Help with understanding license purchase

nwarner

Hello, I've hired a contractor to create animations for my game (built in UE), and the contractor uses Spine Professional. If I understand correctly based on the licenses, for my game to use the animations that the contractor creates, I would also need to purchase a Spine license to be able to use the Spine runtime?

Does it matter whether I purchase an Essentials or Professional license to be able to use the Spine assets from my contractor in Unreal Engine with the runtime? I do not intend to open the assets in the Spine software, modify the assets, or do anything other than incorporate them into my game as-is provided by the contractor. I'm just looking for license clarification, as after searching Discord, the Forums, and reading the FAQ and Licenses (Spine Editor, Spine Runtime), I still don't understand whether I need a license or not to use the Runtime with assets in my game (and which version of the license if so).

Spinebot

Yes, you will need a Spine license to use the Spine Runtimes in your game, even if you do not intend to modify the assets or open them in the Spine software. The Spine Runtimes are required to load and render the animations created by your contractor in Unreal Engine, and using these runtimes necessitates a Spine license.

For your specific use case, where you do not need to edit the animations and only need to incorporate them into your game, a Spine Essential license is sufficient. The Spine Essential license allows you to use the Spine Runtimes in your game without any issues. However, if your game makes more than $500,000 USD in gross annual revenue, you would need to upgrade to a Spine Enterprise license.

Here are some key points from the provided contexts:

The Spine Runtimes license requires a Spine Editor license to use the runtimes in your applications (https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/18256/1).
You can distribute any number of games or apps containing the Spine Runtimes with a single Spine license (https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/10301/1).
If you are not editing the animations and only using them in your game, Spine Essential is sufficient (https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/14301/3).

In summary, you need a Spine Essential license to use the Spine Runtimes in your game with the assets provided by your contractor. If your game's revenue exceeds $500,000 USD annually, you will need to upgrade to Spine Enterprise.

Nate

Spinebot is correct. Either Professional or Essential is sufficient (up to the $500k revenue threshold) to incorporate the Spine Runtimes into any number of your software products.