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From the licence terms ofMicrosoft Visual Studio Community:

Individual License. If you are an individual working on your own applications to sell or for any other purpose, you may use the software to develop and test those applications.

My interpretation: Since I'm an individual, I may develop a game with MS VS Community and distribute this game.

However, apparently, this is not the only interpretation. From a comment another used posted under another question:

You do realize that the first license statement only says develop and test, not deploy, sell or distribute.

This comment has gained an upvote, so I'm wondering, if there is really not something important I'm missing?

I'm not sure how: the licence terms seem to be clear, I may use VS Community to develop applications that I will be later distribute: doesn't this imply that I may distribute applications I have developed with VS Community?

But, well, law is law... It's notorious for being hard to interpret for non-lawyers...

For a year or so I've been working on a game that I intend to publish at some point. And yes, I've been using MS VS Community to develop this game. Do I have the right to publish this game? Or - however I don't know how can these licence terms be interpreted in such a harsh way - am I really only allowed to develop, but not publish this game?

(Is a year of work wasted then?)

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  • The comment you pulled out is about a preview version of VS Community, not a release version, and has different license terms. – Ron Beyer Jan 30 '19 at 14:54
  • @RonBeyer I don't think so; the comment says: "the first license statement" and the first license statement is about release version of VS Community (preview version is the second) – Actual Ouch Jan 30 '19 at 16:20
  • I believe the poster of that comment is wrong, as the license says that you may use VS Community to develop and test applications that you intend to sell. His comment is self-contradictory, the license states that "working on your own applications to sell or for any other purpose, you may use the software to develop and test...". The license doesn't say "you can work on anything you sell, but you can't sell it"... – Ron Beyer Jan 30 '19 at 16:33
  • Hard to imagine it interpreted any other way. It says you can use VS for development and testing, because VS is a tool FOR development and testing. What would it even mean to say "you can use the software to [sell] those applications..."? – Ask About Monica Jan 30 '19 at 19:37

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