I am really hoping this isn't it, and that ADSK are still updating these pages...
I've browsed through the new features/bug fixes and been left completely under whelmed (again!)...
Go back and look at the what's new and bug fixes over the last 8 years... see the reduction each year, and compare that to today’s announcement, and also compare that to the amount of development and integration that still goes into Maya each year.
Over the last 3 years maintenance subscription has doubled in price, yet we get a lot less for our money. ADSK products no longer make good business sense. Paying a lot more for a lot less... You get a lot more development than this in a quarterly V-ray update, and new features that are exciting and actually useful!
I've said it before, and I will say it again. ADSK have their fingers in too many pies. Their software portfolio is way to large now for their development teams to cope with ( many of them downsized/merged or axed a few years back), and the development butter is now stretched so thinly over their software portfolio toast, that the end result is this offering of new feature/bug fixes “CRUMBS” to the customer each year.
You could argue that when software becomes so refined, and does pretty much everything it asked to do, there is very little that's needed to be done development wise, but if that's the case, why are we being forced to pay twice the price than 3 years ago for a maintenance and upgrade subscription that gives us a lot less each year for the money? Shouldn't these cuts in development teams, admin staff, web automation, and a few crumbs of new features be tricking down to the customers in the way of reduced pricing instead of extortionate price hikes that are set to continue each year? I'd say we should be looking at an 80% discount this year, and NOT to switch over to the even more extortionately priced desktop rental ( for the same products and services) and loose our perpetual licences in the process! But of course that's never going to happen when ADSK now care more about its investors than customer opinion.
When you compare ADSK's media and entertainment software to the completion, it starting to look like ADSK are now standing still development wise...
I think if this really is it for the 2020 release, ADSK will loose even more of their long term customers, and see a greater fall in the amount of seats renewed. Its a shame, as 3ds max was one of the products that originally put AutoDesk on the map, but development seems to be “back of the queue” now, and their industrial software suites are what make them the real money now, and Maya is seen as the choice software for movies which is also big money, but so is architecture/ product viz and gaming which sometimes have much greater development costs than today’s blockbusters.
I've been saying since 2017 that my 2019 payment coming up this September will be my last, taking me to the 2021 release, and I see nothing to change my mind today. When I was paying around the £400-£500 inc tax a few year ago for the same software subscription, I saw this as a reasonable price for the slow amount of development we get ear year, but the last 3 years when its time to renew, I am left feeling ripped off and a very bitter taste lingering, regretting that I chose to learn 3ds max back in 2001 instead of another DCC application…
Subscription services are supposed to offer value for the money, but this ideal has clearly strayed from the path with ADSK, and I think their greed really will be their undoing at least on the M&E side, and customers will switch to cheaper, faster moving ( non ADSK) alternatives soon if ADSK don’t get back on track, but I also think this is due to the people running the show at the top changing so frequently now, and that their attitude is to make as much money as they can while they can for the investors and themselves, meaning they don’t have the incentive to care about the long term future of the company, only their investment funds and moving on to the next big venture or a very cosy retirement… and the worst thing is that these investors are blind to it, and think that these fortune spinners actually know what they are doing in these quarterly meetings, and have the longevity and growth of the company at heart, not their own make a quick kill personal financial gains…
When customers complain about the lack of new development the last few years, we are told that there is no longer a big one off release each year and that new features will be added with update packs throughout the year, but I have never once thought to myself, wow that was worth paying twice the price from 3 years ago when these update packs do eventually turn up...
At this point the only announcement that could see me staying as an ADSK customer after 17 years of investing in their products ( time and money) is the one where ADSK say that maintenance is going back to 2015 prices, and a huge apology from top management for fouling all over the name of a company that was once regarded as one of the best in the industry by its customers, but on the M&E side of ADSK, customer positivity is at an all time low, and has been for a few years now, mainly due to a list of countless broken (edited) promises over the years, bug ridden/unstable new releases, or no development at all( mainly due to the restructuring mess and taking on more software apps than they can chew) and prices that no longer reflect any value whatsoever, especially in contrast to what customers actually get out of it each year now. What’s coming next year? A logo change and another 30% price hike next year?
Enough really!
R.I.P. ADSK…
• 3ds Max 4.2 though to 2026 / MudBox 2020 / Fusion360
• Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme TRX40 Motherboard
• AMD Threadripper 3970X processors (32 core / 64 thread )
• ThermalTake custom cooling solution
• 128GB G.Skill DDR4 3600Mhz Quad Channel Memory
• 2x Nvidia Titan RTX 24GB GPU's +NVlink
• 2x Asus PG348Q 3440 x 1400 IPS Monitor’s
• Wacom Intuos Pro large graphics tablet
• 4TB Sumsung 990Pro NVMe (OS/App's)
• 2TB Seagate FireCuda 520 NVMe (Projects)
• 1TB Seagate FireCuda 520 NVMe (Media)
• 6TB Toshiba HDD (Storage)
• CORSAIR 1600W PSU
• Pioneer Blue-Ray Writer(External)
• Roccat Leadr Mouse
• Roccat Vulcan 121 Keyboard
• Lian Li D011 Dynamic XL case
• O/S Windows 11 Pro x64 24H2
• iLoud MTM MKII Monitors
