Title says it all. I am just thinking of buying PlayMaker at some point, but with situation right now I am not sure if it’s possible or not. Can someone please help me out.
Probably need to use a VPN
Hmm makes sense, but is it bannable. Doesn’t it calculate taxes depending on location? And also it could detect bank card from this region
When you buy assets, you don’t pay directly to the vendor. You pay through Unity. Unity finances then vendors.
Hence Unity is responsible for handling which asset are sold on Asset Store and where money goes.
In such crap situation, I wouldn’t bother with restrictions. Buy if you can and people want to sell online.
Ah okay thank you, although still not sure if the payment will even go through, but I guess only one way to find out
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Government restrictions wouldn’t just lock you out of the asset store. It would lock you out of everything including these forums where you are posting right now. That you are able to post shows that you are able to buy off the store.
Spoiler has an image of what it looks like when the restrictions are being applied.
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Mhm I see, I didn’t even know this could be fully possible.
As far as I know, you can’t buy anything.
To be more specific, Asset Store doesn’t prevent you from trying to BUY, but as far as I know there isn’t a way to PAY.
Asset store lists following payment options:
Which means “paypal” and “bank card”
At the moment neither of those would work. Visa/MasterCard work within Russia as usual, but do not work across border. Paypal is out and while they allowed you to withdraw money for some time, you can’t pay if that’s Russian paypal you’re using.
In theory, however, you might be able to do purchase via voucher as described here:
https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/articles/205767605-Can-I-purchase-an-asset-via-bank-transfer-
If you’re using a bank that isn’t kicked off swift yet, like Tinkoff. However, minimum voucher price is $1000, and bank fee would be in ballpark of $25. It would be easuer to do that if you’re a company or at least individual enterpreneur, but I’'m not 100% certain. I think it isn’t worth it.
So basically, someone else might be able to buy it for you, but, uh, I’m not seeing an option to “gift an asset” either.
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His issue lies with payment system. Asset Store would let him attempt to buy, and then all payment systems would fail due to sanctions.
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I wonder if a new way to pay for assets in the store will be created? It’s good when we don’t want to pirate assets, but legally buy them.
I think I mentioned earlier, it may be possible to buy voucher a voucher from unity sales team:
https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/articles/205767605-Can-I-purchase-an-asset-via-bank-transfer-
There are several problems, though:
- The minimum price of the voucher is $1000.
- The minimum transaction size in some banks who still dare to send money to USA through normal means can be $15000.
- Unity may be required not to accept any payments from Russia at the moment.
Alternative payment methods are semi-legal, gray area, and moderators are definitely going to be unhappy if I discuss them here in any way, plus there are going to be extra fees along the way.
So I’d advise to give up.
You can also wait till current political situation resolves. It can take up to 50 years, though.
Until that time, the right idea is to make your own assets or to make your own asset stores.
Creating a solution to bypass the sanctions currently active on a country is very bad for business. Any penalties levied against a company that tries to do that will vastly outweigh the recovered sales.
I’d like to point out that from outsider perspective it is not clear what those sanctions ARE and what actions US companies are REQUIRED to perform by law.
What is known that companies are forbidden from interacting with specific banks, and specific individuals. Average Russian user wouldn’t fall into either category (as banks that are not under sanctions exist). The sanctions certainly are not cutting off ALL commercial interaction with Russia, as business is still done and trade is still being performed.
In this sort of scenario, certain actions performed by specific companies will be seen as company’s initiative and attempt to “score political points” and not adherence to law.
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Right now Russia is allowed to make money off the Unity Asset Store by selling content worldwide and receiving monthly proceeds, but no seller on the Asset Store is allowed to make money off Russian customers (due to lack of payment methods). Which makes no sense if we talk about sanctions. If anything, it should be the other way around, I think.
Unity Asset Store is not unique, though, and the App Store/Google Play/Steam do the same: they allow money flowing into Russia (monthly developer proceeds), but block any money flowing out of Russia (no valid payment options). It’s like, they impose sanctions on the rest of the world while helping the Russian economy. Very odd situation that defies any logic.
I am going to have to close this. There are complex legal scenarios regarding this. Unity cannot be place that is providing information or promoting breaking or circumventing international law. As such, these kind of discussions cannot happen here. It is sad, it is frustrating. I wish you the best of luck.
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