Unity Technologies is the company that developed the Unity game engine. This was used by, for example Hollow knight or Cuphead. While it was previously possible for developers to inexpensively use development tools for the medium of their choice, there have been changes in the last few months.
In fact, it is now mandatory for developments intended for consoles or stadia to have a “Pro license ” or a “Preferred platform license key”“. The latter is available either from Unity Technologies or directly from the manufacturer of the target platform. And this is where the problem begins for developers who want to port their games to the Xbox: Unlike its direct competitors, Microsoft does not currently offer these famous licenses.
For studios, purchasing these licenses is a significant hassle at a cost of $ 1,800 per year for each user of the tool. This measure has been in effect since June 30th, according to Unity Technologies, and will only affect projects started after that date. For the company, the use of Unity Pro has always been recommended for console development given the complexity of the work.
At Microsoft, if a decision has not yet been made, a representative of the Redmond company also spoke:
We will continue to work with our developer partners and game engine providers, including Unity, to find out how best to support developers on Xbox.
I’m not sure this answer is enough for some developers who might decide to skip a possible Xbox version of their game in order to keep development costs down.
