There's a chance you missed the news that Unity's basic mobile licenses went free earlier this week, what with the Xbox One reveal taking up all the video game headlines.
Well, OK, not that much of a chance -- it's huge news after all, essentially allowing anyone to pick up a copy of the Unity development tools for free, create a game for mobile, and get it onto the App Store or Google Play store.
Unity CEO David Helgason tells me that his company can afford to make this move on the basis that those developers who are successful through the publishing of a Unity-based game may then go on to invest in Unity's further assets.
"Once developers hit a certain point in their studio’s existence and have realized a decent amount of success, they often find that their ambitions have grown in a way that they want access to some of the powerful and more advanced features that are found in the Pro packages," he explains.
He continues, "There are also source and console licenses, premium support packages, asset Store revenue, partnership deals, and Union, Unity being embedded in consumer electronics and slot machines, and several others."
Helgason reasons that any company looking to stay ahead in the ever-fluctuating video game industry will eventually require these features.
"We're constantly assessing current and future needs of developers and finding ways to provide for them in ways that can help them succeed that they don’t have the resources to do on their own," he adds.
Why now?
I asked Helgason why his company has chosen now as the moment to make these tools free. What is it about this moment in time that has brought this on?
"It's always been our goal and hope to democratize game development and inspire developers by providing opportunity," he tells me. "We are in a great position now and are finding that we can push even further with our dream of democratizing game development."
"This move made a lot of sense to us right now with the incredible excitement around mobile development," he adds. "While a lot of our motivation comes from wanting to play a role in the transformation of the game development industry, the more developers become successful the more they are going to consider buying our software, which will help us make Unity better for everyone... and allow us to level the field in game development."
Those developers interesting in taking advantage of the free Unity tools should visit the official website.
Not sure I'm convinced by the subscription model - the question is, when will the next major release (version 5) come out and how much will it cost to upgrade. Last time, the upgrade cost of Unity Pro from v.3 ended up being $750, and major releases have so far come out ca. every other year. The subscription, on the other hand, costs $1800 for a two-year period.
If you were to get a bank loan right now for $1500 in order to purchase the Pro version, and paid it back over (say) 18 months at 6% interest (which is currently a realistic rate, at least in Western Europe), the real cost would be about $1572. That is, for the cost of just over 1 1/2 years of subscription, you would end up actually owning Unity Pro 4, and be entitled to an upgrade discount for version 5, which you would also own. This would end up paying off even if Unity 5 is released somewhat earlier than 1 1/2 years from now.
In sum: unless Unity decides to release major-version (chargeable) updates much more frequently from now on, you're better of buying.
Upgrading is not compulsory. We're still using 3.5.7f because we don't have any reasons to jump to Unity 4 yet. We'll do at some point, but not yet, and if a v.5 happens to come out too soon, we might have just skipped v.4 then.
@Wendelin
You make a great point but, it is not unexpected that the subscription model will end up being more in the long run (similar to buying mobile phones on contract vs buying one unlocked). For a lot of people, though, being able to pay $75 today with a credit card or using PayPal will make it that much easier to get into. They aren't giving developers a deal, just making it easier for them to use the tools.
More interesting to me is their subscription model that comes out to $900 a year per license/add-on.
If you were to get a bank loan right now for $1500 in order to purchase the Pro version, and paid it back over (say) 18 months at 6% interest (which is currently a realistic rate, at least in Western Europe), the real cost would be about $1572. That is, for the cost of just over 1 1/2 years of subscription, you would end up actually owning Unity Pro 4, and be entitled to an upgrade discount for version 5, which you would also own. This would end up paying off even if Unity 5 is released somewhat earlier than 1 1/2 years from now.
In sum: unless Unity decides to release major-version (chargeable) updates much more frequently from now on, you're better of buying.
You make a great point but, it is not unexpected that the subscription model will end up being more in the long run (similar to buying mobile phones on contract vs buying one unlocked). For a lot of people, though, being able to pay $75 today with a credit card or using PayPal will make it that much easier to get into. They aren't giving developers a deal, just making it easier for them to use the tools.