Can you raise a FREE asset to have a price at a later time?

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1

I wonder, is it possible to publish an asset for FREE and later decide to set a price for it?

Is this done within the same package (ie it keeps the same URL, number of views, reviews, etc.)?

I did not find info on this, and I can imagine this not being supported based on the idea that giving it away for FREE would unnaturally boost the asset’s stats, search ranking and so on.

Reason I’m asking is: I found out I cannot legally sell assets for several more months, but I do not like the idea of withholding my developments, so I’m thinking to make them free initially and later (with more polish, user feedback, and all the required tax information supplied to Unity) set a reasonable price point.

2

You could make a demo version of sorts now to gather responses. And then later on publish the official version?

3

I’m not an asset publisher, but I’ve seen this done before. The people who grab it when it’s free will still own it after you raise the price, obviously.

4

Exactly. But when you release a demo version and later release a separate (so new asset instead of an update) version, people have to pay for it. It’s just what you want. Do you want testers to have the asset for free for life? Or do you want them to test it for free and later on pay for the final version?

5

You can, but it cannot be the same listing. You either will get a paid and free listing or a new paid listing and you take down the old one

6

Thanks for the input!
Mostly it’s only about naming it correctly, so it should probably be called “LITE” to begin with.

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7

Yep, that’s totally up to you. I have one asset with (FREE) after it and a paid version just without it

8

Oh? I thought I read somewhere that “FREE” in the title isn’t allowed, just like “50% off”.

9

Check my shadow Receiver assets, worked for me haha

10

From a customer’s point of view I have many instances of downloading a free version and then purchasing the pay for version.
In fact, for me, I would have had doubts about purchase until trying the free version.
One feels MUCH more confident about an asset/ dev when a free/evaluation version is allowed.
Oh yes, thanks, DevDunk for your free one and for the paid version!!

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