So now we have to pay $599 instead $199 to publish app to store ?
No - you can pay nothing and still publish to the app store.
In theory yes, but if you want to try to get anything back from all the late hours (meaning in-app purchase) you will have to pay this ridiculous new price. Its a price increase of 301% compared to the iOS only version and without any additional stuff… its just greed.
From my perspective, very few applications will ever redeem more than 600 USD/yr (of the 1million apps, the net sales were about 2.5billion USD i 2012, eg. 2500USD/app in AVERAGE). They are essentially pricing themselves out of the market here.
So my plan is to move to another platform. Especially as I both need 3D and cam support in the long run. Moai seems to becoming an interesting alternative, and its free. With rapanui SDK it is also easy to code.
Of course you’re free to evaluate whatever platform suits your needs. I would just like to comment that the price increase is not “greed”, and the statement “without any additional stuff” is inaccurate. In addition to IAP and analytics, Plugins are coming soon (in beta testing now), and the new Open GL 2.0 ES engine is on the horizon for Pro users.
As for true 3D, no, Corona does not intend to offer that. Unity is a fine choice for that, but it will cost you $800 if you want to publish to iOS and Android, whereas Corona is free. It’s just worth clarifying that, since there’s an oddly mistaken impression that Unity is 100% free across the board. Not to mention the intensive learning curve, the time invested in modeling everything in 3D, etc. etc… but I suppose you’ve already taken those things into account.
Best regards,
Brent Sorrentino
Hi Brent,
Well I guess as an employee you need to defend your company.
There are numerous examples out there of completely free LUA stuff which is your main competition. There is no way I am going to pay 4 times as much for a pro license today than 3 days ago. Even with a game that has 7500 lines of code, most of them are LUA which you did not develop or have a monopoly on. All the Corona SDK stuff is nothing special; the Box 2D is not your code and accessing sound and gfx is possible under a number of other SDK´s that does it as well as Corona. Others have ported Corona code to Moai in a few weeks, so you are loosing customers by doing such drastic price changes.
The reason I started with Corona was that it had some support and was reasonably priced. That is gone now, so I do not see any reason to stay.
Renato Bugge
Indie and scientist
Hi Renato,
I’m sorry to see you go. My post was not solely about me defending the company, but rather clarifying the price of Unity and some other things. If the open-source + no support model suits your development needs better, you’re welcome to go that route. I still fell that Corona Starter is a great value (free) and that Corona Pro offers many benefits for developers who regard their work as more than a hobby. In any case, you’re always welcome back here if you change your mind. 
Sincerely,
Brent Sorrentino
Brent,
Its no great value when it doesn´t offer necessary and basic needed functions. I think you will understand that when you start loosing customers. Well, at least you should…
R
Which functions in specific? You hinted at IAP but I didn’t notice any other mentions.
Brent
I don’t want to get dragged into a huge debate but if you think you will not make $600 back from your paid/ad-supported app then the inclusion of IAPs isn’t going to magically fix that.
From $199 to $ 599 thats what I thought it will happen someday (prices raise), I was about to buy $199 licnes now its not gonna heppen soon.
That price maybe is right for company or something but not for one person who play with corona occasionally.
Basicly corona starter is trail with publis option.
Thanks
Lack of in-app purchase and plugins means my game won´t run. It runs fine under the earlier build, so I have to stick to that, but then I can´t publish.
With respect to app “income”:
If you take away the top apps (paid), the average app takes in under 2$/day and Apple takes away half of that. Of course you can hope to be the next Angry birds, but even they had to make 10+ games before they got a hit. And its just one game in about 350000, so you may be better away paying national lottery or something similar.
Now at 199/yr it might fly, but at 599… be serious. If I had 10 apps running, it would be more realistic, but at a single game app with no means to market it and so on… going to Moai SDK just makes sense (and its really just some syntax replacement as logic, lua and 99% of the functionality is the same).
I think Corona should seriously reconsider their pricing policy.
No - you can pay nothing and still publish to the app store.
In theory yes, but if you want to try to get anything back from all the late hours (meaning in-app purchase) you will have to pay this ridiculous new price. Its a price increase of 301% compared to the iOS only version and without any additional stuff… its just greed.
From my perspective, very few applications will ever redeem more than 600 USD/yr (of the 1million apps, the net sales were about 2.5billion USD i 2012, eg. 2500USD/app in AVERAGE). They are essentially pricing themselves out of the market here.
So my plan is to move to another platform. Especially as I both need 3D and cam support in the long run. Moai seems to becoming an interesting alternative, and its free. With rapanui SDK it is also easy to code.
Of course you’re free to evaluate whatever platform suits your needs. I would just like to comment that the price increase is not “greed”, and the statement “without any additional stuff” is inaccurate. In addition to IAP and analytics, Plugins are coming soon (in beta testing now), and the new Open GL 2.0 ES engine is on the horizon for Pro users.
As for true 3D, no, Corona does not intend to offer that. Unity is a fine choice for that, but it will cost you $800 if you want to publish to iOS and Android, whereas Corona is free. It’s just worth clarifying that, since there’s an oddly mistaken impression that Unity is 100% free across the board. Not to mention the intensive learning curve, the time invested in modeling everything in 3D, etc. etc… but I suppose you’ve already taken those things into account.
Best regards,
Brent Sorrentino
Hi Brent,
Well I guess as an employee you need to defend your company.
There are numerous examples out there of completely free LUA stuff which is your main competition. There is no way I am going to pay 4 times as much for a pro license today than 3 days ago. Even with a game that has 7500 lines of code, most of them are LUA which you did not develop or have a monopoly on. All the Corona SDK stuff is nothing special; the Box 2D is not your code and accessing sound and gfx is possible under a number of other SDK´s that does it as well as Corona. Others have ported Corona code to Moai in a few weeks, so you are loosing customers by doing such drastic price changes.
The reason I started with Corona was that it had some support and was reasonably priced. That is gone now, so I do not see any reason to stay.
Renato Bugge
Indie and scientist
Hi Renato,
I’m sorry to see you go. My post was not solely about me defending the company, but rather clarifying the price of Unity and some other things. If the open-source + no support model suits your development needs better, you’re welcome to go that route. I still fell that Corona Starter is a great value (free) and that Corona Pro offers many benefits for developers who regard their work as more than a hobby. In any case, you’re always welcome back here if you change your mind.
Sincerely,
Brent Sorrentino
Brent,
Its no great value when it doesn´t offer necessary and basic needed functions. I think you will understand that when you start loosing customers. Well, at least you should…
R
Which functions in specific? You hinted at IAP but I didn’t notice any other mentions.
Brent
I don’t want to get dragged into a huge debate but if you think you will not make $600 back from your paid/ad-supported app then the inclusion of IAPs isn’t going to magically fix that.
From $199 to $ 599 thats what I thought it will happen someday (prices raise), I was about to buy $199 licnes now its not gonna heppen soon.
That price maybe is right for company or something but not for one person who play with corona occasionally.
Basicly corona starter is trail with publis option.
Thanks