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About the Licese agreement
Hi, i'm a rookie on the world of creating games and i want to start with my group with the free version of Unity3d for developing a web game. We'll create the game for participate in a contest.
But i saw this on the license comparission: "May be licensed and used by companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover in excess of US$100,000 in their last fiscal year". Ok, will i have problems if i use this software for the Contest? Because if we won, our game will be part of Square Enix but they will release the game for FREE. By the way, if we won, we'll win money too (i'm not sure if this is problematic).
http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses
Thanx for the answers and i'm very sorry if i made mistakes with my english
Answer by kolban · May 30, 2012 at 12:44 AM
I'm not a lawyer and have no experience with the the Unity 3D license ... but it strikes me that any company that has a revenue of over $100,000 in a fiscal year should be able to trivially afford the $1,500 license for Unity 3D. Also remember that if you or the company pay $1,500 to Unity for the license, this is a business expense and hence tax deductible which will mean that the real cost of Unity is far less than $1,500.
I would suggest that you not worry about the line of the license you describe and then, if you "win" and if a company that uses your software (or yourselves) earn over $100,000 then go ahead and buy a license.
Again ... I'm just a user myself and have no legal skills or affiliations.
I agree that seems pretty reasonable, at first glance, but I notice that the EULA forbids users from combining files made using Unity Free with files made using Unity Pro, which would seem to prohibit purchasing a Pro license after "making it big".
This is probably a question that's worth checking with Unity Technologies directly.
I think that's so you can't buy one Pro license and then use 20 standard licenses and claim that you are doing all of the pro work on the single license.
I know when we made the decision to switch to Pro our lawyers checked it out and suggested that we had to make sure everyone was on Pro now, including anyone supplying things for our game. That doesn't stop you upgrading, but it does mean that when you upgrade you need to do all of your licenses.
that makes more sense as you dont really know if your company is going to make that sort of cash in a year until after the release. i did see somewhere about making the game on the free version and then getting someone else to publish it with pro which is forbidden this might be it as i did have a good look through the licenses.
but if i had the money spare i would buy it, dont need it at the moment tough as my turnover is $99.999 hah
Answer by whydoidoit · May 30, 2012 at 12:52 AM
Well you certainly didn't earn $100k in your last fiscal year, so you have no problem now. I think @kolban is right, if you earn $100k - firstly well done, it isn't easy :) Secondly, you'll probably want to buy some Pro licenses to make your next game even cooler and won't mind paying for them...
It's really what Unity Free is all about - get people making games, then when they're successful, they will be good Unity customers in future. It's a great way to get new talent up and running without having to gamble that they will be successful.
$$anonymous$$ichael makes a good point - if Square Enix buy it then they'll sort that out in the contract I'm sure.
it might also be worth looking over the terms of the competition, everything should be in there even if it doesnt make sense.
also look for something about publishing as im pretty sure this is all square enix would be is the publisher
Answer by reptilebeats · May 30, 2012 at 12:50 AM
im not an expert on legal stuff as theres always a catch somewhere, however im sure if square enix took care of the release it would be all fine as it would be their job to get all the permissions, however im sure they would have to purchase a unity license if they released it as a product from their company.
however because its made by you and your not a company that works with square enix then the unity license will probably have to be for the developing company which is you and as your not going to make a profit then you shouldnt have a problem and should be able to release it with the free version of unity.
but to be honest i really don't know you would have to ring the competition and ask them and also ring unity licensing as well to get better information.
im pretty sure though either way you would not need anything but the free version, square enix would be the company that has to buy one and they may try and make you pay for it (they shouldnt though)
whats the compitition
also a big company like this probably already have a license for smaller companies under their wing
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