…and the reason is, that I am one of those who grabbed up the free android and iOS licenses recently when they became available for unity 3.
Now I also developed a game using unity, and published it to google play, and as far as I can tell, now I am stuck between a rock and a hard place - either upgrade to unity 4 (assuming I get only android its $400 big ones…alot to us indie devs just starting out!) or stick to unity 3 and miss out on the improved unity!
And not only that, if I choose to upgrade to unity 4 android - then what happens when the next major release comes along…say unity 4.5 or whatever - does that mean I need to pay more of my hard earned greenbacks to continue using it? Will it atleast last to unity 5?
I guess I am old fashioned, and feel like once you have a license to a software, it should last for the lifetime of that product regardless of how many versions pass…sigh…
If you already have an android license, then you get an upgrade price, you don’t have to pay the full price. Plus, your license will last all through version 4.x, even version 4.99 if there is one.
Not sure - there was a special, but I think it’s over (either $100 or $150, I can’t recall). You can of course, just go to the store link above, enter your serial number, and it will tell you the current prices on the upgrade page.
You wouldn’t be concerned if you hadn’t got them for free? You might have to explain that one to me.
That’s really more of a decision than a rock-and-hard-place situation. If you don’t upgrade you’ve spent nothing and lost nothing. You’re grieving over features which were never promised in your version - which incidentally, you didn’t even have to pay for.
It will.
That’s the business model of diminishing returns. Eventually (or it may not even take that long) the developer runs out of new customers and is creating new versions for free. Since they also have to work hard for their “greenbacks”, in practice this really just means that the software dies. Then you reasonably could argue that you were stuck between a rock and a hard place with a lot of time and money invested in software which is dead.
$400 is the buy-new price, not the upgrade price, which is normally 50% of the purchase price. (As far as being “old-fashioned” about upgrades always being free, I’d be interested to know when that was actually the case. Big upgrades for software always have cost money, for reasons explained above.)
Well the thing is, free or not, I did produce a product using the software, and I dunno about you, but I sure don’t have a few extra hundred lying around waiting to go to unity
and that decision is hard! I mean if I had payed in full for the same stuff, it would feel just the same, alot of money going out for something hurts regardless of the amount I got in it already yaknow…
alright good to know
I guess alot of people in this industry do think this way, that without forcing new purchases they wont continue to grow, but at the same rate, they could keep dedicated developers right here, instead of having them consider moving onto other, cheaper, or even free software to develop their game on…and in turn keep the attention on unity as new games come out of well established developers who are using those couple hundreds in the asset store, or on third part stuff altogether, in the big picture doesn’t it really all positively effect unity?
Well I really am thinking more along the lines of software in general than something like unity, for instance games generally (and expecially MMO and online titles) have alot of updates, and you would be real upset if you bought Modern Warfare 6:Version 2.0 - for half the price of a new copy, even though you already got the release copy…feel me?
Taking your MMO example, Blizzard is constantly releasing expansion packs for WoW and those aren’t free.
Even your CoD example isn’t the best. Modern Warfare 6:Version 2.0 would be called Modern Warfare 7. Each iteration is just a large update. Which you pay for.
You should be fine with 3.x + iOS/Android. What you need to check, is Unity Technologies keeping them compatible with the protocol required to deploy a game to iOS/Android at any time. They stated clearly it will be made “for a certain amount of time” in the future. The only minus, is that you won’t get new 4.x features, but for mobile environments it is no big loss.
Just to be clear, I was one of the people grabbing the same offer (3.x + iOS/Android free), but have updated to 4.x +iOS/Android (total cost $200 + VAT) because I’m staying here freelancing for a while and because I’m getting pretty serious with this hobby on my own. Good luck.
Fair enough. Don’t give it to them then. As you said, you made a product using the software you already have, so maybe you don’t need to upgrade.
I can see that it’s a hard decision. From what you’re saying, I’d be inclined t make some more software with the version you have. Maybe make something that makes a little bit of money. When the version you have pays for the upgrade you want, maybe it’ll be an easier decision.
It’s not a case of thinking this way, it’s pure mathematics. Your potential customer base is getting smaller all the time and your support costs are getting higher all the time. It’s merely a question of when - not if - your business collapses under the weight. You need only look at what happened to 3dRad, which offered the lifetime free upgrades you wanted. It collapsed and died. The developers then had to start all over again with a new product that none of the existing customers got for free. So customers like you didn’t gain anything and everyone else lost out.
Well thats true, I suppose I hadn’t thought of it that way… I must be greedy lol
I saw that after entering my serial that it is indeed discounted, I am feeling a little more comfortable with upgrading at that price…
I hear ya, I think that might be the route I take, just work off 3.x some more, and when I feel like I got some fair return I might make the jump at that time.
But then again, that might mean paying more… I wonder how long that $125 deal is going to last? Is that linked to my ownership of android licensing already, and means no matter when I get it, I get it at that price? Or could it mean unity is having a special deal for early adopters of 4.x?
OH and also, thanks everybody for the input on this, hope nobody thinks i’m against unity making their fair share - I love unity and think I would certainly pay a lot more than $125 before ever changing to any other engine, because unity has such fantastic support and a great community, I don’t know if I could make the switch even if I was being real cheap! I only bring up the argument for people who are on the fence like me, and haven’t got loads of cash to throw around. But unity is the bee’s knees in my book - looking forward to this new animation system!
So yeah… super glad I decided to hold off until now to go to Unity 4x for my mobile development. I have prized my android and ios licenses on 3x for quite some time, but now, I see that continuing to use 3x for my android titles has paid off, and I wont be spending an extra 800 dollars to get the latest greatest! Thanks a ton Unity Devs!!! One super satisfied unity indie dev!
Big upgrades for software always have cost money, for reasons explained above.)