Hello, i have posted this idea on the Feedback page, but i think this idea is so important for the whole future of the community and Unitys assetdevelopers that i decided to post it here to give it more awareness.
So here it starts:
I feel like buying an awesome asset (for example uFrame, PlayMaker, ProBuilder etc…) one single time and having them updating it for you for lifetime is a very bad business model because if everyone have bought that asset, then in the end, not many people are left to buy it anymore, then why would any assetdeveloper bother updating it and waste time to make new features when they dont really earn any more money anyway?
So my idea is that Unity should make a feature for assetdevelopers to optionaly make for example a 1 year subscribtion plan to their asset and get 1 year of updates, and once the 1 year is gone, then you can hold that assetpackage for the latest update you got or buy another subscription and get 1 year of updates.
So for examples, buy the asset will cost 60$, then the next yearly subscriptions would cost 20$ or something like that (almost like unity, buy unity 1500$, then upgrade for the next version 600$)
Then that would definitely support the assetdevelopers to continue updating and motivate them to make their asset better and better, because we consumers will continue to buy their yearly subsription.
So that would also benefit us consumers/game developers because we want the best tools that we can get to make our lifes easiers as gamedevelopers and we can only get them by supporting the assetdevelopers in a inifnite long time instead of buying it 1 time and get unlimited lifetime updates.
Think about it… what if the assetdeveloper got a big new veeeery good idea for his asset that would take ½ year to make, but if almost everyone have already bought and there are not many people left to buy it, then why would he/she bother spending ½ year making it happen when everyone already have bought it.
It would also motivate the assetdeveloper to give better support and be more likely to create the features that consumers are requesting, because if the assetdeveloper is too lazy and dont want to make features that consumers are requesting, then maybe the consumer dont want to subscribe for the next year.
An option would be to make releases like… uFrame, uFrame 2, uFrame 3, uFrame 4… but no one would ever do that.
THERE ARE NO SOFTWARE THAT HAS SUCH A STUPID “BUY ONCE, GET UNLIMITED LIFETIME UPDATE” BUSINESS MODEL!!!
Personally, i think its worth it for me to use more of my money and support the assetdevelopers if they can give better support, upgrading and make better features. Its just much better in the long run!!!
So in summary, this will benefit the assetdeveloper, because he will eventually earn more money in a longer period of time. This will benefit us consumers/gamedevelopers because the assetdeveloper will do everything it takes to make to give support and make their asset great as possible and make out lives easier to make games.
And this will also ultimately benefit the whole Unity Engine because assets in the stores will be better and have better quality.
So what are your thoughts? I dont see any drawbacks since it should be “OPTIONAL” for the assetdeveloper to use this feature.