new upgrade policy...

[Hirazi Blue]

Not exactly the unequivocal denial I was (secretly) hoping for, obviously, but thanks for your reply!

[Rork]

I said this on the mailing forum, and I say it again here,

With the current economy, what dimwit at the AD office is RAISING prices??????

It's the best way to drive people away, at least until the economy picks up again.

Or start looking for cheaper alternatives. In both cases, bad for business and Softimage in general.

[McNistor]

Um, I believe that the economic difficulties are affecting everyone, AD stockholders included. As a consequence their profits probably decreased so they had to find a solution to at least keep them in line. Pure speculation of course, but based on keen observation of national and private economic mechanics over time. If this is the case, it's simply a bad business decision as history clearly shows to anyone interested into investigating.

[Hirazi Blue]

Well, although any price increase would hurt me a lot personally ATM, the main problem I have with all this is that all these planned policy changes and price increases are not transparent. The whole "ask your reseller" concept is nonsensical. Autodesk should be upfront with their decisions/the details of changed policies or raised prices. This is not something I as a client should have to ask for specifically. If your reseller feels like handing out this information beforehand, you know what's coming. If your reseller doesn't feel the need to give you this information, you're technically "scr**ed". Autodesk should end this inequality by giving this information to all its clients in a clear and timely manner...
/rant (and admittedly a broken record!) ;)

[Rork]

@ McNister:

So that should justify it then? There's no perpetual growth, that's what got us there in 1929, and now again in 2010..

On the mailinglist, Matt summed up my feelings about this nicely too:

I can't believe AD's policy concerning pricing. I've dropped both my subs due to the 70% price increase for uk subscribers - so are the prices going up even more?!

I'll think about upgrading again when they sort out their INSANE price policies. 2013 should do me for a while yet. Given that we're in a worldwide recession and the 3d market in particular seems to be being squeezed, I have no idea how they are validating these decisions.

So unless you have AD stock, please tell me why this feels 'right' too you.....

[Bellsey]

Well, although any price increase would hurt me a lot personally ATM, the main problem I have with all this is that all these planned policy changes and price increases are not transparent. The whole "ask your reseller" concept is nonsensical. Autodesk should be upfront with their decisions/the details of changed policies or raised prices. This is not something I as a client should have to ask for specifically. If your reseller feels like handing out this information beforehand, you know what's coming. If your reseller doesn't feel the need to give you this information, you're technically "scr**ed". Autodesk should end this inequality by giving this information to all its clients in a clear and timely manner...
/rant (and admittedly a broken record!) ;)

To be clear though, Autodesk have been very open with their recent announcements and the planned policy changes. But it's nigh on impossible to go deeper and actual specifics, as it effects different customers in different ways. So therefore, thats why Autodesk direct people to their reseller as they can then see how things specifically apply to them.

If the reseller isn't giving you certain pieces of information, it's not because they feel the need to hold stuff back, it's probably because a) Autodesk haven't yet told them yet, and/or) they are legally bound not to reveal some information until a specified time.
With things like pricing, it can get very complicated legally, so certain things are only unveiled when things are ready.

[Hirazi Blue]

Graham Bell AKA Bellsey just posted an interesting mail to the Mailing List concerning the upcoming price increases. He does explicitly state his statements only apply to the European situation. Among other important info the following can be read there concerning the subscription pricing:

Subscription price changes:

Autodesk has recently increased the cost of new subscriptions across many
product lines - these changes apply to subscription renewals from February 1st
2013.

However, there is an exception for Softimage which wasn't mentioned because at
this time it is not confirmed. As previously discussed on this list and other
forums the Softimage subscription price has changed within the last year, and
is only available as a gold subscription (not wanting to open this debate
here). The subscription price for Softimage is not expected to increase further
and in many cases might reduce back to a previous price. I do not know exact
details, but information on local prices is expected soon. And again, I must
state that I'm talking from a Europe/EMEA view. I don't have any information
outside of that.

(Quoted from here)

Kudos to Bellsey for at least trying to clear this up!!!