At the end of June, Unity updated the licensing rules for its engine without public announcements. The changes affected the developers of games for closed platforms. Now it will be impossible to create projects for Xbox without a Pro subscription.The rules came into force on June 30.
A Unity representative explained this decision in a Gamasutra comment: “Console development is a difficult task for any studio, and we have always recommended a Unity Pro subscription to work with these platforms.”
It is worth clarifying that the changes affected only the authors of new games. If the studio project was already in development before the introduction of the new rules and was created on older versions of Unity (not for 2021.2), you will not need to pay for a professional subscription.
Previously, Unity required paying for Pro ($1,800 per year) or Enterprise ($4,000 per year) subscriptions if the developer’s revenue over the past 12 months exceeded $200,000. For studios with lower revenue, Plus ($399 per year) or Personal (free) subscriptions were enough.
Now all console developers will need either a Pro subscription or a special license key from the platform holder. Sony and Nintendo, for example, provide such keys to studios themselves (but not to everyone, but only if the project passes approval), but Microsoft does not have this option. That is why the innovations caused discontent among small studios.
Previously, it was enough for developers to have the Xbox SDK to unlock all Unity features to create games for this console. However, due to the new rules, access to them will be possible only if you have a Pro subscription. A Microsoft representative noted that the company is aware of changes in the rules. Whether Xbox will now provide keys to Unity developers is still unclear.
At the same time, some studios did not even notice the changes, since they already used a Pro subscription. The dissatisfaction is connected with the way Unity announced the innovations. The information was published on a closed forum for developers, to enter which you need to sign an NDA. For this reason, many novice teams, which are primarily affected by the new policy, may simply not find out about it.