The Big News - The Price Cut

[hom]

Awesome. Well not for us that already bought it, but for anyone into getting into maya, this is great news.

- John

[Grooveholmes]

:bounce: Wow! This is great news.. I'll be able to actually afford a seat for home use instead of just here at work.

Think about the far reaching implications of this, We're the ones who will benefit. These are definately fighting words as far as Discreeet is concerned I'm sure. Which means there's going to be a scramble to get newer better technology out there as well!:bounce: Lot's of people will no longer be doomed to Max's mediocrity, heh heh. Wow, I must say; I've been hopping up and down that they do something like this for awhile on these forums now.

I no it wasn't easy A/W. I no it phsysically pains you, and I know it was quite forced and more a move out of desperation. But I applaud your judgement and you are the better company for it.:applause:

[hom]

Here Here, I too am thinking of maybe getting a seat for home now. Thats about the extent I could afford :)

- John

[dzogchen]

Do you have to pay yearly licence fee? From what I heard...not sure though....

[Lyr]

Nope, no yearly license. I am curious to see how this affects student license pricing.

[Grooveholmes]

Yep sure do, I wonder how much/if at all that will change? It covers full support and all upgrades though.

[dzogchen]

Two totally different answer, confusing......

[lostpencil]

That's because it's sort of both:

Maya Annual Full Maintenance goes down in price as well:

MC annual full maintenance goes to $1299 (nodelock)
MU annual full maintenance goes to $1499 (nodelock)

By Version upgrades (e.g. V3 to V4) start at $699 for Maya Complete

[kiwisheep]

Now that the highest end 3D Software has lowered its prices, what would it do to the middle-end software and worst of all the lowest-end software?

There will be a big pressure for Discreet to cut its prices down. Because if you are going to ask somebody which one to buy Maya or 3DSMax, anyone would be stupid enough to go for 3DSMax which is now at $4500.

For Lightwave, poor guys. They've just dropped their prices on LW from $2500 to $1500. And again, for an additional $400 more, one would just go to Maya than Lightwave.

SoftImage, Ooucch... well if they don't drop their prices too, no one would ever know they existed....

This is good in the sense that Discreet and Newtek has to improve their products more in order to be competitive with Maya.
I don't think Newtek can afford to drop its price further. I guess they'll have to improve LW to directly compete with Maya feature-wise.

For the low end software like Truespace.... I just don't know...
They'll have to probably drop their prices down further.

[mef]

As anyone can probably tell you, most people don't buy software because of the price alone. Yes it is a deciding factor if two apps are equal and you have to make a decision but on the whole people choose based on what makes them feel comfortable. If price was a factor, no one would have bothered to learn Maya or Softimage outside of those that were working at the larger studios that could afford them. For anyone to suggest that all other apps will be on the ropes in a few months time because of a price drop doesn't have the whole picture. People who love Lightwave will always choose that app, and if you don't believe me, you should take a look at their posts to see how fanatical they can be. It's the same for the other apps as well. Yes some people will buy Maya because of the price drop, but I can guess that anyone that buys it now were planing on buying it anyway. This just makes it easier for them to do it.

[tuna]

mef:
i totaly agree with you there. other than some companies building maya into their pipeline just because it IS maya ( A|W marketing brainwash) many people wont switch to maya just because of a price drop..
people who use LW, max, xsi are very comfortable in them and actually would rather work in them than an apparant "best high-end application"

[dukestreet]

I'll give you my impression, and please be nice.

I've been on Lightwave for several years now and when I heard about the price reduction and the free personal edition I went and downloaded the 150Meg file. I opened Maya up and started to play around on it and realized it would take me some time to get up to speed if I decided to switch over. There are some nice options, like painting on 3D surfaces, that aren't in Lightwave (yet!), but it doesn't justify switching sides. So I think for now I'll stay with Lightwave and see where it takes me.

[lostpencil]

As a freelance character animator, being versed in different packages is a bonus. Every package you are familiar with opens up more opportunities to snag another job. That is good. That is why I learned Lightwave, then Maya and now Max. So the price drop means a couple of things for me. For one, it means more competition (possibly), which isn't necessarily bad - but it could be. For two, it means the other package prices will probably go down and that's good. Either way, I don't look at it as jumping 'ship'. I look at it as another tool in the arsenal. Just that one of the higher end tools has now become more affordable. What that entails we'll just have to wait and see.

[Malameel]

Unless this price drop is a sign of bad news...

Then this is a good thing, just implemented in a wrong way. As both Lightwave and Max stregthen their features, Maya had to compete as a buisness. Will the software software, or was there that much profit in it for them? Time will tell, but I bet NAB will shed light, good or bad.

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