To allow developers and publishers ample time to implement usage of Adobe Premium Features, in August 2012 we expect to make available a website where you can obtain a license to use premium features. Publishers and developers are invited to use this site to apply for a license to continue using Premium Features.

The Flash Player will not begin enforcing the license requirements for Premium Features until at least 8 weeks after the availability of the licensing website. This time provides publishers and developers an opportunity to obtain a license before it is required by the Flash Player. Once Flash Player begins enforcing the Premium Features license requirement, unlicensed content making use of the Premium Features will continue to run, although it will automatically fall back to software rendering (for more information, please review the release notes for the beta release of Flash Player 11.4).

If you publicly release content that uses Premium Features prior to the availability of the licensing site, please contact Adobe for a royalty-free license: fpl@adobe.com.

Also note that Premium Features for Flash Player will not be available in China until a later date.

Overview of Premium Features for Gaming in Flash Player:

Publishers and commercial game developers who create games using native ActionScript will not be impacted by the introduction of Premium Features
For publishers and developers who use 3rd party tools, Premium Features cross compilation APIs will provide a pathway to target the installed base of Flash Player
- Premium Features cross compilation APIs are defined as the combined usage of both domain memory APIs and the Stage3D GPU hardware acceleration APIs
- Usage of premium features in Flash Player requires a license agreement with Adobe. Content packaged with Adobe AIR as standalone applications (e.g., for iOS, Android) do not require licensing for Premium Features.
- Premium Features licensing includes a royalty agreement of 9% revenue share for net revenue above $50,000 cumulative revenue per game.

Why Use Flash Player Premium Features?

Publish and distribute your most advanced, graphics-intensive games to an installed base of over 1 billion users worldwide.

Access the fastest and most advanced features of Flash Player for stunning and responsive interactive game content

Access APIs that allow you to target Flash Player from a non-ActionScript workflow. By using these cross compilation APIs, game publishers can deliver their back catalog of games or existing assets to a much broader audience via Flash Player, thereby creating new revenue streams while maintaining the same development workflow.

C/C++ developers don’t have to learn new languages, and are able to reduce their development costs while expanding their reach with Flash Player.

Bring console quality experiences to the web and reach the largest software audience in the world, without friction or fragmentation.

Flash Player Premium Features enable developers and publishers to deliver stunning web-based games across browsers to over a billion computers—dramatically expanding the market for a new class of social gaming experiences. In addition, Adobe is opening up the Flash Player to a supported third party ecosystem of specialized gaming middleware and development tools, not just those from Adobe. Adobe's support of these 3rd party developer solutions targeting the Flash Player is enabled by this new tier of Premium Features.

The new tier of Premium Features provides access to domain memory in combination with hardware-accelerated Stage3D in Flash Player.
These cross compilation APIs enable unprecedented gaming experiences across the web. Together, they allow native game engines that power premiere titles on advanced, modern console hardware to run directly on the web with no install, consistently across browsers, while reaching the largest possible audience.
All other existing Flash Player capabilities are unaffected by the Premium Features terms. Developers can continue to use all of the other features of Flash Player—which power many of the most successful games on the web today—royalty-free.

Who should use Premium Features?

The Premium Features tier is intended to benefit non-ActionScript developers who previously had no direct path to deliver their most advanced, graphically sophisticated, next-generation games to over 95% of the web via Flash Player. The cross compilation APIs (combining hardware-accelerated Stage3D with domain memory) enables the use of compiler technologies like project "Alchemy", and advanced C/C++ game engines.

Tools like Alchemy enable these existing C/C++ codebases to run sandboxed across browsers in Flash Player. C/C++ developers, and developers using other languages who build on native middleware/engines, can now join ActionScript developers in benefiting from the ubiquity of Flash Player. And ActionScript developers benefit from now being able to leverage millions of lines of existing optimized C/C++ code in their ActionScript projects.

