After reading about the new pricing plans and discussing them vigorously, I can’t seem to understand who UT is marketing Unity Plus memberships to. The features of Plus are not enough to get Personal users to upgrade or to tempt Pro users to downgrade. Thus this new pricing option seems pointless to me. I guess I find myself wondering how the rest of the Unity community feels about the target audience of Plus?
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I had the same reaction when I read about the new Plus plan. It seems to be a plan for people who want to pay something to get the same features and limitations they had with the Personal/Free version. I initially figured the Plus plan would be for Personal/Free users who were willing to pay something to remove the splash screen, but then I saw the Plus version still has a Unity splash screen.
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Exactly! The only real improvement seems to be the dark UI skin, which is not worth near $35 a month. If UT actually added features that asthetically improve your game (notably the removal of the splash screen), I would be very interested in purchasing.
I read somewhere that they are thinking of making it a little different with the Splash, like a Semi-Editable kind. That’s not the word for word what they said, but the same point lol.
They didn’t say it was official, just they were thinking about it.
Now what this means, I do not know.
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I’m also confused. When I heard there was a cheaper paid version coming out I was keen to jump on it. However the plus version still has the revenue cap and the splash screen.
Maybe its aimed at that vocal minority that keep harping on about bleeding eyes and dark screen?
Perhaps its intended to replace some of the less talked about options, such as the educational licenses?
I really don’t know.
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When I read the initial tweet from the conference I was elated and thought it was aimed at me! I publish to Android, IOS and Standalone Mac, I make More than zero revenue but much less than 100k, I used to be a Pro perpetual 4.x user just to get rid of the Splash Screen and I had high hopes of earning over 100K in the beginning. For new stuff I downgraded to free, put up with being treated like a child with the inability to change the skin and tried out letting my new stuff have the splash screen (reluctantly).
So after the initial euphoria of thinking a USD $35 AUD $50 per month plus plan was just exactly what I needed because I fill some middle gap, single dev low revenue person who could justify a subs at that level, I then came to this forum via a link on twitter where I was greeted with an image of all the tiers and realised the plus didn’t actually give me anything I wanted for a subs. Major disappointment followed by a download of an alternate engine at the feeling of betrayal. So no, the plus level is not for me, can’t see why free users would want it and anyone currently Pro with over 100k can’t use it so I have no idea who they think it was aimed at. Maybe they were hoping some muppets with a false sense of loyalty to Unity would buy it, I don’t know.
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That’s what they said, it’s basically an incubator for baby pro
Splash screen still bad idea.
Basically it void the middle ground
- It’s cheaper for successful multiplatform pro
- free version is fully featured
But the middle ground is modestly commercial indie with financial difficulty that don’t go multiplatform.
- splash screen is still there
- monthly price mean there is an unknown financial threat every month
- pro price is bloated by unnecessary features
Seriously look at each item in turn over what you get for free with the free version.
- Asset store packs? Just buy exactly what you need not what someone else thinks you might need far cheaper in the long run.
- Flexible seat management? You can download the free version and put it on as many dev PC’s as you like already.
- access to Performance Reporting? This is available for free on many alternate services already and if it’s really needed do what I do and add some code to your game to ping data to your own web server.
- higher tier of Cloud Build? Do what I do, develop on a Mac with Parallels windows on it, build to the only few platforms that actually generate income locally on that. Cloud build is only for someone that wants to deploy to IOS but doesn’t have a Mac.
- Analytics? Nowadays you will be lucky to get more than a few hundred downloads of your game, this is another service that is free from elsewhere and easy to incorporate into your projects.
- Multiplayer? Also free from elsewhere with similar or better CU
- Certification courseware? Who for? Why would an indie or small dev team want this?
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Talking to the local devs it is surprising me how much the unknown part of this is bothering people. But it really makes sense. If your primary currency is something other then USD then subscription fees can vary quite dramatically over the course of a project. Its one reason perpetual is seen as a much better deal.
Or anyone who wants to build to WebGL without dying of old age. 
I started a Pro subscription about a year before Unity started offering the fully featured “Personal” version.
I’ve kept up my Pro subscription after the mandatory 12 months because I like the dark UI (I have big monitors), I like UCB and I want to support Unity.
I still like the idea of UCB but I’ve stopped using it because it’s just too slow. I hope it will get better over time.
I plan to change to a Plus subscription as soon as I can.
I’ll get to keep the dark UI and save about 50% on the monthly fee.
It seems like Unity created the Plus subscription just for me and that makes me feel special. 
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Thread closed. We’ve found the target audience.
Glad it’s going to work for someone.
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It’s not working for people using unity for NOT making game, or work on a customer based production (freelancer, archviz, etc …), the splash screen hurt them so much.
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It’s not in Unity’s interest to make Unity such that big businesses with a lot of money can outsource to freelancers using Unity Free for peanuts. Not only do Unity Tech loose lots of revenue from big businesses themselves such a pricing plan encourages big businesses to hire freelancers working for peanuts.
That’s not good for Unity or freelancers but only good for those big businesses. That’s why even for $35 a month the Unity splash will only be editable to be different but still have the Unity logo which should be enough for everyone that wants that.
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You’re forgetting the best feature of all. Clearly the dark skin is without equal and the only valid reason to buy Plus. 
Sadly I’m probably spot on for the reason they actually made Plus. After all some did say they’d subscribe for it.
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@goat_1
If only there wasn’t a competent competition for paying customer who shelled happily 1500€ or 75€/month and provided community cement by freely creating values with free tutorial, free help, etc … if only among them there wasn’t influencer who will evangelize other to switch, if only those big business where tied only to unity without any alternative.
Yeah, but this group doesn’t really change much. Most of those in this group still fall into the must buy pro due to revenue cap area.
It does suck trying to use Unity a peripheral tool. I tried to pitch using it for some project simulations. However if you are just going to pick it up for one small part of your business the cost is pretty prohibitive.
What do you mean by doesn’t change really much? their price has gone from manageable to unbearable with the relative price increase, they were willing to paid the old price JUST to remove splash screen. Anyway those will shift to another soft now (mostly unreal).
I’m certainly not a fan of the pricing changes. As a desktop-only user, it’s purely a price increase on the pro subscription. Plus doesn’t have anything interesting to me as probably the only valuable thing pro offered before was the removal of the splash screen. (And that wasn’t even justification for paying the 75, given I won’t be releasing for a while. I felt a bit ripped off when they made all the engine features available to free users… being stuck on the 12 month contract isn’t so nice.) I have no interest in cloud build, their multiplayer service, their flexible seat management, the asset store packs, or any of that. So all that would change for me is going from 75/month to 125/month for no real benefits. For that reason, I’ll probably stop paying.
One thing is for sure, though, I won’t be going to unreal. I’ve found making my own engine for my game to be easier than working with that engine.
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Well democratizing game dev is a cool goal and all that but at the end of the day if they don’t make enough money to pay their (what is it now? 900) employees and other expenses Unity goes away. Bottom line it is a business and has grown into a big business with multiple offices and a lot of employees. Maybe they are raking in the cash. I dunno. Typically when something like this happens it is a result of some people brainstorming to figure out how to increase revenue asap.
I’d pay them $20 per year for Personal Edition.
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