I participated in a similar topic here: https://forum.reallusion.com/520853/I-just-read-the-Standard-and-Extended-License and I do believe those topics should be also created in the UE/Unity forums to make people aware of what they're getting into for game dev.
When I've read VARTS posts I felt so much comfort into seeing someone in a similar situation as myself. As a solo dev focused on programming and using arts from actual pro which save us months if not years of work.

What Reallusion got absolutely wrong here is that there is absolutely NO WAY for a small studio or solo dev to know if 
1- his project will actually result into a game that is put on a platform such as Steam/Ps Store etc.
2- his project will actually sell more than 10 copies

Reallusion with this 3x pricing assume that if you are doing game dev you'll make money and this is just an investment. It's not. It's a gamble for many of us.

This kind of pricing is for large studios who have experience, funds and are almost certain to recoup their costs.

Many other tools offer a small indie licensing which is basically "if your game or studio makes less than $XXXK per year: it's free/cheaper/whatever" if you make serious money, then yeah ok you need to pay accordingly because those assets participated in the success of your game (maybe...?)

Even Unity does that. If your studio earns more than a threshold you have to have a Unity Pro License. And we're not speaking about an indie who make $50k after spending the double in his time developing and all the store content (CC or other marketplace)

We need a solution for small indies period.

There is no way I'm spending a single cent in this store from now on as I do not know if my current project will actually ever be released. I'm saying that because I also read that once you bought a Standard licensed product after 27th of July you can't even upgrade it to extended license.
So an indie prototyping a project can't even just "try" and updated his licensing when going live to be right with the EULA. 

It's bad business practice, it's a strong word but I would almost call it malicious considering how fast it went into place after letting us use Export + free MDL license for game creation.

I would not have spent $1.5K into upgrade CC4+IC8 + some packages if I would have known how bad this would change a few months later.

Please review the feedback you are getting in the different forum posts and revert those changes for small indies. It's simply not fair.

Let me help with that.

there were two types of licenses. "iContent" and "Export". iContent meant that you can use those assets for creating images/renders and video content. So, you can say that iContent is a good name, it is iClone content. You can use them and do whatever you want using iClone. Export meant that you can export that asset to other software, like Blender, zBrush etc. and do whatever you want with it other than selling it ofcourse.

There was a price difference of 1.5x. You can pay a small amount of difference to be able to export to other software. Also, to be able to do that, you needed another software called 3dXchange, which has it's own license. So, you had to purchase 3dxchange AND pay difference per asset just to be able to export to other software.

Latelty, RL ditched 3dXChange and adjusted price of iClone and CC accordingly with cc4 and ic8. They also removed iContent type of licenses. So, now film makers must purchase export license as well.

After this move, they re-introduced it back with newest licensing change, the extended one.

Basically, what happened is, film makers now have to pay 1.5x, and game developers have to pay 3x, instead of the old 1x and 1.5x pricing.

I hope you can understand why I am demanding an explanation from an official contact. I am fine with paying premium for quality content. But what exactly has changed for demanding x3 for same product? Am I missing some huge improvement? If this is just a normal price increase without any benefit for me, I will leave, as this is bad business practice that I consider a red flag. I will be fine if there is an additional benefit that can warrant x3 pricing, like being able to export blendshapes to our games etc. But from what I see, it is not the case here. Is there a new feature in cc4 that I missed that can warrant such a price change?

I am completely fine with paying 300$ for a very quality hair for example, it is one of the worst parts of game development IMHO. If it works as intended, it can warrant that price. But a hair with 100$ price is now 300$, did the quality increased as well? Can I now make the hair longer or shorter in my game at runtime? Did this price change empowered me in some way?

If not, it means RL is not my partner anymore, instead, a snake oil merchant trying to leech my money.

And to further add to the confusion (which threw me off initially), this is only the case for CC-related content. So, you'll still see Standard licenses listed for non-CC content.

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Yeah, basically for those who are wondering, if you had Export content before July 27th 2022, now all your content is automatically Extended after July 27th 2022.

I think the confusion is that all Export licenses were upgraded to Extended licenses for items bought before July 27. The definition for the Export license as such did not change, except that it is now called Standard.

Beginning July 27, Export was renamed Standard, and an Extended license needs to be purchased for use of CC items in games.

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animagic (8/5/2022)

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F O R W A R D (8/5/2022)

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I didn't get anything wrong. What I implied was that CC purchases for use in games AFTER the deadline become prohibitive expensive.

