We have stumbled on our first problem as a team. Everything has gone smoothly with conceptualizing, programming and illustrating. But a topic we stumbled on when we were to discuss the modeling softwares we immediately realized; is autodesk maya licence 6000 bucks? And is it necessary to have licensed maya when marketing a game done with it? Do you know anything regarding this topic? Would appreciate the info so we know what problems we might stumble on in the future.

We're using Unity to power our game.

Maya to model and animate.

Best,

Fred

"He is working since ages with 3d software from autodesk. also with teams they also had no licence keys. and he never had that autodesk or someone else asked what software they used or if there is a licence key. autodesk is not really interested in this. but if you want to feel better, its possible to get cheaper version as a student or you make a deal with autodesk. then the prices is 100+$ per licence"

- Someone in the business.

Makes sense. Well we'll use blender from now on. It's the meta-software for starters. And if you're Swedish Simon then tack.

In theory you would have to buy maya (the full version) anyway if you have already used it. And even then you would be in a legal gray zone.

How could you be in the software/games business and not know it would be illegal to use unlicensed or wrongly licensed software? Did you really not know or are you just looking for someone that give you another justification to use unlicensed software?

Even if nobody is asking you for it if you are a business you should always pay the (non-free) software you are using. Why should anybody be more willing to pay for your software than you are willing to pay for other products?

If you still decide to use unlicensed software in your company, remember it just needs one angry employee to vent his anger and you might face a lawsuit.

This particular issue would probably make a good article since it does arise quite often in one form or another.