it's free and it has:
-Ageia PhysX
- a really greate editor (well lightmaps are generated only for terrain but u can still import levels with lightmaps in static levels if u use external lightmapper, could be something like blender or giles etc.)
- shaders (a must have in 2009)
- supports opengl and directx, so its good for both customers area of the big graphics device competitors
- it runs on older hardware as well
- web deployment ( to play the games u only need a 3mb plugin and I already testet it with firefox and IE and everything worked fine, think for the typical indie casualgames it's really a great option)
- with it you can publish for win and mac os ( but for iphone and wii you must purchase other versions...but it gives u this support lol)
- multiplayer options and other www functions
- nice integrated animation editor
- stream audio and textures assets while game runs

I think it's a big option its free this makes the decision really easy, multiplatform is important too for publishers. If someone would make a good game with the free edition ( and u can make a good game, u can code in c# 1.1 javascript and boo and I think c# 1.1 is still good for these things there are even software developer who create their software with it), there would grow up the possibility that a publisher would buy for you or give the money for the pro license too fullfill your game with the features of pro if needed. for a hobbyist developer a good nearly complete package lol

some of the missed features in free version are not even in pro edition of others engine so I become happy with it even without those features. and imho I think it's just a question of time until they make an sdk aviable maybe for purchase or in a similar way like conitec did with open source license until you purchase the sdk license. ( and i mean sdk not the source code of the engine itself)

No render to texture -> no postprocessing, no real reflections and no shadowmapping.
There are NO realtimeshadows at all in the free version. The one that offers these features is to be honest quite expensive. Mac and Windows support is nice, but everything else also costs quite some money. And I somehow didn´t yet understand the sence in playing in a browser as it is anyways downloaded, it can only happen that I have to download it again and again instead of only once. But okay, that is probably just me as it is pretty common these days.
I btw didn´t find anything about multiple rendertargets, but I guess that they exist in the pro version?
At least featurewise A7 Comm is still the best choice. However the developement is very interesting at the moment and I am of course also very interested on how it goes on. I think if GameStudio would get new editors and templates, it could get just awsome and again interesting for everyone wanting to develop games.

yes a7 com is still a better choice maybe but if u compare unity free edition with lite-c edition both no cost but unity free has a lot more.
but lite-c is still good you can use plugins win api etc. not bad at all. sure the render to texture feature would be great too, and some other options of a7 com and pro.but unity looks actually more professional and good documentation too. in the next weeks and moth the community will explose in count of member which brings a lot more knwoledge etc. I I'm sure conitec and other competitors (and community members) will react. this reminds me a little bit of the browser war hehe and the result is today we have good browsers so let the engine war begin hehe

It is indeed a tough situation. Unity Indie has some limitations but it also offers access to a lot of platforms. Though you can add the missing features easily through buying Shiva for only 169. That is still cheaper than competition and is almost as good as Unity Pro, works also on all these platforms plus Linux and has good editors.

T3D ist getting hot these days and C4 2.0 is coming in November with absolutely unique technology. It will be hard to follow at the same speed.

http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=296206&gonew=1#UNREAD

And here we go
Good news for all Atari Lite-C users.

yeah? really?

that was a pretty fast step...
I just wonder if it changes anything.

hehe yes this are good news, nice decision, I'll be waiting. Basically lite-c will have features of extra edition wow
said in one word of my natural language: bravo

That's why I like competitors...

Enjoy your meal
Toast

JCL wrote in this comment that there are not many users of the extra edition. So it will not affect a lot of customers.
But it also tells us that the extra edition was not very attractive. The users probably switched from free Lite-C directly to the com edition. Remember, it has no shaders, just as an example. Free engines like Ogre, Irrlicht, Unity Indie have shaders.
I believe that this feature is very important for beginners. This is, how they compared game engines in the past, this is, what magazines wrote about.

This step brings a bit more value to the existing Lite-C users, but it probably will not change the business of Conitec.

And it will not affect you, since most of you have higher licenses.