when will this start to apply ?
what does this sentence mean ?
*Splash Screen can be removed or edited with a $99/year plugin on the Corona Labs Marketplace
how will the splash look like ?
would this still affect people who use old corona versions ?
Would like to throw my support in here too. I love the new Splash Screen. It saved me from creating and coding my own version of a Corona splash screen. I don’t understand why developers wouldn’t want to support Corona on this and give them props for their development suite and for all the support we get from them on these forums in developing our apps.
Hmm,
I really don’t mind the splashscreen but it should look a bit better then it does at the moment… Are you guys open to some splash art made by the community that could be used as the splashscreen?
I guess the default one is good to go. I don’t think they will replace the standart logo with a pretty one but offer the $99 option for you to customize it.
You can read about it in our announcement.
https://coronalabs.com/blog/2016/09/19/corona-major-build-release-2016-2949/
Very disappointed with the newly announced splash screen control feature. How can this be even called a “feature”?
I am a Corona user for several years and have even paid for the pro subscription for 3 years before it went totally free (with the exception of Enterprise version). As a courtesy to existing users, I think Corona should at least made available a version that is compatible with the latest Apple submission policy but without the default splash screen. Give us at least some notice ( a few months) before this sudden transition.
While I understand Corona need revenue to grow, this sudden inclusion of splash screen to “force” user to subscribe to yearly splash screen removal plugin is worrying. Is Corona facing some financial crisis at the moment and this is the last attempt effort to save the platform? We need to know this especially those of us who have several apps developed using Corona. This could affect our decision to continue adding more features to our existing Corona powered apps or devote resources to move to another platform (or go native).
ADMIN: There is going to be a lot of discussion about this. To help keep things focused, I’ll be directing other threads that start up to this thread.
I have no problems paying $99 a year to help support Corona. I was a pro member 4 years ago and had no problems paying a few hundred a year for pro. I would love to go enterprise one day to develop and apple watch portion of my upcoming (and only app) but that is the future.
I will be paying $60 a month for mongoDB and $20 a month for an AWS server (when the free tier expires) and that is not an issue for me.
If anyone is winging about $99 they obviously can’t dream big and don’t have a business plan or faith in themselves.
My worst nightmare is Corona collapsing and then having to learn swift/android etc. Good job Corona I love your work and thanks for a few years of free Corona. It would have been nice t throw in another sweetener with the $99 though (allowing paid members to list a link back to their website “patreon style”)
P.S Here is my development blog with all of my free development guides: http://www.fearby.com
So basically the splash image is an excuse to charge $99 per year. What annoys me is that is called a feature.
No advantage over previous builds, just … put this splash corona image and pay $99 if you want to have a normal app.
Even if people defend the price tag (which is totally ok), I see this as another step back in the competition against other engines, or native.
Despite the many bugs and pitfalls that Corona has (and Coronium), I have enjoyed using the platform and BaaS for over a year now. I was contemplating just the other day to move over to React Native for my front end dev, and Firebase for my BaaS, both which are highly recommended and very easy to use and learn.
After seeing your announcement of wanting to charge $99 / year to remove the splash brand has finally pushed me over the line to make the swap. You guys need to understand something. There are two types of developers out there:
-
Devs who code out of their garage on a very tight budget who want to create amazing apps
-
Devs who have amazing apps out on the market who are making revenue.
Out of the two, who do you think can afford to pay the $99 / year? (on top of Hosting and on top of the Apple 99/year subscription). You are about to lose a very large % of customers, and are going to deter any new customers wanting to join your network with this new pricing “scheme”. The fact that this pricing model does not target new customers, or customers earning a certain revenue per year, is sad.
You have basically put up your middle finger to your entire loyal customer base.
Shame on you.
david668 I disagree with you. You aren’t being forced to pay $99/year. Just live with the momentary splash screen which other comparable tools have been forcing on people. You’re asking corona to give you an ever evolving development tool for free (which they’ll do) without giving anything back to them. I’d rather they charge everyone money and stay in business than go under.
