity, which is that you can get UE4 for $19 per month and that is the full "Pro" version so to speak. Unity simply needs to match UE4 for the Unity Pro subscriptions. Delayed features would simply make people move to UE4.

 

With UE4 I have a full set of functional tools OUT OF THE BOX compared to Unity+the boat load of buggy, uncustomized assets you need to buy off the Asset store.

The cancel-at-any-time subscription fee is such a good model, that I won't even cancel it. I don't mind spending $20 per month to receive frequent updates however I could simply cancel it and get everything for $20 up front.

Building something on Unity Free felt like I was building a project on hopes and dreams that my project would self-fund all the licenses I need.
Building on UE4 gives me all of the tools up front meaning that I can present a more polished/complete product for something like Kickstarter.

I won't have to say "Well the graphics/art looks terrible, but if you donate X amount I can add those features in"

 

Responding here to both @Shiloh and @Slyder
(Avoiding quoting because that would just make the post more spacey than required but I am responding to the content of the posts anyway)

Fragmentation is a valid problem. Like other ideas out there what I posted has downsides too - so theres on of them.

Now there are two kinds people right now thinking about switching.
One type who flat out like UE4 more than Unity. I'm afraid Unity can't to anything for them in the short term. There are no quick fixes there.

The second type is those who have weighed the pros and cons of both engines and are still undecided. Any solutions right now can only target this second group.

Targeting the first group is more complex affair that is long term and goes beyond just pricing.

 

I've enjoyed reading the UE4 vs.Unity threads but how much discussion does this need?

The issues are fairly clear and they have been discussed at length.
The large UE4 vs. Unity thread has been locked but is there for everyone's perusal.

Give UE4 a spin, if it meets your needs and you're comfortable with the business model then use it, and good luck.



I'd be happy if UT would respond to Epic's move appropriately just so we could put an end to the UE4 vs Unity comparison threads.

 

The issue here is what value does Unity represent to each user.

Regardless of what features and pricing the competition comes up with, there must be a significant number of people who have put in a lot of time into learning Unity, like the engine for what it is mostly and are at various stages of building their games. To such people the current situation presents a dilemma. No one in their right mind wants to abandon months of work and jump ship at the drop of a hat.

I see this thread as a collection of all those thoughts that remind such like minded people why it is still and good idea to stick on and to some slight extent what Unity can do to make their lives easier. In other words people who are mostly comfortable making games in Unity and what could be done to keep them there vis a vis the pricing challenge thrown up by the competition

 

There are multiple issue(s), including pricing, and they have been discussed a great deal already.

Test UE4 and if it would benefit your project at it's current stage or, more importantly, in the long run, then use it.


Good luck with your projects.

 

The purpose of a focum is to have discussions, not to collect unique ones without duplication. Having the conversation yourself and/or with different people is quite different to reading a different conversation other people have already had, even if it's very similar. The interaction is the point more so than the mere fact that it exists. And this is a pretty colossal change for some people, so there's a lot to talk about and a lot of people to talk about it.

 

Here's what really needs to happen:

Unity Pro - The same as it is now.
Unity Free - Include everything from Pro that I specifically want and not the stuff I'm not using right now.

I took a poll and 99% of users who are me agree with me and there are no downsides to this.

 

I feel painfully loyal to Unity because I have learned a a lot of C# with it and on day one I was able to do things that took hours if not weeks to do in Torque 3D where I started learning Game Dev with. Once I got things working and attracted two relatives that committed to helping fund the release and buy the Pro License when the time came I found my self in a tight spot when they heard how cheap UE4 is compared to Unity. We have even purchased some pro assets from the asset store in advance as they would go on sale.

Now we have decided to just use Unity Free for a minor side project, a learning tool for special needs children and we will eat the cost of the Pro assets.

I am converting everything I created myself over to UE4. There is a learning curve for me because while I can get most things done on my own in C# I'm weak with C++ with the exception of the Ansi C I know.


I am enjoying UE4 but I did not want it to be this way. When and if I get this action RPG game done maybe Unity Pro will be more affordable for the next go around. I continue to mess around with it for learning purposes and the little project because I so loved Unity.

UT needs to realize that UE4 is offering so much out of the box that they at some point will have to lower the price to be competitive. We have Zbrush license because Pixologic understands this and priced the product where the little guy and afford it and they make it up in sales volume. Epic understands this to. They could see that Unity was attracting a lot of Indie and Midsize Studios that could have been using UE4 so they adjusted there strategy to include the Indie Demographic.

