Very Sad news
What’s especially alarming is:
- The current business model is simply not sustainable to support the platform for the long-term.
We’re to hope at this point that their new business of siphoning off ad impressions is going to save the platform?
We are currently talking to Corona about this, but I feel that it is important to position myself over here as well. I think it is of interest to most people concerned, as I feel like I’m echoing the general sentiment over here.
This is a quote from an email of mine sent to Corona.
From a philosophical point of view - the Enterprise license that we have already payed for IS NOT the same product that is being pushed on us now. Its crazy to think that the entire model for the service we purchased is being changed after our purchase and without our consent.
But more importantly, as the head of small indie studio that has now established a clear investment plan for the year ahead, AND as a Corona developer myself, I feel that this business model lacks the flexibility that made Corona attractive in the first place. Monetization is such a core part of the mobile ecosystem, that if Corona decides to tie our hands on this front AND charge us for it, I strongly believe that they will risk losing their larger/more experienced clients.
I’m not sure what the correct solution is here, and even though I only speak for myself, I’m positive that the sentiment is shared with others. In the very least, we should continue with the same business model until our enterprise license expires. But I think that the ideal solution would be a model where we could either opt for free + use Corona’s monetization, or chose a paid license with the ability to do whatever.
Giving developers a month to re-factor all their monetization, including situations where platforms are not supported, or major changes have to be made is simply unreal.
Honestly, this thread has me VERY worried about the next couple of months. Hope we can all find a solution that doesn’t push away developers that have invested in their own tech and relationship - an enforced policy such as this could end up pushing developers to other platforms.
Any news from any other groups?
I’d be more concerned with there even being a corona to use in the near future based on the desperation of this move.
Such decision should be opened to community, so together we can find the right way out of this - finally, it’s shared interest. otherwise Corona would find itself with its desired model but with empty community!
I just don’t understand why both, the decision and the Announcement were carefully taken in the most possible negative way.
Simply Corona should Attract developers to its Ad models and Ad partners, and off course not obligate them.
People like freedom, especially developers.
While Corona Enterprise and Corona SDK share the same umbrella Corona label, Enterprise requires additional engineering resources beyond what is required for Corona SDK. So really the conversation is about the future of Enterprise. Rather than remove support for it altogether, it was decided that a change was needed to align the Enterprise licensing with the overall ad supported business model. An adjustment had to be made to ensure the sustainable future of Enterprise.
Honestly, there’s never a good time to make a change like this. We had to draw a line in the sand somewhere, so we opted to do it quickly. Since not all Enterprise customers are the same, we understand that each will have different circumstances. We are working directly with Enterprise developers who contact us to come up with solutions that make sense.
In the last 8 months, the Corona team has developed and published a library of monetization options to help developers earn revenue from banner, interstitial, video, rewarded video, offer walls, polls, etc. The community has also produced many feature rich plugins, with more in the queue to be processed. We are getting ready to update the Corona Marketplace so the community can buy and sell plugins and we’ve added support for Steam and Apple TV. Corona is continuing to grow in many exciting ways and we are trying our best to keep development priorities balanced.
If you want to discuss options for your specific situation, please contact us ( kegan@coronalabs.com or charles@coronalabs.com ). We will do everything we can to work with you as we migrate to the new policy.
The part where you draw the line to be 1 month from the moment you inform us about the change, is what is unacceptable.
I want to be able to transition out from Corona smoothly, since we could get to no agreement over what is going on with the license.
I think that a change of license requires both party consent, and not only you saying: we change this and that - live with it.
If I would want to amend the license terms and just sent you a notice about it, what would you do?
I don’t agree with what’s happening. I understand that you have to change your business model, but I don’t want to change mine, so I’ve made the decision to switch to something else, be it, lost a lot of money on training and creating codebase, it hurts, but I’ll survive. Thankfully my business partners don’t act as childish as you did over this change. All I want is to use my license till the end of it, in a way I have agreed to while buying it.
if that would mean we cant implement "even using ENTERPRISE’ any sdk from 3rd party as we want,
than we will have to look definitely for another platform without such ridiculous restrictions.
That would mean a direct intervention into our business.
If u restrict plugins that come into the plugin store is one thing, but another thing what we create with our Enterprise versions.
Please clarify asap
thanks
chris
Chris, the policy only applies to monetization plugins. You are free to integrate with other SDKs without conflict. Contact us if you have special needs. We are happy to work with Enterprise developers to come up with a solutions that works for everyone.
u write "PLUGINS’… so are we talking about corona Plugins? U say i can integrate with other SDKs without conflict
Keep it simple guys. i want to include into my XCode (Enterprise) code an SDK from company xyz for ADS.
