Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage

[ajcgi]

something that’s just struck me…

softimage always resold XSI in the UK at a very competitive price when it came to exchange rates. autodesk, as we all know, resells max at an enormous mark-up in the UK.

what’s to stop them assigning the same pricing model to XSI now? I think we can easily expect significant price-hikes for XSI if this is the case.

i still have my old XSI hoodie jumper from the 3Democracy days. It’s a bit manky and has a few cig burn holes in it but I’m keeping it!

Ok… I was sitting on the fence until you said that. Yes, Autodesk aren’t as fair with the pricing strategy. That’s something I mentioned on another forum recently actually. XSI costs the same both sides of the pond, whereas Autodesk are in the Adobe camp of finance…

[cresshead]

Let’s say you run Autodesk and you decide to kill two or maybe one of the big three apps. to consolidate your resources. Which would you cut and drop?

For me the first on the chopping block would be Max but I doubt Autodesk would kill their favourite child. As a Maya user and a freelancer all this makes me nervous.

in the the numbers of seats sold and maintained [subs] plus the overall impact in the 3d industry 3dsmax throws a tall dark shadow over both maya and xsi.

it would be incredibly stupid to drop THE 3d app that makes them the most money and is used everywhere be it in games, arch design, product design, medical, film and tv effects.

if…and really i don’t believe there is an ‘if’ to even consider…anyhow ‘if’ an app were to be killed off it would be xsi based on the number of users of xsi in industry/games and in colleges to learn for 3d industry job available.

i think xsi will be around for quite some time…though i have a feeling the essentials version will be removed from the lineup in 2010.

additional>>

i think it would be a SMART move to also aquire ‘the chaos group’ and make Vray the default renderer for max, maya and xsi in 2010

[system]

Some of the comments here are just outright over dramatic sensless speculation.
I can’t beleive people are actually even considering they would kill max becuase of this. Unbeleivable.

[alexyork]

Ok… I was sitting on the fence until you said that. Yes, Autodesk aren’t as fair with the pricing strategy. That’s something I mentioned on another forum recently actually. XSI costs the same both sides of the pond, whereas Autodesk are in the Adobe camp of finance…

well there’s still a bit of a markup on soft’s part currently - the price of XSI in the UK is not a direct reflection of the exchange rate, there’s a bit added on, but it’s tiny compared to the mark-up for max, definitely. and not just the license but the maintenance contract too.

[j3st3r]

If I was a rude guy, I’d say “Fck AD, fck!”. Since I’m a nice guy, I on say “Fck AD, fck”

Anyway, I hope that XSI will not sunk into oblivion. In that case, I’ll start learn modo…

[hanskloss]

It’s interesting from a point of view of a former Alias employee. I and many other former Alias people know exactly what it feels like to be called into a con call and be told that Autodesk has signed an agreement to purchase you. It’s like being hit on the head with a sledge hammer and asked if you’re ok. I understand how Leo and many SI employees feel right now.

Anyways. What’s even funnier is that people believe that Autodesk will create an environment of greater collaboration between the software they now own. It’s been over 3 years since the Alias acquisition and they still can’t get Maya and Max to talk to one another freely. There is no innovation at Autodesk. It’s not the developers or product designers fault. It’s the upper management being high on the “Autodesk empire pill”. It’s like living in bizarro world.

[Fluckrat]

i think xsi will be around for quite some time…though i have a feeling the essentials version will be removed from the lineup in 2010.

There’s a lot of misconceptions in this thread about XSI pricing; as of v7 there is no Foundation version (the $500 version kabab keeps banging on about), there is only Essentials and Advanced, and the only difference between Essentials and Advanced is the number of XSIBatch licences you get with it and Behaviour, which is a separate, stand-alone crowd simulation software that barely anyone uses.

The features of Essentials and Advanced are identical. So tell me, why do you suppose they would drop Essentials?

Sorry, but this thread is starting to swell with a great deal of BS.

[colkai]

The features of Essentials and Advanced are identical. So tell me, why do you suppose they would drop Essentials?

'Cause it provides a cheaper alternative so doesn’t make hte shareholders as much profit. :twisted: :deal:

[DragonSFX]

'Cause it provides a cheaper alternative so doesn’t make hte shareholders as much profit. :twisted: :deal:

well, if that is the reasoning (and fact - i am not familiar with the workings of xsi) then they would “kill off” advanced (and NOT essentials) and sell the crowd software and the batch licenses as a seperate value-added option to all 3 packages.

