Seriously, this is not cool: When I start this PC, I can launch Unity one single time and everything works fine. Next time I try launching Unity (e.g. because I want to open another project, and I’m not even trying to run multiple instances - I open Unity, close Unity, then try opening Unity again), I’m getting an error message:
Error launching the editor: License is invalid
Restarting Unity Hub does not help because closing Unity Hub doesn’t really stop Unity Hub. Which is kind of dumb. I previously tried rebooting, and that fixed the problem. Now, I just tried killing Unity Hub with the Task Manager, and that also works. Which is kind of nice but the fact alone that I’m writing a message like that for at least the third or fourth time is telling me that this sucks.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Punishing your paying customers for using a legal version of your software by messing up your license checks is extremely unprofessional and a strong argument for people to pirate your software.
I have been a Unity Pro user since 2007, and Unity Plus for a year or two. What matters to me is that I’m legally allowed to use your software, so I’m paying for the Unity Plus subscription. The technical license checks will never keep people from pirating your software - but when they fail (and they have failed way too often in the past, and still do), they keep your paying customers from using what they have paid for.
That’s a kind of bug that is simply not acceptable and there is no excuse. It’s just a pretty dumb business decision. The thing is that most game developers know that DRM doesn’t help against piracy (if your game is even mildly successful, you’ll find it pirated within a week after release). So the only people that are kept from using “DRM-protected software” are the honest paying customers when the DRM fails. And it fails often.