Games and applications using either hardware accelerated Stage3D or domain memory individually do NOT require a Premium Features license. For example, game developers can independently leverage high-performance Stage3D hardware acceleration in Flash Player – which delivers full GPU-accelerated experiences to more users than any other web technology – at no charge.

Licensing and pricing

Premium Features are available royalty-free and without restriction until we launch the Premium Features for Flash Player licensing site before the end of August. After this date, the use of Premium Features will require a license from Adobe. Applications that make less than $50,000 in net revenues will remain free of any royalties, as will any use of the Premium Features in applications packaged with Adobe AIR, including mobile applications for iOS and Android.

Net revenue is calculated as revenue after taxes, payment processing fees, and social network platform fees are subtracted. Revenues subject to the revenue share include application sales, in-app purchases, subscription fees, sponsorship, and advertising fees received for advertising in, or related to the application.

To ensure that any existing content and projects currently under development can be exempted from these new revenue sharing requirements, Adobe will provide royalty-free licenses for use of the Premium Features by any content publicly released prior to the availability of the licensing site for Premium Features for Flash Player. To request a royalty-free license for your content published prior to the site becoming available, please contact us at fpl@adobe.com

Developer usage

Premium Features licensing will only be needed when the cross compilation APIs are used in the same application run in Flash Player; these APIs are defined as:

ApplicationDomain.domainMemory, which provides access to domain memory
Stage3D.request3DContext, if using hardware acceleration

Starting with Flash Player 11.2, developers will see a notification watermark in the debug version of Flash Player if their content uses both of these APIs, informing them that they will need to obtain a license. Until the Premium Features licensing terms go into effect before the end of August 2012, no associated restrictions are enforced in release versions of Flash Player.

When the Premium Features licensing terms go into effect, unlicensed content will continue to run but will no longer have access to the Premium Features tier: unlicensed content will automatically use software rendering rather than hardware accelerated Stage3D in release versions of Flash Player. Developers/publishers will be able to obtain a license to enable Premium Features (hardware accelerated Stage3D rendering with domain memory) in release versions of Flash Player.

These Premium Features are available without any fee for content packaged with Adobe AIR (i.e., content packaged as apps for iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac).

Developer usage: Tooling

The Premium Features allow Adobe to support a broad game development ecosystem that includes advanced third party tools and middleware which will now be able to leverage the Flash Player.

Adobe plans to provide developer tooling, including a new compiler, codenamed "Alchemy," that uses domain memory, as we announced September 2011. Alchemy will allow developers to cross-compile C/C++ code to run in Flash Player with high performance across browsers. ActionScript developers will be able to leverage high performance C/C++ libraries in their ActionScript code and C/C++ developers can easily deliver sophisticated, immersive C/C++ games across browsers to over 1.3 billion computers on the web. Developers interested in previewing Alchemy can apply now to join the Alchemy pre-release program.

Obtaining a license

Adobe expects to provide a website where publishers and developers can obtain a license for Premium Features for Flash Player by the end of August.

Until the licensing site is available in August 2012, developers can use the Premium Features without applying authorization to their content.

Adobe understands there may be planned projects that are under development and is interested in supporting your success. Adobe will provide royalty-free licenses for ongoing use of the Premium Features for any content publicly released prior to the licensing website being available.

If you have a project currently under development that will launch in the August timeframe, please contact us at fpl@adobe.com to discuss your specific case and licensing options.

Learn more

To learn more about Premium Features, please see the FAQs. If you have other questions, please contact us at fpl@adobe.com. And to learn more about gaming and the rich core features of the Flash Platform available for use royalty free, visit gaming.adobe.com.

Adobe is investing not only in improving game development, but also in new features and services for game developers to help them reach new markets and build successful gaming businesses. We'll be working closely with gaming tooling and technology partners to integrate future Adobe digital marketing services for gaming, helping game publishers build successful gaming businesses.

Flash Player is the console of the web, enabling stunning games without friction or fragmentation, powering the most successful social and casual games online. We're excited to introduce a new tier of capabilities that will help developers bring premium console quality experiences to more people than ever before.

Flash Player gaming