AD: pay as you go...

[Falam]

Wait and see what Autodesk does with Softimage. We still have ICE, you can do alot with ICE, the doors are endless. Imagine if Softimage was stopped, but 3rd party tools were still being developed, Softimage users could go for a long time, easily.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

My suggestion for the future of SI would be to maintain it: Keep it as it is and fix bugs update libraries with a small team. Make at least as stable and reliable as possible. For that AD could charge a lower "maintenance" fee than a full subscription. Leave adding features to others. In the meantime concentrate on maya, make it attrctive for even SI users. Overhaul of interface and usability. This way AD could end up with happy SI users who do not hate AD and may be open to make a smooth transition to maya or whatever comes.
That would be a diplomatic solution. It would calm the waves and who knows, one day people might even want to buy AD software instead of having to, making the cashflow a bit more predictable.

sorry I edit my post so much, it's hard to type with a cat on the keyboard.

[luceric]

what a baseless comment. M&E is the crown jewel of Autodesk, it's what keeps it in the spotlight with all the top vfx film, top games, top tv ads and shows, plus it brings in hundreds of millions of dollar. Autodesk loves M&E and pours tons of money in it

and it was never profitable. Anyway, it's what my stomach say's.

M&E is profitable and has a gross margin of 80%, about the same as Microsoft. Which means it keeps 0.80$ for each dollar of sales. Or 34$ milion dollar on revenue of 43$ for the last quarter, a period of 3 months. These are all public numbers.

[Tekano]

and back on topic..

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sterling Auty with JPMorgan.

Sterling P. Auty - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Can you review for us, at this point, what products are actually on a rental pricing or in a cloud option that are available to customers?

Mark J. Hawkins - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President
So there's a couple that are out there. You have the -- for example, the Inventor LT Suite and rental, you'd have the Revit LT Suite on rental. Those would be a couple examples.

Carl Bass - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Yes.

Sterling P. Auty - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division
And you had mentioned, I think on the last call, about looking at media and entertainment as an area to trial that as well. Did that happen?

Mark J. Hawkins - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Executive Vice President
We did do some trials and 90-day offerings and things of that nature. So yes...

Carl Bass - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
And we're continuing with our rentals there. As regards to our rentals, we're just adding to it. That was one of the ones as opposed to pulling the switch all at once. We've been entering the market on a rolling basis and we're going to continue to do that. We think all of our products should be offered on rental basis, and so I can't say without exception. But in my mind, I don't see any products that won't be offered that way going forward.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

what a baseless comment. M&E is the crown jewel of Autodesk, it's what keeps it in the spotlight with all the top vfx film, top games, top tv ads and shows, plus it brings in hundreds of millions of dollar. Autodesk loves M&E and pours tons of money in it

and it was never profitable. Anyway, it's what my stomach say's.

M&E is profitable and has a gross margin of 80%, about the same as Microsoft. Which means it keeps 0.80$ for each dollar of sales. Or 34$ milion dollar on revenue of 43$ for the last quarter, a period of 3 months. These are all public numbers.

Again, this was last year: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-0 ... uring-plan
Did things change so quickly?
But you see what the problem really is. As long as AD doesn't talk to us, we tend to rely on our perception and guts.
And still: when in the history of this planet did public number prove anything?

And I might add, we do not really see flowing very much of this 80% back into development. Instead they try to sell 8or rent) the same product in new flavours.

[Hirazi Blue]

To me the whole “why is Softimage not included in this scheme?” is pretty uninteresting, as I will not (repeat: will not) rent my software from them, should that eventually become the only option. And as long as Softimage keeps on releasing “feature 2015”, “feature 2016” and hopefully “feature 2017” with a perpetual license attached to it, I don’t really care about all these rental shenanigans.
;)

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

More to read: (on topic)

http://schnitgercorp.com/2013/05/17/q1- ... perpetual/

[Superpositivo]

The rental "thing" becomes important when a studio team is of number of X guys and you want to hire, let's say, some extra riggers for few months or even just one, but your licenses are not so many.
This way you can get people working and keep the license cost lower. Studios gets an easier life in hiring more people to get the job done.

[Bellsey]

I think the important thing to remember here is that this is Autodesk's first real steps into this type of business model (not sure if they've ever done it in the past). It wasn't that long ago, that they (and other vendors) wouldn't of even entertained the idea of a rental model for buying/using their software, so I think it's good to Autodesk making these kind of moves. Some have said that this was inevitable, and they may of been right, but it all comes down to being more flexible and adapting to how the market has moved.

Sure, Softimage didn't make the list, but when you look at the whole Autodesk folio, only a relative small bunch of products have, so it's early days I think. Personally I would like to see more of our products (including Softimage) start to offer a rental option, but I don't honestly know if/when this will happen.

