Unity License Subscription Questions

News & General Discussion
1

I’ve been using Unity for 9 years and I’ve logged approximately 20,000 hours in it, but I’ve never made any money with it. I’d love to actually make money with all this skill I’ve accumulated, so I’m looking into the licensing options.

What exactly do I need a license for? My assumption is it’s not for using Unity but for selling copies of games made with Unity. Is it just for when I have games I’ve made with Unity up for sale? If, for instance, I stop using Unity for several years due to a job that keeps me on the road, but I have games in an online store that may or may not be selling copies, do I need a license subscription for those years?

If my games are selling very few copies and the money being made per year isn’t even as much as a years license subscription, and my subscription expires, do I still need to renew it since I have games up for sale?

If I make a game without a Unity splash screen while I have a license subscription, but then the license subscription expires and I don’t renew it, do I have to remove the games I made without the splash screen from the stores they’re being sold in and replace them with splash screen versions built with Unity’s free version?

I’ve got several more questions but I’ll stop here before I write a book in this post, haha. Any knowledgeable answers are appreciated!

2

Whether you need a license basically depends on only two things:

  1. You want features only available from a particular Unity license (eg splash screen customization, deploy to console).
    Compare Unity Plans: Personal, Pro, Enterprise, Industry | Unity

  2. You don’t need any extra features but your previous years annual income is over $100,000
    https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/articles/205253119-Can-I-make-a-commercial-game-with-Unity-Free-Personal-Edition-

Regarding the specific scenarios you mentioned, my understanding is that when you make a build it will either have the splash screen applied or it won’t depending on your current license.

So while you aren’t forced to retrospectively downgrade all your prior releases to have a splash screen if you stop paying for a license, you will need to pay for a license to build it without the splash screen if you want to release an update for an existing game.

1 Like
3

If you use Unity, you have already agreed to the licence. If you don’t know, what licence contains, you should read it carefully again.

You are most likely want to stick to personal licence.

4

No and no.

5

Unity’s licence model means you don’t need to pay until after you have made money. Go, get rich, then buy a licence if you succeed.

6

Of course if you’re rich you likely don’t need to keep making games which means you won’t need the editor, and since the license is for the editor and not the engine itself you don’t have to pay for a license.

7

Nah, they want to make money, they just don’t really care if their users are profitable.

8

Aah okay, so it’s just for when building games from the editor if you want certain features only available in non-free versions, or when you’re making over a certain amount of money. That clears things up for me. Thanks guys!

9

The only feature not included in Free is being able to remove the splash screen. Everything else is service related.