I don't want Unity to ever vanish like Torque 3D did. GarageGames, makers of Torque 3D, did not pay attention to the market and the forums are a ghost town over there now:-(

 

Haha, pretty much

 

I'm worried about the 1%.

 

My psychiatrist says it's nothing to worry about. But then again, he is a talking rabbit, so maybe I shouldn't trust him.

 

I know what forums are for angrypenguin. Thanks.

The issues have been discussed over and over and over.

Use the search function. Read the posts and wait until Unity responds. They will.

This rehashing of the same issues constantly constitutes beating a dead horse, and prematurely I might add as Unity hasn't responded yet in any significant way. Crytek hasn't hit yet either, I suspect UT will wait.

Want to rehash the same issues in lieu of productive discussions? Help yourself.

 

UE and CRY really know how to drive that cost down... Just a simple question... if Unreal offered the same deal a few years back, WHERE WOULD YOU BE??? I know I was looking at UDK prior to looking at Unity. I definitely wouldve jumped on UE back then

 

Not really. What's important to people changes for everyone you talk to. Some people will go for render textures. Others for DLL support or better lighting, or umbra, or whatever.

 

@hippocoder is right, different people have different features they want/need added to Unity free to make it viable for them.

I think many/most would, however, sign up for a deal like Unreal's for Unity Pro for $19/month with the 5% royalty and no minimum commitment . I would sign up in a heartbeat, just like I did for UE4 the moment I found out about it. UT is really taking their time with a response to this, I would have hoped they would have come up with something by now.

 

I agree completely. I also already signed up for UE4 and I would happily sign up for Unity Pro under the same terms.

 

I already switched most of my project mechanics over from Unity to UE4. I subbed the day they announced the price model change. It would take more than a similar pricing model for Unity to get me back at this point. The only thing I can see Unity having over UE4 (for my project) is C#...and this isn't an issue to me since I know C++. Everything else is in UE4's favor on top of their more favorable up-front pricing model. I won't even cancel my subscription to UE4...

UE4 won me over with:
Higher out of the box graphical quality with less work (materials, lighting, etc...)
Better out of the box workflow for prototyping (Blueprints, CSG, Editor tools)
Behavior Trees out of the box (awesome to work with!)
ACCESS TO POST PROCESSING (I have some post processing ideas I would like to create/fool around with..can't with Unity free)
The Editor feels modern and accessible. Unity's editor looks very antiquated. (not a big concern)
I have heard that UE4's animation system is easier to work with than Mecanim but haven't fooled around with this yet myself.

 

Or offer so much value that it's worth it to you as well

 

Yes

Mobile .net sockets!

We had already stubbed out a posix sockets lib for Android, there is an asset on the store that's probably better for this.

 

Or....

 

That is always the other option instead of competing on price. That approach usually works well if a competitor brings in an inferior, not as well known solution at a low price. However, if a competitor brings in a superior, more well known product at a lower price, then the company needs to start by immediately matching the price. That is the only way a company can defend it's market share when faced with that situation. Unreal Engine is an extremely well respected AAA quality engine, and UE4 currently exceeds the feature set of Unity 4 Pro.

If Unity does not match the subscription price set by UE4, then UE4 is going to grab a massive amount of market share at the expense of Unity. Most Unity Free users will switch to UE4, then Asset Store sellers will focus more on the Epic Marketplace, and then Unity's ecosystem will have shrank measurably. There will still be some Unity Pro users sticky with Unity regardless of price, but that price will have to constantly increase each year to compensate for the smaller number of users. Unity will call this "moving up market", but it will really just be a reaction to a massively shrunken userbase. Over time, many of those Pro users will be less interested in Unity because of the increased price and stagnant asset store. The only way to prevent that dark future is for Unity to take action immediately to make their subscription model competitive with UE4. The current price of $75/month (actually $225/month for mobile devs) does not compete effectively against UE4 for $19/month.

Additionally, the waterfall software development method is no match for the agile software development method. The waterfall method causes companies to hold back new features until the next big release, and the waterfall method causes bug fixes to get pushed back because fixes are not as important as features. Unity's choice to use the waterfall method will cause Unity to seem slow to update. Epic's choice to use the agile method will make Epic look like absolute rockstars with new updates frequently being released. Unity needs to transition to the agile method in order to compete, and the agile method really needs to be based on a reasonable subscription model instead of taking large payments for large releases.

 

^^

Everything the man says above..