You literally wrote that the Export License was, in your words, "an Export (now Standard) license", that's what I implied that you got wrong.

The previous Export license is now called a Standard license. Blame RL for continuously changing terminology.

Listen, it doesn't affect me at all, but I do feel for the small game developers.

No, I'm positive Export = Extended. I know it's confusing but let's avoid misinformation.

Blame RL for continuously changing terminology.

Do you mean that :
iContent license (past) -> standard license (now)
exported license (past) -> extended license (now)
This change of wording is worth 3x price?

What is the meaning of "exported"? exported to others 3d softwares? or what?
(I get confused)

I've got to say that I'm confused now with the terminology. This post states that the Export became Extended.

Peter (RL) (7/29/2022)

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Supermikey (7/28/2022)

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As clear as mud........
So when i purchased CC3 over a year ago, primarily to make characters for games, where do i stand.
I'v emailed you guys several times asking what i can and can't do with the software i paid $300 for. And still no reply....

Good job there..

The following should answer your questions. 

From the 27th July 2022 onwards you will need to purchase applicable content with an Extended License if you plan to use the content in games, applications or VR etc.

The content that requires an Extended License is shown in the screenshot below.

Any exportable content you already purchased prior to the 27th July 2022 will automatically be upgraded to the Extended License version.

There is now no longer a need to apply for a Mass Distribution License.

VARTS (8/5/2022)

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Just to clarify the misinformation, MDL is something completely free. It is just a formality between you and RL. You just email their marketing team about your game and they will promote your game if it has some quality that will benefit RL as well, a very huge win-win situation, you get marketing, they get promotion of their tools. You can see one example with the game called Bright Memory. It is a huge success, great looking game made by one dude, later continued with small team. It is pretty much similar to my conditions, RL empowered the small guy with great tools and affordable prices in the past. Not anymore. If I was not using tools and were on the hunt for something new, I would have never considered RL as an option if I saw 60$ price for a generic casual t-shirt :) Why I'm writing those feedbacks are due to this. They might have miscalculated some stuff, maybe developers did not properly updated stuff on back-end etc. I want clarification. Is those prices going to be the future or not? If so, I will move on, as it is not affordable for me anymore, and hiring local freelancers will be more cheaper for my case.

F O R W A R D

Also, I don't want to be salty either but you claimed to have "spent ten thousands of dollars, with zero regret" from your first post, which honestly sounded ridiculous when I first read that. If you have spent tens of thousands of dollars you'd own most of the marketplace already so you wouldn't really be ranting because of this.

Why do you think it is ridiculous? I have spent somewhere between 15-20k on RL tools and content, yes it is huge money for you and I; but meh, it is nothing when it comes to game budgets. And I own most of the good quality content RL offers on content store / marketplace. Going solo dev is a choice, not a mandatory thing for me. I had the money, I had the time, and I wanted to achieve something all by myself.

I would like to repeat this once more, I am a company owner that invested heavily in RL tools due to their great offerings; and was a very happy customer up until this latest change. Why do you think I wouldn't rant when someone asks me to pay x3 for exact same thing? And do this very huge change in such a short amount of time without decent notice? This new change affects the future of my business in a very negative way. I needed to spent 15-20k USD to get what I needed out of this tool for my game, and was going to spend about 5k more with the remainder of my wishlist. My game is being worked on since 2016 so scope is AA quality, don't mix it with typical indie games. A normal indie guy will not need this quality content anyways, I could earn more by selling jigsaw puzzle games on steam instead of bothering with what I'm trying to achieve if everything was about money :)

As written above, what will happen when metaverse stuff become a reality? Will RL just change licenses again in one month and ask for further money? The problem here is not the money itself, it is the sudden changes that completelty ruins the existing business plans. It is about trusting to a company. I considered RL as my partner up to this point, and they tried to upsell me stuff for x3 without giving me something in return. As I mentioned earlier, if I'm going to pay x3, there should be a major change in the product itself to warrant that x3 increase. What has changed? NOTHING. The only thing changed is someone in a suit looked at RL income charts and decided they need to milk their customers :) That is how I see it anyways. That is why I'm still sticking around and waiting for an official response to my concerns. Someone from RL please explain how this change helped us developers in any way, shape or form, pretty please.

From what you tell me I can say that we are in a very similar situation and you have very strong points that I agree with specially if the MDL was free in the first place.

The previous Export license is now called a Standard license. Blame RL for continuously changing terminology.

Listen, it doesn't affect me at all, but I do feel for the small game developers.

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