Thanks for your reply, @amanda.k!
The excuse in regards to older key generators obviously can't apply to future key generators. If Autodesk really did care about any "risk" associated with them (personally I couldn't care less or even see how that should impact me in any meaningful way), it would neither be a problem nor particularly costly to come up with a future-proof solution (and even providing offline activation for older licenses doesn't seem a very taxing task, to be honest).
Also I'm not denying that subscription can have benefits for certain customers, but for many that's simply not the case. Much was promised ("trust us", "give us a year), but in my case there is no benefit that would improve my productivity or ease of use at all. I doubt many people are against subscription as an option. So benefits of subscription aren't arguments against perpetuals or maintenance.
The only benefit is that subscription (for the moment) is somewhat cheaper than maintenance and that is not because subscription was offered at a cheaper price than maintenance, but because the price for maintenance was increased substantially. I remember when updates/upgrades were half the cost of maintenance today.
So we are offered to keep paying what we were (for a time), but only if we give up our perpetual rights, which is a horrible deal for me.
And price aside, any production advantage that subscription (and maintenance for that matter) has over a perpetual license in my case (3ds max) is because features were taken away from perpetual licenses, not because subscription adds any relevant value:
Previous version use: In my opinion basic rights in the EU
Backburner: Recently removed from perpetual
Unlimited render nodes for advanced renderer: Removed generally (probably to push cloud rendering, some cloud credits don't compensate for that)
Now it might be true that there are some advantages when it comes to deployment and admin for bigger companies (although I read a lot of contrary opinions as well), but that's not really relevant for many people and I can already access 3ds Max from multiple devices to the degree I need it. And in no way shape or form does some minor improvement in that regard outweigh the disadvantage that subscription would have for me.
Also, while the writing was on the wall, there was still a lot of disingenuity going on:
From this document, last updated 2019:
1.4 Will I be able to continue renewing my maintenance plan?
Yes, if you choose to stay on maintenance, you will be able to continue to renew your
maintenance plan/s on an annual basis. The cost to renew your maintenance plan/s in
2020 will be the same as it is in 2019.
Now I'm not expecting for this to last until the end of time, but seeing as people base decisions on advice like this, it's surely not reasonable to claim that "you will be able to continue to renew your maintenance plan/s on an annual basis until 2021" is a valid reading of this. The "annual basis" pretty clearly seems to refer to the renewal interval, not Autodesk shuffling the cards new every year.
From https://www.autodesk.com/products/perpetual-licenses
If you purchased a perpetual license for the products described in the list above, you will continue to own and have full usage rights for that license. If you are on maintenance for your perpetual license, you will receive software updates and corresponding benefits for as long as you continue to renew. You can renew your maintenance for as long as you want."
From this this interview and comments (this was 5 years ago, but at at time when people still could make the decision to buy new perpetual licenses, so they might have based that decision on this information and were encouraged to do so.)
Andrew Aganost, then Vice-President and now President and CEO of Autodesk
" We have no plans to discontinue maintenance subscription plans for existing perpetual license owners."
" I assure you we have no plan to discontinue maintenance subscription plans for existing perpetual license owners."
" Our lawyers frown on me using words like โnever.โ Do we have any plans to end maintenance? No we donโt, and our current intent is to keep the program running as long as our customers use it. Just like we donโt have plans to force customers to adopt subscription. If a customer wants to keep using their perpetual license, then they can continue to do so. If they want that perpetual software to be upgraded with the latest and greatest from Autodesk, then I encourage them to take advantage of maintenance. Keeping maintenance for our most loyal customers is the right thing to do."
I dare say it's not presumptuous to strongly assume that Mr. Aganost wasn't entirely forthright, there, and that they did have plans to do all of this.
Now I'm not saying I'm surprised or that any of this is unexpected, but obviously it's disingenuous, not with the best interest of the customer in mind and claiming it is just adds insult to injury. Also you can't expect everyone to go digging or keep up with Autodesk's latest shenanigangs. These documents and statements should be reliable.
