I am astounded by Autodesk's total disregard for all who trusted them when purchasing perpetual licenses. I can hardly believe they're actually doing this.
From Merriam-Webster:
Definition of perpetual
1a : continuing forever : everlasting perpetual motion
b(1) : valid for all time a perpetual right
(2) : holding something (such as an office) for life or for an unlimited time
Am I missing something here?
Why would I - or anyone else for that matter - choose to invest more money in any Autodesk subscription/product after being told the terms of my previous investment have now changed and that investment is now terminated?
I have used 3DS Max since Max 8 (circa 2006) when I paid about $4K for it, plus maintenance, because I TRUSTED them when they stated it was a PERPETUAL license. There were plenty of pirated options for freelancers out there but I stayed honest and paid hard-earned cash from my own pocket because I considered that to be a fair price for a very good, PERPETUAL 3D toolset. I now feel betrayed.
Ending maintenance for older, perpetual licenses - that I can understand. But now refusing to even activate those licenses - sold as "PERPETUAL" - that people paid thousands of dollars for, covering it with a statement about the benefits of going to a [FAR more expensive] subscription-based license? They could easily just continue to send out activation codes from a server or even send perpetual license owners an activation code generator. I'm sorry, I don't buy their bit about costs incurred "maintaining two different business models"; an activation server or code generator requires little-to-no paid human labor - a small price to fulfill their end of the bargain. How is this anything short of greed and dishonesty?
I was worried this might eventually happen after Autodesk purchased Maya. That creation of a semi-monopoly on then-leading 3D animation tools would eventually drive them to a position like this. Their intentions are now clear for all to see, and I hope this forum reaches many potential customers who can still steer clear of Autodesk. My parting hope is to see a class-action lawsuit force Autodesk back into a position where they honor the terms under which they sold perpetual licenses.
My trust in Autodesk is destroyed. I will never use an Autodesk product again - either in my day job or as a night freelancer. I've make our corporate supply chain aware of Autodesk's policy and directed that we no longer purchase any products or subscriptions from them. In blogs and in person, I now let as many other CG artists know about the treatment they can expect from Autodesk and advise them of the more economical (free), trustworthy alternatives.
Blender 2.8 has finally become the grown-up version with a comfortable UI that I was waiting for. I've already started making the jump and so far I like the tools and UI more than the last version of Max I was paying to maintain (only to see Autodesk kill off support for it). Blender is FREE with a growing community of dedicated advocates and developers, and it's a lot more appealing than paying $200 a month to receive minimally impressive capability updates from a company I no longer trust.
Autodesk - in light of what you've done and the trust you've betrayed, can you give me a single reason why I should not now jump to Blender and bring along as many other users as possible?
