So, the new Visual Studio 2015 release has a new “Xamarin” plugin, which allows you to directly build .NET projects and export to both Android and iOS. You can use the latest version of .NET with all the bells and whistles, and can even create shared projects that use a common MS .NET lib that is linked to Android, iOS, and Windows builds. Is there a reason that Unity can’t use this method? For the last ten years, we’ve been told that the reason Unity could never update Mono was because Xamarin would not allow anyone to build iOS apps on Mono without paying for a Mono license due to LGPL lawyering, but apparently now all developers can do that for free. Can someone explain? Is there still really a need for spending years of dev time on IL2CPP?
It’s not free and you need a Xamarin subscription… which is not cheap
As Ostwind said, it’s not free. You have to buy the Xamarin license yourself and it’s not cheap.
https://store.xamarin.com/
I’ve been trying to figure out how the licensing works because it’s not particularly clear. When you install the new VS RC, you can install Xamarin and build to it without buying anything. Maybe it’s giving you some kind of free entry tier Xamarin license and you have to purchase a subscription for more features? There’s not a lot of info.
Ok I think I figured out what’s going on… it basically installs the VS plugin and what I assume is a starter version of Xamarin with reduced output options, and then you have to buy a subscription to do a full release:
Yep, you have no go-live licensing with the plugin.