Plenty of other SDKs have a splash screen. Off the top of my head, the two most popular are Unity and GameMaker. For Unity, the cheapest plan to remove a splash screen is $395 per year. For GameMaker, it is a one time fee of $149, but you also need to shell out another $600 to be able to export to iOS and Android. Both of these tools are a lot more popular than Corona, and Corona could use a much needed boost in brand awareness.
Corona is still offering the core sdk for free and all they ask in return is that you show an image at the start of your app for a couple seconds.
And just out of curiosity david668, how do you monteize your apps so that you can continue to fund your server costs and Apple license?
They have been earning from other business models such as the Corona Card/Enterprise. In addition, they also take a cut from the many monetisation plugins they released lately. It is not just about the $99 which I agree is not a very big sum. To me, it is about how this has been communicated to us (sudden inclusion in a crucial daily build that we have no choice to use if we were to submit to App Store) and also what is current status of this platform. Are they just looking to make more profit or is this an attempt to save the platform from dying. We need something clearer from the team rather than just announcing via a daily build release update as a new feature.
Hi everybody,
This is a competitive market where it takes a lot of effort to remain the best platform for cross-platform 2D development. Corona is not an open-source hobby project where we (Corona Labs) can casually tinker away at whatever we feel like working on, perpetually and forever. Corona as a core product and development platform remains free, and asking developers to show a splash screen to help raise awareness about Corona seems reasonable, as does asking $99 per year to let you remove our logo or replace it with your own
@bramvbilsen, I think we will be open to alternate artwork ideas. We are discussing having a competition for splash screen designs. We’ve just started talking about this, so we don’t have any information yet.
@unicode, we see it as a feature. The splash screen control when purchased allows you to have your own image as a splash screen. Many people have struggled with adding this to their app in the past. For Android builds, you were limited as to what you could do. Splash screens now work nicely in a cross-platform manner. We are looking to add features to it going forward.
@3denator, the splash screen is a Corona Labs logo with text that reads “Powered by Corona Labs”.
Rob
One question: is $99 per account, so covering all your apps or $99/year per app?
I agree it could have been communicated much better (basically they couldn’t have handled it worse than they did). And I am well aware of their other ways the monetize through taking parts of the ad stream which I have major issues with that I’ve never gotten a good answer to (like where the ads come from and how can we have some modicum of control over the types of those ads that are appearing in our games).
@PXL artificer, it’s per user, not per app.
I realize this is a tough pill to swallow when you’ve become so accustomed to Corona being completely free, but like Rob mentioned, this isn’t some open source side project. It takes real engineering man power to keep Corona up to date in the constant growing mobile space.
$99/yr is a drop in the bucket for what you’re getting in return. This monetization approach should have been the done a long time ago.
As long as the splash screen looks really good, I don’t see a problem at all giving Corona Labs some free promotion. It’s a great platform we’re all getting for free right now!
Besides, $99/year to remove or customize the splash screens for ALL your apps is really nothing if that’s the only cost involved in using the platform.
Guys, I don’t disagree that it’s fair for Corona to want to maximize their revenue to be able to stay alive (and obviously I don’t want them folding). However, slipping in a daily build (which happens to be a requirement for iOS acceptance) a $99/year hit is just not fully thought through in my opinion, and could have been introduced in a more subtle and gentle way.
How about offering $50 to existing users, and $99 to new users? How about a once off fee for a single app and not per year? How about offering it to existing users but to any new apps they develop not their existing ones they have been working on for a year (and are about to submit to the app store). I think you get my point… there are many alternatives to introduce a gentle pricing model that customers (both existing and new) can get warmer to. Corona has just dropped us all into boiling water.
Just btw, I have told MANY people about how great Corona is and how it’s a great place to learn coding and app development. It’s not like people don’t talk when you are exposed to a great product. Now what am I supposed to say? It’s a great product but it will cost you $99 / year on top of the 99/ year Apple subscription?
It takes 6 - 9 months to develop a good app before it’s released to an app store - and thats being conservative for people who are learning and building at the same time. I think its fair to charge people who are earning revenue from their apps, not while they are learning and building. I would gladly pay more than $99 / year once my app is on the store earning money.