Why are we doing this subscription thing? Our CTO Joachim Ante explains

Joachim has responded to you all through a blog post the following message:

Over the last days I’ve been reading all comments and first of all, do know that we are very carefully listening to everything, discussing a lot especially what we can do to make the subscription pricing appealing especially to Indie devs who have been using Unity Pro for the longest time.

I especially care a lot about this group of developers, who effectively funded this company with us and have been with us on this journey for a very long time. So we will figure something out. Needs a bit of time but we’ll follow up soon…

In the meantime I want to give a bit of background about why we are doing this subscription thing and some thoughts on what was a bit lost in the announcement so far.

Why Subscription?
When we started Unity, we would ship Unity every once in a while on just 2 platforms. Initially just Aras and I, gradually adding a couple engineers every few months. We’d decide on a couple major features and focus working on that for a year and a bit, go through beta and then ship it.

Today Unity lets you target 28 platforms. No one targets all platforms at the same time, but the ability to choose to easily switch your game to any platform gives Unity developers incredible advantages.

Each platform is supported by a team of dedicated engineers. We have teams focused on different areas of the engine, working on improving each major area all the time.

We ship a patch release every week. Supported by the awesome Sustained Engineering team.

We ship point releases with major new features and improvements multiple times per year.

All of this is necessary because the platforms we support rapidly change. In today’s world, we can’t leave customers behind for a year because we are in the process of releasing a major version. We think it would be very bad for Unity developers if we held features for a full number release, rather than launch these features along the way, when they are ready.

With this in mind, we want to be clear. There will be no major Unity 6 release.

In the dev team we wanted to stop doing major releases for a long time. With the major releases model we had done up until Unity 5, it has always forced us to bundle up a bunch of features and release them in one big splash. Usually it results in that good & complete features would be artificially held back for a long time while other features are still maturing, and eventually releasing some of these features before they are ready. All in the name of creating one big splashy release that customers feel is worth upgrading to. It’s what we did because we had to in a model where we worked toward an unnatural new major release every few years. This is not some evil marketing team pushing for it, it is the inherent nature of that business model. It was always a painful process for us and you and it really serves no one.

With our switch to subscription we can make Unity incrementally better, every week. When a feature is complete, we will ship it. If it is not ready we will wait for the next point release.

Our switch to subscription is absolutely necessary in order for us to provide a robust and stable platform.

Pay to own!
Along with the new subscription model, we are introducing “pay to own”. After having paid for 24 months of subscription, you can stop paying and keep on using the version you have at that point. Of course, you would also stop getting new features, services or fixes; choice is yours.

If you are upgrading from a previously bought perpetual license of Unity and you are switching to subscription after March 2017, then you get “pay to own” right away with your subscription license.

Pay to own applies to everyone; there’s no special “license option” you have to get. Simple!

Thanks for listening, I hope this gives some much needed background on our switch to subscription.

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@Joachim_Ante_1 : Im fine with the subscription model, the pay to own model and think that your conception of development and shipping cycles are spot on. May i ask what the decision (your decision?) behind the MWU splash screen in Unity Plus was and why you think it’s justified to add it in a paid product? :slight_smile:

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Is the pay to own monthly price the same as the subscription price? If so, if you pay to own plus for 24 months, do you still own it? If you own plus will you still be stuck with the splash screen?

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My concern isn’t really about cost or pricing but the direction of Unity itself.

  • Don’t understand charging for a product that still displays splash. Change the sub min period if it’s a problem.
  • Don’t understand charging to change the colour of editor. This is a joke gone mad.

I am more concerned with the decisions behind running Unity as a business. Yes, it is my business as my business depends upon it. As if important things like this are a shambles, then I wonder at the future engine direction because decisions are decisions. And there’s some crazy decisions so far.

As you know I am one of the biggest supporters Unity has. I devote substantial time in ensuring that the community we know and love is thriving, and Unity remains a strong asset to my own business. Whatever engine I use, or wherever I am, I seek to support and improve that environment, as what goes around comes around.

In any case it’s perfectly fine to agree to disagree.

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Subscription based is better long term for everyone, however there is still a big concern:

  • Up to 3 times the price increase for desktop only pro users (on a 2-3 years cycle)

This is a big hit for us, especially since Unity still has a lot of catch up to do versus Unreal for mid/high end desktop features (Terrain, visual effects, vegetation, Lightmapping, …).

You end up paying for a lot of features/services you won’t use.

I think reintroducing a ~75$/month subscription with a bigger revenue cap and no Unity splash screen would be great.

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My primary complaint regarding the new pricing is the massive price increase for the new Pro subscription compared to the previous Pro perpetual license upgrades. Unity is quadrupling the price for staying upgraded. With perpetual licenses, we could upgrade a Pro license to the next major version for half price. A Pro license was $1500 up front and then $750 to do the major version upgrade. Those upgrade cycles were 3-4 years, and now are 2 years. Even at a 2 year upgrade cycle, the upgrades would average $375 per year.

The new Pro subscription is $1500 per year. As a Unity 5 Pro user with a perpetual license, I am most upset about this issue, since this amounts to effectively quadrupling the price to keep Unity upgraded. If Unity needs to force everybody to a subscription, then price the subscription in line with the previous upgrade price point.

In addition to that, the Plus plan makes no sense currently. It is an excellent idea to add a mid tier plan like Plus to monetize some the free/personal user base. However, nobody will buy the Plus plan if it still forces a splash screen. If Unity wants to sell Plus licenses, then Unity needs to let Plus users customize and even disable the splash screen.

