New Torque3D Price Point (Discussion, NOT announcement!)

There has been a lot of whining and complaining about the news that the new Torque 3D will have a higher price point. People are proclaiming that GG has "forgotten the indie", and that "GG has let its corporate success go to it's head."

I am finally going to come out and say what I think about this. It makes me sick! I think the new engine, AND the prospect of the new price point is great! GG has gone out there and put together a huge team to diligently work full time to bring us an engine that from the looks of it, is going to be vastly superior to anything you can currently get on the "indie market" and the way I see it:

A. they deserve to profit from it
B. they NEED to profit from it... you simply cannot, cannot run a 30+ man dev team on a project when the products price point is a couple hundred dollars. This is the very reason that we have been using incomplete, outdated, and overall sub-par engines for the last several years, and why it has taken so long for GG to get where they are. They couldn't afford it because they were practically giving us there products! I am personally looking forward to the new rates of development / fixes and quality of products that will be possible with a higher price point.
C. If a price point of $1000 (guessing this based on speculative posts in the past, no idea what it will actually be) is a major issue and makes you not want to buy the engine, then I am sorry but you are not an "indie developer"... you are a hobbyist. Anyone who is developing something with a real intention of marketing it and selling it would jump on the chance to get such a powerful tool for only $1000. If you cannot justify $1000 for your main and primary tool then odds are you do not need it... you can buy TGEA for a few hundred dollars (the hobbyist engine) and produce the product you are planning (and probably still not max out the engines capabilities) just fine.

I am not saying this to be mean... I am just being realistic. I personally am extremely excited to see this kind of quality and dedication in the new GG engine and am equally excited to know that with a higher price point they will be able to continue this level of development and future support / improvements at a rate that is helpful and useful to us.

Granted if the price gets too high then it could be a major factor and alienate anyone without investors or a large pool of capital but in a realistic view of things, a $1000 license fee IS within the indie cost range... if you want a few hundred dollar price point then you need to be realistic and admit that you are working on a hobbyist level, not an indie, and buy the appropriate tools for the job.

Also granted that a higher price point demands higher quality and more capability... which we are seeing the beginnings of first hand with these blogs! :) (Looks great guys keep it up!)

What would be really nice would be to see something along the lines of:

1. TGB hobbyist 2d engine: $250 indie, $1,250 commercial (current prices)
2. TGEA hobbyist 3d engine: $300 indie $1,500 commercial (current prices)
3. Torque3D true indie 3d engine: $1,000 indie, $10,000 - $20,000 commercial (if you need the commercial license then you can defiantly afford it so don't complain!)

With the differentiating factor on indie vs. commercial being revenue as it is now... even if they lower the amount needed before requiring a commercial license. IMO a gimped engine is worthless regardless of how cheap it is... prime example is Unity 3D... sure you can get an indie license for like $200... but what good is a modern day game engine if it can't do real time shadows, can't render to texture, can't publish to windows etc? And a "with source code" vs. "without source code" is horrible as well... because there is no way the engine developers can possibly think of every feature / capability that the user will need, for instance the project I am working on now, requires the ability to run on walls and even ceilings... this flat out would not be possible in GG engines if we did not have access to the source. So I am really hoping that they stick to their current indie/commercial differentiating model. (**Shameless hint, hint!**) :)

Anyhow sorry for the long rant... I just wanted to say that because I have seen so much whining and "GG has forgotten the indie" type posts lately. They haven't forgotten the indie... IMO they are just now, truly starting to support the indie... by finally being able to devote the necessary time and resources to making us these fantastic tools with the capability that a game with true hopes of success would need! And fact is, development and support cost money, the proof of this is in the previous engines and their development tracks, from GG... when they didn't have many resources to throw at it, vs. the way Torque3D seems to be going. As long as they keep the indie license on Torque3D "within reason" (and don't gimp the indie version) and they continue to sell TGB and TGEA for the hobbyist devs... Then I personally will back them with 100% support (and my credit card).

Note: that I am not writing this to start a flame war... and hope it is not seen that way. I simply want people to stop and think about the realistic truths behind it before they complain and condemn.