Need Help on Unity Purchase

News & General Discussion
1

I’m very new to Unity…and I’m big time confused as I’m getting total different answers from different sources…I would really appreciate if any one out there can answers my few queries; (they will sound like lame question; but kindly bear with me:))

  • I’m looking to buy Unity for iPhone and Android development, as my team is new with unity should I go ahead on purchasing Unity Pro+iPhone Pro+Android Pro.
  • When we say one license does it mean that I can install unity engine only on one system? Does it also mean from only one system I can develop games for iPhone/iPad and Android?
  • What is UDK publishing license? After paying for engine do I have to pay extra for publishing games?

Thanks in advance.

2
  1. That’s kind of up to you. Do you need the features of the pro version? If so, you will need to buy it. If not, then you don’t.
  2. It means one person is licensed to use it. You can install it on 2 machines I believe.
  3. Why are you asking about UDK here? Do you mean unity license? If so. no, you do not need to pay more for publishing games. If you are asking about UDK, I believe the UDK license is royalty based after 50K in sales, but please consult their webpage for more up to date information.
3

@Jaimi Thanks a lot for your reply, I guess the things are much clearer now; Sorry I mixed up with unity publishing and UDK where in I was asking for unity only, for which you have clarified thanks again, just couple more questions:

  • For development is clear now, that I will need to buy the pro license for both iPhone/iPad and Android including Unity Pro, however is there any royalty share with unity if Upload and publish games on App store and Market place? Some of my sources informed me that even after buying the development kit I will need to pay some royalties or upfront amount to publish the games on these stores, is this true?
4

NO royalties with Unity.

You have to pay 99$ for an Apple/iOS developer account to Apple and 25$ to Google for an Android developer account.

You then get 70% of sales on those sites.

If you want to join Union (which is to help you get on other platforms besides Android Market and iTunes Appstore) you have to contact Union.

5

Lets say you have 3 team members working on an iOS pro game. You will need the following:

seat 1: unity pro
seat 2: unity pro
seat 3: unity pro, ios pro and android pro (for building to device).

You can install on two of your own machines, but that is the maximum, and this can only be changed by talking to support, who will enable a license transfer to another machine if say one machine breaks or you just need to change them.

Technically you could have seat 1 and seat 2 use unity free, if they’re not accessing any features of pro, and are just for example, scripting. You can’t put a limitation on c# or .js per se.

Initially in your shoes, I would go for unity pro, ios pro and android pro (for building to device) for one person. This ideally will be you, if you are doing level work in unity, shaders, or compiling to devices.

Then your team mates will either want unity free or unity pro, depending on what they are working with. They do not need ios pro or android pro unless they need to constantly check on device.

I am not a legal representative, and this is my personal view of how it could work for you, as a small startup. It is always good to contact unity sales and have a good chat. You can reach them here: Unity Customer Service: Technical Support & Training | Unity

Finally, there is no royalty system with unity at all. Once you have bought pro, you own all assets and everything outright. There is a limit on unity free (100k/year) if I recall.

6

Also you need mac to publish ios.

(just something that atleast I didnt know, when first bumbed into unity, kind of had an impression that its “1 click publishing to anything from pc”…: )

7

Thanks Koyima: thanks for clearing up the picture… so this is what I have understood,

I will need to buy unity pro+iPhone pro+android pro+Asset Server client server (if required), and I can install one license in two machines, with which I can develop and publish multiple titles till the license expires (i.e. One yr.); and I don’t need to pay any additional cost to Unity.

Cheers.

8

Uhh , the liscence expires? Im under the impression , software is your , forever … if you buy it. You just fall behind in version if you never buy an update is what i would assume?

9

@hippocoder - Thanks for taking time and explaining things in so details. :slight_smile:

10

@Willc: License never expires for unity?? I’m sorry but very new here…as its a general practice for all other licenses I thought there must be some kind of tenure bonded to the license after which one need to renew it or it will expire. Can you please let me know what exactly is the scenario.

11

The licenses you are buying are for the current main version number of Unity (ex 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x when it will be released).
This means that if you buy Unity 3.x Pro, which is the actual version, you will have acess to every update untill Unity 4.x. As far as I remember, upgrading Unity is possible with a lower price than actually buying a new one.

12

Note that the license doesn’t expire, you still retain the rights to release software using the 3.X version of unity if you choose not to upgrade.

13

The Unity android license (or for that matter the iOS license). Is that per version or is that a lifetime license?

What I mean is
If for example one has an unity android license (I think its 400 bucks) for unity 3.x, once Unity 4.x comes out, is there an upgrade fee to get android license for Unity 4.x?

14

The educational license expires. It also has a water mark. Its cheap, but you are also unable to publish things and make money from it. The educational license has a 1 year term.

15

Wow! that’s lot of info thanks guys… so the license doesn’t expires only the version is updated…one don’t need to pay anything extra except the development tools…and all publishing is free of cost… that’s cool …