And finally, it is time for Unity to get real about hiding the dark skin behind a paywall. That only serves to make the editor look less polished for free/personal users. That hurts Unity’s image, especially with new users who try out Unity for the first time using the free/personal version. Unity needs to make every version of their editor look as polished as possible. The dark UI is not something people will pay for, but it does look slightly more polished than the light UI. Hiding the dark UI behind a paywall is a stupid and self injurious move on Unity’s part.

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I guess if unity add custom splash screen in the Product Unity Plus this simple change can improve the public acceptance.

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The good part about allowing all tiers of users including personal to have the dark UI is they won’t go to a competing product and think “wow this dark ui is so much more professional than Unity!” because they’ll already be used to Unity’s dark UI.

So there’s that.

The problem with just giving splash at $35 is that you can cancel the plus tier membership. This is too much for Unity. So something needs to change if this will change.

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I agree with this, and I think some other people posting or commenting on the blog(not sure which if not both) that they would be able to see them taking away the month-to-month option for plus. Maybe they could offer both like they do now, but only with the 12-month contract does the splash screen go away. On the other hand, you have to remember that many devs(not all of course) intend on supporting a game after release, which means that they would have to subscribe each month in which they intend to release updates.

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Even if free/personal users upgraded to Plus just for the months when they released something (either initial build or game patches), then I suspect Unity would actually make a lot more money off of free/personal users than they do now. There would still be a revenue cap to force users to upgrade to Pro if they made enough money.

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Can we get the splash screen removed for the unity plus version please? I was excited to see this option but when read still has a splash screen was dissapointed.

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I Agree with all that, I would add a forced 12 months duration for Plus and Pro subscription… so users won’t just pay one.
I have the feeling you just quoted me from a post I made on facebook XD… but yeah pretty much that.

The Dark Skin Should not be a selling point for the Engine…No one will compare 2 engines and say:

"Oh Engine X has this awesome Lighting that will make my game look very good, but on the other hand in Unity I can Pay $35 to get a Dark Skin for the Editor… I think I’ll choose Unity :smile: "

what it actually is, it’s just an annoyance for current users… I mean even Microsoft Word has a Dark Skin… This should not be promoted as a “Pro Feature”, Unity should promote real advantages over competition to get people interested on paying extra.

I think a reasonable deal is to have a 12 months contract.

Also I will just throw this idea up the air, I don’t know if it’s even possible… but What if the Splash Screen on the Built game, validates the Developer License? and if the developer stopped paying, the Splash automatically becomes Unity, but if the User is currently paying the Splash remains custom?

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Sounds like the worst idea so far, actually worse than royalties.

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Wouldn’t that mean if you cancel the Plus tier after a month or any month then the splash screen customization would disable by the end of that month? At least that’s how it is with the dark skin.

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It means though, that it devalues the pro license, so that causes the revenue drop. Anyway, it’s not my concern or responsibility. It’s clear Unity has a plan. I enjoyed the discussions and what-ifs and tried to keep threads clear for Unity to really be able to read your feedback, but I’m done with the discussions now, I have a game to make :slight_smile:

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I don’t really agree with that method of engineering for a development tool like Unity. It’s fine for something like a website, or even Photoshop where future versions are compatible with older files and the user’s final deliverable (an image) is no longer dependent on the software used to create it.

Unity’s idea for weekly patches seems to be that each weekly release doesn’t have to be compatible with the previous week’s release. And each release squashes some bugs while introducing others. There is never a stable release of Unity. And these bugs aren’t just in Unity’s software because Unity is a development tool, so the bugs end up in our games too.

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problems:

  • price for mid tier
  • splash screen

I’m fine going with unreal for some jobs :sunglasses:

I can have both, let unity specialize

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Sorry, but this post makes zero sense. People (the majority) aren’t mad about subscriptions in themselves. I personally don’t like them, but hey, I can get over that and I think most people can also.

What people aren’t cool about is that the current model of subscriptions doesn’t make any sense for these reasons; most importantly, financially:

  • Pay for an editor color; yeah, this is petty.
  • Pay a monthly fee, yet still have splash screen.
  • Pro got much more expensive; especially for existing members and desktop only crews (See below from other thread that surmises this as shortly as possible)

These are the real issues. Sorry, but it seems upper level management is a bit out of touch. Did you happen to skim over the 1000+ posts details these instead of actually reading them? If not, I don’t have another explanation for missing the entire cause of the great backlash.

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Im Sorry, but i don’t understand the relation between custom splash screen in “Unity Plus” and people canceling their membership.

If the problem is the people paying for 1 month the same problem appear in the pro product. Or do more benefits for the people who paying per year.

I have Unity Pro and Android Pro Perpetual and the major reason is for the custom splash screen. I don’t have a idea who wanna pay for a product with water mark(MWU Splash Screen).

Unity Plus is for the Indie People, persons who some times and with lucky can sold a Unity App (Games obviously and aplications) and gain money for paid their needs and with that part of their earnings to pay monthly unity.

Unity Pro for intermediate companies (not dedicated in use Unity).
And Unity Enterprise for companies dedicated to work making games or using unity all the time.

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I have no problem with the subscription model. After all I use Adobe products and Autodesk… the real issue for me is the price increase. I think UT - IMHO - arrived at the wrong costing. ~$200 AUD every month for Unity Pro is just too much for a sole operator like myself. I need Pro features, mainly no splash screen (before U5 it was plugins etc), as my clients demand no branding other then theirs at the start. As they have clients that will kick up a fuss if it is there. So basically as a freelancer you have costed me out of my Pro license which I have had for a long time. Look at my forum join date and work it out for yourself.

I will wait and see what your sales team comes back to me with. As I assume I’m one of your long time Pro users you speak of…

Cheers.

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