Corona SDK is now Free + Mac/Win Desktop Apps + GDC

This week, to coincide with GDC, we’re making some very exciting announcements!

Corona SDK is completely FREE

First, Corona SDK is now completely free! Starting today, anyone who registers on our site will get the full power of Corona SDK (existing users can just logout and then re-login to the Corona Simulator).

Previously, you had to pay to get access to things like daily builds, in-app purchases, premium graphics, Pro-tier plugins, Windows Phone 8, etc. — now, everyone will get those for free. If you’re familiar with the old subscription tiers for Corona SDK (Starter, Basic, and Pro), everyone will now get the functionality that was available in Pro. There is now a single “Corona SDK” — one tier to rule them all.

It is worth noting that Corona Enterprise, CoronaCards iOS, and CoronaCards Android will continue to be paid products.

If you’re an existing subscriber — Basic, Pro, or Enterprise — see Free Upgrades for Subscribers at the bottom of this post to learn about some great upgrades.

Mac App and Win32 App support

In my State of Corona address, I mentioned new platforms as a major theme for 2015 and our strategy to make it happen.

And that brings us to our second major announcement: We are bringing Mac App and Win32 App support to the Corona platform!

Yes, you read that right.

We are going to make it incredibly easy for you to create apps that run everywhere — from desktop computers to mobile devices!

Currently, we are in the early stages. Our next milestone is to be able to package this up into a form that can be shared in a beta. More on this soon.

But we have some demos: come by the Fuse Powered/Corona Labs booth at the GDC Expo (Booth 1244, South Hall) this week if you’d like to see a few really great Corona apps running on desktop computers — as apps! We’ll also publish some videos of these here on the blog very soon.

Fuse Powered monetization

Finally, our parent company, Fuse Powered, is taking monetization to a whole new level with a its player-centric monetization engine. See some recent coverage in VentureBeat.

With this engine, you’ll be able to do 3 things. First, you’ll be able to analyze your players, and make meaningful conclusions from their in-game behavior. Next, you’ll be able to segment them based on these behaviors and figure out the most relevant offer to show them. Finally, you’ll be able to deliver targeted IAP offers, dynamic rewarded video, and ads.

On top of it all, you’ll also be able to mediate your own ad networks and leverage AdRally, Fuse’s competitive ad marketplace.

There’s nothing on the market like this today, and it all translates into helping you make significantly more money!

While select Corona developers are already in private beta with Fuse Powered, we are working hard to nail down all the moving parts — there are a lot of them. Rest assured, we want to get this into your hands as quickly as possible.

If you’d like to learn more, come to Jon’s session at GDC on Tuesday, Mar 3: Player Centric Live Ops Monetization.

Or come by the Fuse Powered/Corona Labs booth at the GDC Expo (Booth 1244, South Hall).

Free Upgrades for Subscribers

Now that Corona is free, we do realize there are many of you that have bought/renewed your Corona subscriptions recently and we want to make sure we take care of you. If you were an existing Basic, Pro, or Enterprise customer as of this morning, we’re going to give you some amazing, free upgrades:

Current Corona Enterprise customers get CoronaCards iOS and CoronaCards Android licenses (1 month for each month you have left). Current Corona SDK Pro customers have been upgraded to Corona Enterprise (1.5 months for each month you have left) and will also get CoronaCards iOS/Android. Current Basic customers have been upgraded to Corona Enterprise (1 month for each month you have left) and will also get CoronaCards iOS/Android.

All these upgrades should be in place NOW, but it’s possible some of you may have to wait a day or so to see the full upgrade.

However, if you’re a Basic or Pro customer who bought in 2015 (Jan 1, 2015 or after), and you do not want these upgrades, you can request a pro-rated refund. Email us at refund@coronalabs.com by Mar 15, 2015 11:59pm PST. If you meet the conditions, we will issue a refund within a few days.

If you have any questions, please review the FAQs. If you still have questions or want to discuss, feel free to post in this thread in the forum and we will do our best to make it all clear!

We are super excited about making Corona SDK free and opening it up to an even bigger worldwide developer community. This, together with our expanded platform coverage and the work we are doing with Fuse Powered is making for the start of a great year!

And, as always, we want to thank all our developers for using Corona and for making some amazing things with the Corona platform!