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Unity has unveiled a new version of its eponymous engine, aimed at bridging the gap between users of its free Personal edition and the subscription-driven Pro model.
Unity Plus was announced onstage at the Unite Europe conference, with CMO Clive Downie describing it as the option for developers "who have learn the art and craft of making games and want to take that to a commercial level".
The product costs $35 a month and includes features such as analytics and multiplayer. Plus users will be able to download one of Unity’s newly-announced Asset Store project packs each quarter, which include a selection of assets designed around a particular theme or genre, such as racing or shooter. The company said it would release two new packs "every few months".
Also included in the subscription is one month’s free access to Unity’s certicification courseware, aimed at preparing devs for certification of their games. Pro will include three months’ access.
On the analytics side, 1,000 analysis points come bundled – twice the Personal edition’s 500 allowance. Plus also includes access to Unity performance reporting, which was previously only available to Pro users. Similarly, Plus features support for up to 50 concurrent multiplayer users, compared to Personal’s 20.
Downie confirmed that Unity Personal would be staying "free and fully-featured", although all three versions of the engine will now include Cloud Build as an integrated – rather than separate – service. The platform will move to a queuing system from the current cooldown format, with no max repo limit for any version of the software.
Unity Pro will be changing, costing $125 per month for users. The engine will now include support for all platforms by default, as the add-ons for iOS and Android are integrated into the platform. Both Unity Plus and Pro will be offered priority queuing for Cloud Build, with the latter also featuring concurrent build access. Pro developers will additionally be permitted to download two Asset Store project packs per quarter.
A new ‘Pay to Own’ option will be introduced in addition to the changed products, allowing subscribers to keep their current version of Unity when their subscription ends.
