Cheap AirPlaySDK has become an expensive Marmalade

Today, the company IdeaWorks, developing a cross-platform SDK for creating games for mobile phones and not only, has announced a name change. Starting today, AirPlaySDK will be called Marmalade.
Also, along with the library rebrandig, IdeaWorks announced the release of a new, 5th SDK version, which added a tool for creating platform-specific modules that can generate module templates for iOS and Android and the linking code from the API description. Also, the new version added an API for working with a phone camera and a gallery of pictures and support for the "gaming" android phone Xperia Play.

This is all from the good, but from the bad - this is a radical change in licensing, and not at all in favor of the developers. Let me remind you: until today, apart from the time-limited demo version, they had a free (but only for iOS), full cross-platform license for independent developers and small companies (“indie”) for 100 bucks a year, and dear with full support, access to earlier versions and other gadgets - for serious companies.

In the new version, the free and indie license is not at all (!), But there is the so-called “Basic” for $ 150 per year, only for iOS and Android and the “Made with Marmalade” non-removable screen saver. Why do we need such a license - it’s not at all clear and who will pay money for the SDK version, which actually puts an end to the possibility of publishing the game? The next version is already “Standart” for $ 500, more or less equivalent to Indie in features, and “Pro” with support for $ 3,500.
')
Moreover, as I managed to find out from a company representative (they themselves did not publish this information), holders of an indie-license, no discount is foreseen, and in order to preserve the functionality, they will need to upgrade the license to Standart.

In general, it is very sad. AirPlaySDK is one of the few libraries that allows easy creation of cross-platform games, and is popular among independent developers, not least, at a reasonable price. Price inflation is hardly a reasonable step, as independent developers will scare away, and they, among the creators of mobile applications, are almost the majority. I myself, actually engaged in the development of games based on AirPlay in my spare time, if the creators of Marmalade do not make concessions, I will think about it three times before shedding the license.