Hi,
a lot of you guys are probably around here for quite a while. So while I have no hope that the poor-man’s indie iOS/Android licenses are ever being given away for free again (like last spring), maybe you remember some recurring offerings (like lower price twin packages or bargains on the individual licenses)? If these show up like once a quarter, it might be worth waiting 
Regards, habitoti
I THINK they offer specials near the end of the year or for special holidays but only when they are reaching the end of life of a version. For instance, if they think they are within 6 months of version 5.0 they may make a deal. They also may face delays that may result in it taking a year longer (I got one of my licenses on a deal about a year before 4.0 came out but by then 3.0 had been out for a LONG time.)
My tip: just keep developing as light as you can for now, target PC for the time being. Don’t redeem your free trial just yet. Once you think you are ready for the real jump to mobile port, with enough progress done, then redeem your trial and start optimizing. If you are ready to publish (or the thing expires), then buy the license at that point.
The goal is you don’t waste time waiting for a sale, but should one show up in between the whole process, you can snatch it. If such sale never arrives by the time you are done, then you can decide to buy at regular price or just target desktop.
Yes, with something like that in mind (including doing some perf. optimizations before having to go back into the dark of indie version ) I initially declined the 1 month testphase when installing and directly went to the free version. However, now I am unsure how to officially resurrect that testphase in the end (I could of course just order another trial with a new e-mail, but this feels like cheating, which I definitely don’t want to do…)
Regards, habitoti
Just go to manage licenses and release your existing license. You can then apply for the trial afterwards.
Don’t let your license be an excuse not to do stuff.
When you’re starting out it is completely irrelevant what platform you are developing for. You will learn every bit as much from developing PC games as you will from developing for iOS. You’ll want to create a bunch of practice games before you do anything you intend for sale, so why wait for iOS/Android licenses before you get started with those? In fact, since you avoid deployment issues and get much faster iterations on desktops you’ll probably learn faster than if you wait for mobile licenses.
Also… how much time have you wasted waiting and how much is your time worth to you? How much longer are you willing to wait, and if you just coughed up the money could you get more than $400 value out of it between now and then?
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t explicitly wait for anything. I am excited about Unity, and I make pretty good progress and also care already for mobile constraints (low poly environments, touch interface, …). I will definitely go for the mobile license at some point anyway, and don’t delay anything here. But I could buy it today or just wait another month – wouldn’t make a difference at this stage. So if somebody would tell me that there is a good chance of a “50% spring rebate”, I would just wait a bit longer
best tip is ask Unity sales for a deal in a direct manner (1 sale is better than 0 sales, they will think twice before rebounding you)… I’m pretty confident you may get a 20% rebate
I have basic ios and android from the giveaway last year and I wish they’d give them out again.
I wish they’d give licenses to people with disabilities too I just got out of ICU after brain surgery and am so broke even with health insurance.