Perpetual License

[Anonymous]

If you buy the perpetual license for 3DS Max, do you still get all of the updates when they come out?

[spacefrog_]

You get all Updates to the release you bought ( servicepacks and hotfixes ). So if you bought a perpetual license of Max 2016 you get all updates for Max 2016. You will not get the next version ( Max 2017 in this case ) licensed of course.

For this you have to buy into Maintainance Subscription with your perputal license purchase ( i think it'S currently at about 600$/year)

http://www.autodesk.com/subscription/maintenance

As long as you are on Maintainance Subscription you get all updates and "next" releases in that period (Max2017, Max 2018,. ..), as they are released. Plus other benefit like extension packs and being able to use older versions at the same time etc...

Autodesk states that they will provide the option to renew maintainance subscription in the "forseeable" future ( even after the treadful January 2016 ), but you will not be able to freshly purchase a maintainanance nor a perpetual  license. So its either you are in on perpetual and maintainance subscription before Feb. 2016 or out forever.

How long this possibility to renew maintainance subscriptions after Jan. 2016 will be kept available remains to be seen.

[Anonymous]

So if I dont purchase the mantanence subscription, I won't be able to purchase it in 2018. Is that correct?

[jlwitthuhn]

Yes, you can only add on the maintenance sub while your perpetual license is current.

If you have a perpetual license of 2016 with no maintenance sub, it will get no further updates after the release of 2017 and you will not be able to add a maintenance sub. At that point your perpetual license is 'stuck' on 2016 forever with no opportunity to upgrade.

If you buy a license now, you should be able to add a maintenance sub any time between now and the release of 2017. The caveat here is that there may be special conditions in the period after perpetual license sales end but before max 2017 is released. You'll want to ask either a reseller or someone from autodesk to see if a maintenance sub can still be added in that period.

edit: Or we can hope this whole rental-only thing blows over and they sell proper licenses again in a few years, but don't count on it.