Learn Unity for about 2 years,but I never try to publish game to make money.
Now it’s time and I want to ask about the detail how its charge works.
From this link it says Unity has 3 version.
Personlal,Plus and Pro.
1.Personal is free for under 100,000 dollars income,don’t know this 100K means total $100K, or per year or something else?and how you guys count it?Include or Exclude taxs?
2.And the other two seems limited to $200K and more per month.
How it counts and let’s say I don’t know how much I will earn,I just use personal version and publish my game.
And got a damn luck sells over 100,000 dollars,so what will it be?Do I need to pay the over $100K part per month or something else?How it really works?
Annual gross revenue. If you sell a game for $10, your current gross revenue is $10.
If you’re making more than $100,000 annual gross revenue you have to subscribe to at least Unity Plus to continue using Unity for game development. If you’re making more than $200,000 then you have to subscribe to Unity Pro.
Quoted below is the relevant section of the EULA from which all of this information comes from.
As not a native English speaker I always get doubly confused about all the tax stuff. Does “gross revenue” count all the money the customers pay related to your product, or only the amount of money that passes through your hands including VAT, because if you sell on storefronts like steam or the appstore, then I’d imagine their percentage get’s deducted before they transfer any money into your bank account. In that case which would be the “gross revenue”?
OK,so how unity know how much money passes through my hand,that is very interesting.
And like they said steam will cut 30% off and in my country will cut another 10% by the bank,actually at most.
I can only earn 60% at most,don’t know if it will be less but, 60% is the most I could image.
Does it mean $100K actually $60K for me? And annual means per year?does it mean if I earn $100K or $60K in two years,I don’t have to pay or still need to pay?
Unity doesn’t actively track your bank account (i hope ), but you have accepted that license agreement (the one noone reads) when you installed Unity. So if you do not adhere to it, Unity can sue you.
Gross revenue is calculated before any taxes and it only includes the money you get.
So if you sell your game for 10$ on steam, steam gets 30% (3$) and your bank gets 10% (1$), then your revenue from 1 sold game is 6$. Those 6$ are what goes into your ‘annual gross revenue’. Any taxes that you have to pay to your country are not included in that calculation.
Let’s assume you sell 16.667 copies in 2 months, thats 100.002$, which means you would have to get a plus subscription as soon as you sell that last copy that gets you over 100.000$. On the other hand, if you sell only 16.666 copies in 12 months and you do that over several years, you can stay with the free version.
Are you saying that you don’t know how much you earn per year? I imagine most people do. You will find you probably want to modify the splash screen long before then.
In any case someone earning more than $100k a year is on an average of $8333 a month, and Unity plus costs $35 a month.
Unless you are a one man team starting off it is pretty safe to assume you will need pro. Even if I was a one man team I would get plus just to make sure, and so I can use Unity Services.
well that’s the point, its set at the $100k and $200k marks to allow a weekend coder or a hobbyist to use the game engine at no cost, and so people can learn at no cost, while still allowing unity to make money off of a professional like myself who makes a living using this product.
On the other hand…there is nothing wrong with buying a paid version of Unity even if you make no or little money with it. I haven’t made a cent with Unity yet, but I paid a year of Pro, and right now have the $35 license for the last couple months(and still have like 10 months left in the contract). My reasoning is that my day job allows me to give Unity some money, even if I don’t make any just yet(which supports them, helping them make Unity better over time and more supporters). I also like the features of the paid version, specifically the dark skin(not necessary though), and the integrated Collab functionality, which I use basically for backup purposes, not for working with other people.
Of course, if one doesn’t have to get a paid version(due to not having that kind of income from Unity), there is nothing wrong with using the free version. That is what it is for after all. Although, if you are just starting out and don’t know how far you will go, you may be best off with this free version, because with the paid versions there is a year long obligation, and it would suck to get stuck on that just to find out in a month that Unity doesn’t work for you. You can always use the free version, and then if you want the splash screen options and have a game that you want to sell, you can then subscribe to the $35 paid version to release the game.
This seems kind of vague on making more than $100k is this my gross income from all sources as a whole or is this just gross income generated via games produced with Unity?
And how unity knows if an app made with this engine? Because of the installation? Or every app that made with unity contains an id for detection? I ask because I installed unity once and then I uninstalled it a day after because was overkill for my demands, but I made my apps only with android studio.
All of it is based on a ‘tell us if you do’-basis.
It’s a EULA. A License-agreement. If you break the EULA, Unity can sue your, or (legally) prevent you from using the Engine for commercial/any purposes.
No, there’s no backdoor in your game for Unity to check how much money you’re making. You’re thinking way too low-level. There’s lawyers, IRS-forms & ‘stuff you have to declare as a business’ instead
Games created by unity engine (and by unreal engine) have a very obvious folder structure and contain certain files. At least on PC. On android likewise you’d likely be able to pull it apart, plus it prints data into log when it starts.
It is unlikely that unity actively monitors all games, but it is possible to determine whether an app is made by unity engine.
), but you have accepted that license agreement (the one noone reads) when you installed Unity. So if you do not adhere to it, Unity can sue you.