[ojo3D]

The "who's who" of Autodesk - I realize that you may have noticed some personnel changes over the past couple of years as the voices on your community board have changed. What I would like to do now is explain the new Autodesk "voices" that represent ALL Autodesk products, at the senior management level, for each of the industries we work with: Film/TV, Games and Design. Marc Stevens (ex-Softimage/Microsoft/Avid) is the head of products for Film/TV applications; Frank Delise (whom you all know ;-) is head of products for Games and I am the head of products for Design applications.

Don't know if anybody read this on the MU forum. But it's funny because the Max users are mad on the fact an head of design products is in charge of 3dsMax development. They feel that this will push Max for viz and out of Games and Film (development wise).

Now ... if Chris (head of design) is caring for Max, Frank Delise (head of games) is developing lots of things for Maya (as Maya LT, that Kees said was Delise's idea), does Marc Stevens take care of Softimage? From what I've read is Cory Mogk (if I written correctly). So where is Softimage in all this structured company?

I agree with some here that with a rental option, maybe Softimage could grow again as companies could try it before buy it.


Back on topic:

I like that they'll maintain (at least for now) the rental and purchase options. It's always nice when you can have options. And the ability to increase or decrease your pipeline on demand will help the studios a lot I think.

On a side note:

I've read an interview with Platige staff and they're changing their main pipeline from Max to Maya. All roads lead to Maya.

[luceric]

Again, this was last year: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-0 ... uring-planDid things change so quickly?
But you see what the problem really is. As long as AD doesn't talk to us, we tend to rely on our perception and guts.
.

Lower forecast doesn't mean losing money, it means the growth in profit is less than predicted. Growth in profit, as in making even more money than the year before. It would have to be negative growth to eventually lose money.

And still: when in the history of this planet did public number prove anything

Dude, every time, especially if you're going to write that M&E is losing money and Autodesk is thinking of dumping it.

[luceric]

Don't know if anybody read this on the MU forum. But it's funny because the Max users are mad on the fact an head of design products is in charge of 3dsMax development. They feel that this will push Max for viz and out of Games and Film (development wise).

Now ... if Chris (head of design) is caring for Max, Frank Delise (head of games) is developing lots of things for Maya (as Maya LT, that Kees said was Delise's idea), does Marc Stevens take care of Softimage? From what I've read is Cory Mogk (if I written correctly). So where is Softimage in all this structured company?

Marc Steven is Vice president of tv and film, Chris Young is vice president of max and other stuff. Cory a program manager in marc stevens's organization.

[Bullit]

To me the whole “why is Softimage not included in this scheme?” is pretty uninteresting

Renting is important to put a foot in the door so to speak, with Softimage in more studios, i certainly could have done stuff in Softimage instead of having to use 3dsMax in some situations with a monthly rent.
Obviously renting should not be the only option. Perpetual licenses are essential. We never know when an FX asteroid hits Autodesk HQ.

[ojo3D]

To me the whole “why is Softimage not included in this scheme?” is pretty uninteresting

Renting is important to put a foot in the door so to speak, with Softimage in more studios, i certainly could have done stuff in Softimage instead of having to use 3dsMax in some situations with a monthly rent.
Obviously renting should not be the only option. Perpetual licenses are essential. We never know when an FX asteroid hits Autodesk HQ.

Yeah. I guess it would improve the use of Softimage in a lot of studios here to. As of now, the biggest work force is in C4D and 3dsMax.

Marc Steven is Vice president of tv and film, Chris Young is vice president of max and other stuff. Cory a program manager in marc stevens's organization.

Thanks.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Dude, every time, especially if you're going to write that M&E is losing money and Autodesk is thinking of dumping it.

I never wrote either of this. I only said: I have a feeling they would get rid of it if they could. I'm not reffering to any official statement. It's a "gut" thing, absolutely personal. An assumption.
I said M&E is not profitable. That is not the same as loosing money, it means "not making as much money as expected" and that is based on various articles open to the public as well. If you have a profitable product, you don't have to sack so many people.

Also I know they will not abandon M&E. Apart from the reputation thing they would have to sell the whole package due to the suites AD sold and it's very unlikely to find someone willing to maintain 3 3d packages, a sculpting software, a motion editing tool and what not.

Dude. And I have absolutely nothing against you. I only disagree with some of the things you say (just to make that clear )

[Hirazi Blue]

To me the whole “why is Softimage not included in this scheme?” is pretty uninteresting

Renting is important to put a foot in the door so to speak, with Softimage in more studios, i certainly could have done stuff in Softimage instead of having to use 3dsMax in some situations with a monthly rent.
Obviously renting should not be the only option. Perpetual licenses are essential. We never know when an FX asteroid hits Autodesk HQ.

This might be so. But as I wrote "to me" (as a "mere" hobbyist) this is frightfully (as in: it frightened me when I noticed) uninteresting, for exactly the reason I outlined in my previous post...