[MAK]

Just want to post in this legendary thread and wish good luck to everybody at Softimage.
Waiting for the next legendary thread about Microsoft buying Autodesk…

[cresshead]

'Cause it provides a cheaper alternative so doesn’t make hte shareholders as much profit. :twisted: :deal:

exactly!

they [autodesk] need a structured product lineup…

so unless essentials price goes down under ownership of autodesk it’s getting abit crowded in the middle area of their product lineup>

xsi mod tool
maya ple
maya complete 2010
3dsmax 2010 design [no c.a.t]
3dsmax 2010 [with c.a.t now incorporated within max]
maya unlimited 2010
xsi advanced 2010

[Emil3d]

…I was very surprised about this purchasing price, just $35 million? Alias price was $182 millions. It sounds like a bargain, don’t you think?..

Don’t forget that in the last few weeks due to the sudden collapse of the world stock markets all publicly traded companies lost almost half of their values and some even more. It is a good time to buy companies at bargain prices.

[cresshead]

i’d also add that digital tutors have made smart moves recently adding both xsi and 3dsmax training alongside they large catalogue of maya training dvd’s…maybe THEY will be ‘‘absorbed’’ soon as ‘autodesk training’

…pixologic next?

[a13xr3d]

This just ruined my day… for some reason, but I can’t believe that it just happened. I was about to jump into XSI for the sake of an awesome community and basically feeling at ease that specifically it wasn’t owned by Autodesk, but rather people who cared about the artists. All I want to say to Autodesk, is go F’ yourself. There’s no better feeling than knowing that you’re never going to see any innovation in maya/3ds/xsi any more. Sure, nucleus in maya is dandy, but how many years have we waited for something awesome out of maya? Gahhh! I truly hope Autodesk splits the hell apart to its original companies that it bought out. Then we’ll see some progress in the 3d world.

And if Autodesk even thinks of touching Pixar just for renderman… I’m gunna lose it. Vray, I’ll be fine with, since they basically own the rendering part of 3d, and haven’t really seen anything new from them.

Gahh… this HAS to be a joke.

[ideasman]

I’d doubt autodesk would outright stop developing Max/Maya/Softimage, but if I were a user of Maya/Softimage Id be getting nervous, as long as they make money out of each application, they will keep selling them. But if there is some financial trouble or management problems - they could move one or more of these apps into maintainince mode. just keeping the existing userbase from complaining.

As a blender developer Im quite happy about this, for people who might now be uncertain about picking up softimage, blender is an interesting alternative.

More users means more work for us devs woohoo - http://www.blendernation.com/category/store/

And what if blender gets sold to Autodesk? - This is actually possible - However they could only buy the original sourcode code from 2002 - since it was dual licenced. They COULD NOT however buy the current blender sourcecode unless eveny developer agree’d - (40-50 people). And even them, this would not stop anyone continuing development on the last released blender source.

[grafikdon]

You gotta be kidding me! Well… I guess this is one of those things you don’t see coming.

[2scale]

Wow twice the price with half of the calories!

C’mon, where does it end? One company owning all 3d sofware? I know theres still a few great peices of modellling software out there and handfull of good integrated animation packages such as houdini and lightwave, but I feel that competition and inovation is becoming a dirty four letter word…

Maya was my first animation soft love, but Xsi was the mistress that was turning into a serious realtionship. Im sorry to hear of another corporate giant scoop up an interesting and inovative component of a company that seemed to foster great ideas.

I know Xsi with all it’s offerings will be around for a while but in what flavour and capacity?

[Abraham]

“i think it would be a SMART move to also aquire ‘the chaos group’ and make Vray the default renderer for max, maya and xsi in 2010”

An drop MR ??? Move, yes, Smart …

[arvid]

Can this explains the future?

http://www.graphicschums.com/image/maxsiya

hehe nice

[DimitrisLiatsos]

It’s interesting from a point of view of a former Alias employee. I and many other former Alias people know exactly what it feels like to be called into a con call and be told that Autodesk has signed an agreement to purchase you. It’s like being hit on the head with a sledge hammer and asked if you’re ok. I understand how Leo and many SI employees feel right now.

Anyways. What’s even funnier is that people believe that Autodesk will create an environment of greater collaboration between the software they now own. It’s been over 3 years since the Alias acquisition and they still can’t get Maya and Max to talk to one another freely. There is no innovation at Autodesk. It’s not the developers or product designers fault. It’s the upper management being high on the “Autodesk empire pill”. It’s like living in bizarro world.

This is the most serious and true to reality thought about the situation happening.
Hats off…:bowdown:

I think any of us seems to understand deep down that is is about money and just AD has more apps to sell now…nothing more…:rolleyes:.

Oh and regarding Maya…the innovations that materred in real life production(except MR) happened until Maya 7.02…after that…well …:banghead:.