Honestly, Torque has full source and full game engine will unlimited updates for $100, Unity is $1500 and most sales are to Indie which is a real pain in the ass on costs. Torque may not be as user friendly but still can dish out what Unity can with the right programmers.
Now Unity is not money hungry though they could have some deals and events for a lowered price for Pro and include mobile add-ons for free not additional cost because that it stupid. Unity will also charge an upgrade fee on Unity 4.0x since it will begin a new version entirely. Now that too is insane specially when were mostly all Indie here. But to be fair most features found in unity are in most other engines that are free like Cry Engine, Hero Engine, and some smaller unpopular ones. Now they may not be as easy to use though. But just because Unity has a free version doesn’t mean they will still be loyal to their free users over their paid ones.
free users make you more money than you would think, they make more Youtube videos, talk about your engine to friends, family, co-workers, public area, news forums, game community’s, etc. They also make up most of this sites traffic each and everyday. They give you the audience you need to gain those few paid licenses unity gets every day or week. So unity you should start taking care of your free users more and giving more back to them and get some discounts rolling.
Adobe in most cases if your a college student or in Europe attend a University for this kind of stuff you will get free adobe software either by financial aid, student discount or is included with schooling. 3DS max, Maya, Z-brush, etc all cost a ton except for Z-brush they are a bit cheaper, but blender can do mostly what they can and is free, and Autodesk allows for student licenses and you can use a student license to make a game but just need to buy a full license to release your game. Also full licenses also usually come with higher education if your in the right school and learning 3D art. Or at the very least a nice discount.