What's the catch? How do they make money?

[WarPigeon]

I'm always a bit suspicious of free software. After all, there's the old adage that "if something is free, you are the product". However, based on a quick look-over of the terms and privacy policy, this company seems... not evil?

The allowed commercial uses are listed here: https://vroid.pixiv.help/hc/en-us/articles/360008211814-Can-I-use-VRoid-Studio-for-commercial-purposes-

and they seem pretty fair. Apparently, you can even use the models in commercial video games, which is an unexpected surprise.

Some other posts on this forum mention that you can't port models to other formats, but I couldn't find this restriction mentioned on their main site. If that is true, perhaps they make money selling other devs licenses to use their format in their software, but this is all just a guess.

So does anyone know how this software makes them any money?

[NikoAetherious]

Well, to put it simply, I wouldn't be surprised if VRoid Studio or the models made with it don't make them any money, rather they would make money from their other services, considering that Pixiv is a rather popular social media site in Japan with various subsidiaries. Also, can confirm that there is no rule about not porting models to other formats, its just a bit difficult because VRoid only does VRM, but FBX support is planned in the future, so you have to use something like Blender with a VRM import addon. Granted, due to how the metadata of the VRM works, if you are trying to use a model someone else made, it is possible that they set a flag that applications will check that will prevent you from using it.

[SurpriseGmg]

I can think of three possible ways:

1. The mobile app: It is worth noting that VRoid also has a mobile counterpart, which is less of a modelling program and more of a dress up type application. In the application, some of the outfits cost real money. In addition, up until very recently, models could not be downloaded from the mobile version. Even though they are downloadable now, they have a lot more restrictions due to Pixiv owning all of the hair and clothes presets from the app (you can't even publicly redistribute anything made in it). If you are making a model using the computer version, you don't have to worry about any of these restrictions and can do whatever you want with your models, which is why I consider the mobile version to be vastly inferior.

2. The Booth: Pixiv seems to own the Booth website, a website where a lot of people sell different models and textures for VRoid, and a lot of people do buy them. It's likely to assume that Pixiv is taking a cut of sales made on this website.

3. Brand deals: I've noticed that they also sometimes market certain clothes using the VRoid avatars (apparently Levi's even had a brand deal with them)

I'd like to imagine that the Booth is one of the major money makers here, so in a way it's almost like the community helps keep it going. Pixiv is also a large Japanese art website that already makes cash, so that might have something to do with it?

[Max Payne: Maximum Pain]

because they are pixiv

[TheChickenSp00n]

Think of Blender, they are compleatly free and have tools that are close to the other software that cost money

[WarPigeon]

Originally posted by TheChickenSp00n:

Think of Blender, they are compleatly free and have tools that are close to the other software that cost money

Blender is open source program supported by a non-profit organization. AFAIK Vroid is not open source and pixiv is a for-profit company. That's why I was suspicious.

[Hardcore Games™]

I use blender and other popular open source tools, they have their use

besides running on a potato, the source engine is free to use as well

[Saviliana]

Originally posted by WarPigeon:

Originally posted by TheChickenSp00n:

Think of Blender, they are compleatly free and have tools that are close to the other software that cost money

Blender is open source program supported by a non-profit organization. AFAIK Vroid is not open source and pixiv is a for-profit company. That's why I was suspicious.

Epic is also a profit company, but that doesn't mean they can't make UE and other engine related software they brought/created free to use (for now).

[Merengil]

Epic make money on UE so it's not entirely without profit in mind.

[WarPigeon]

Originally posted by Saviliana:

Originally posted by WarPigeon:

Blender is open source program supported by a non-profit organization. AFAIK Vroid is not open source and pixiv is a for-profit company. That's why I was suspicious.

Epic is also a profit company, but that doesn't mean they can't make UE and other engine related software they brought/created free to use (for now).

Yeah, as the poster above me mentioned, UE has a pretty clear monetization method. The reason I asked about Vroid is because I'm not sure how they profit off it.