Blood from a stone.Īutodesk’s problem is really that, because they’re “the game,” that they think that they’re the only game. Plus, how long til they go the micro-transaction route and start treating key features like DLC? Sounds unlikely until you consider how many people said that they’d never go the subscription route either. Time will tell if I’ll regret that decision, but I can’t justify backing up the money truck to ADSK’s door whenever they want. I’d gladly forego a few missing bells & whistles in exchange for a perpetual license. That’s why I recently took advantage of the $695 crossgrade deal for LightWave 2015. There are those, like me, who are more than happy to use ADSK products if an employer is footing the bill, but would much rather use something else when the expense is on them. A move like this might end up being good business for the likes of MAXON and Newtek. Unlike Photoshop, ADSK products do have legitimate competition, functionality-wise. That $125/month looks like a steal compared to $3,500 until you consider that Joe Schmo here might hold onto that perpetual license for years. However, for Joe Schmo who only earns $15/hr and dreams of changing careers or supplementing his income, subscription might be a deal breaker. I can see this new model working for some people. This move to subscriptions stinks of greed and nothing more, allowing them to milk the cash cow on a regular basis for all time. Unless ADSK takes a different approach, it’s bound to encounter the same fate. When Adobe made the move to subscription only, it did absolutely nothing to stomp out the problem. One also has to wonder exactly how much this will do to combat piracy. A move like this stands to potentially shrink the talent pool and the sort of userbase that would hold onto a specific version for 3 or 4 years before moving to the latest version. This says nothing of the non-student hobbyist who may quite legitimately feel that a stripped down alternative like Maya LT is really a non-option. $125/month might not seem like a lot, but there are only so many subscriptions that one individual can handle without (eventually) breaking the bank. Such artists live on fixed, tight budgets. If you’re a career freelancer, you’re responsible for your own overhead. There’s that large and ever growing swath of artists who are neither student, nor studio. That said, software as a service is bad for everybody, but the developer. It’s a solid price at only $1,500/year for Maya.
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