So do u wanna tell me by your new Policy that I cant that! or is that a simple missunderstanding with Plugin / SDk etc.
IN NO Way I will accept that Corona would dictate me what I can implement into my XCode Source, even a portion of the code was generate by Corona. I am not sure if this applies even by Law, as we (all other Developers) purchased Enterprise or let Developers of us do so, … work maybe for YEARS on our Code and than Corona comes just like that… “Ok, we wanna have the whole cake of AdNetworks in our Control and tell you, even u worked YEARS with us, in 2 Month we change the Rules onesided”
In other Cases that goes so far that it is threatening us to do so or we can forget all our Business Concept. Thats Cartel Work!
I have to use such direct compares, as it seems u dont see what u start here.
When we all started to SUPPORT Corona in its early Years we PAID for it and i had no problem with it.
Than the Sale to FUSE who already made a mess and we feared we come controlled by that 'AdNetwork"
Than Roy came on the plan and at first i really had a great feeling. But it seems now that you guys even like to CONTROL and Dictate us more than everyone else before. That u made the Pro Version for free, I never understood and already thought whats ur business Concept. It seems it failed and now u like to do it on another way.
Guys, really RETHINK that, the direction you are looking for is really wrong.
Looking forward that u settle your heads together and come with something better. I for example would easy pay 100Euro a Month for a Pro Version or anything else to keep me out of your RESTRICTIONS. I am really pissed about your actual Move and think without a change in your Direction u will cause a Rebellion within our Community u even cant forsee right now.
Regards
Chris
Agree with every word, we don’t imagine this will really happen.
is it legal policy change? it really will ruin many years of work… and will not be comfortable to work with…
We understand Corona’s need to make money and have longevity as a platform, but you are literally giving large businesses, and people that have used this SDK for many years the boot, and no choice but to depart and leave this SDK.
It makes sense that you need to monetize Corona as quickly as possible to make the company profitable long-term, but this is not the best solution and way to go about it.
You need to offer people alternatives. Take 5% from some plug-ins but also let people pay a flat fee to use your plug-ins in exchange for keeping 100% of their revenue!
Whoever made this decision obviously didn’t take into account all business model angles, and are only looking to profit from the SDK without consideration of it’s long standing members.
You are literally abandoning a large user base who will refuse to go with this model, and this does not leave a very good impression at all.
You are also becoming a hobbyist SDK, and not one that, any developer, large business or corporation would ever take this type of model seriously. Those people that are invested in the ad networks they use, and make significant income do NOT benefit going with Corona. It is much cheaper to go with an SDK like Unity, pay the flat fee per month, and have a buffet of plug-ins that don’t take revenue share away from the hard working developers.
So basically what it boils down to is nickel and diming hobbyist app devs because no serious business would ever go for this model.
I really regret getting so heavily invested in Corona, but alas, it sounds like no one from Corona SDK is listening, and the end result will remain the way it is.
Already looking into Unity 
and for VR it will be anyhow the Choice for us.
I wish Corona best luck, it was a GREAT START
And I am very thankful for that
Just the last few Years came really confusing with all this new Promises of the new Owners and than one Disappointment after another.
If wish Corona comes back to its original Vibes.
“be based purely on performance”?!? That’s a joke?
How can you talk about perf when there is no multithread, last version of lua, graphics memory who save every thing in 32bits?
We are currently migrating to Unity after using Corona SDK for 6 years. Yup, 6 years. We couldn’t come to an agreement with them, and everything is moving toward keeping Corona afloat by taking a percentage of ad revenue from ad plug-ins. There’s too much control involved with it now. It’s a great platform for hobbyists, publishing and creating apps is a breeze, but to not have the freedom we once had is a total deal breaker.
I really thank Corona, as it was pivotal for us and our businesses, but we must move on to Unity where we will continue to have flexibility for ad monetization plug-ins, as it’s the only way we can continue to thrive in this business.
Someone know how to convert corona sdk code to unity?
There’s no easy way to do it, it’s a totally different technology, but depending on the project, it can be really easy to migrate.
Contact me if you wish.
I’d also like some clarification around Enterprise. You’re not discontinuing this product which means I can write all the custom code (ie. plugins) that I want for my own app. Is this a correct statement? What you are discontinuing is the marketplace for 3rd party plugins. Is this a correct statement?
Well to me it sounds like the marketplace will be limited to Corona plugins only.
If that’s not true, then why would there be enterprise at all?
I have plenty of custom in-house plugins, and no way I could live without them.
Indeed, clarification is required.