It's not Creative Suite anymore... news from Adobe

[Chris Hurd]

Hmm, do I need to re-name this forum?

"Adobe also announced that the company will focus creative software development efforts on its Creative Cloud offering moving forward. While Adobe Creative Suite® 6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products."

Full press release with more info located here:

Adobe Accelerates Shift to the Cloud at DV Info Net

[Andy Wilkinson]

Bad news as far as I am concerned as I am no fan of this recent cloud approach!

Hmmn, wonder if I need to start looking at FCPX...and yes, in time, I guess this forum section will need a new name!

[Eric Stemen]

Unfortunate news for those of us who wanted to make the yearly CS upgrades. A significantly more expensive option.

[Chris Medico]

I think that will be a good thing for Avid in the long run. I'm not a fan of the cloud / eternal subscription business model myself.

I want a cure not a treatment.

[Andy Wilkinson]

I just scanned about 100 comments on one website in reaction to this news - yeah, I know, I should get out more ;-)

I would say ONLY about 5 were happy with this. Those that recently bought CS6 were particularly unhappy. Just glad I stuck with CS5.5.2 - I was about to buy CS6! What a waste of money that would have been with this new subscription only approach.

[Al Bergstein]

Not sure how this affects someone running it on a laptop, remote from any internet connection. That could be a showstopper for me if it has to have an internet connection to even run. Would mean I'd have to carry a second NLE for non online work. Not likely to happen. I'm surprised they went to this model. They sent out an extensive survey a few months back. I can't believe that their users approved this model. I know I didn't.

[Chris Luker]

Adobe wants you to pay them for the rest of your life or you lose your files.

No more upgrading when things stabilize. No more working with an older suite until you can make enough to upgrade to the latest and greatest. No more selling and transferring your older suites when you buy a newer one. No more backward compatibility.
They tried releasing a new .5 upgrade every 6 months, but I guess people weren't tricked into thinking they needed to upgrade. Now we will all be forced into it.

Not going to do it.

[Bob Hart]

The corporate arrogance that near-monopoly brings. those who do not listen to the lessons of history will repeat them. - My guess is Adobe as a NLE has about 8 to 10 years before it becomes a feather duster after provoking something like RED out of the NLE wildness. Who knows? Mr. Jannard himself might even venture a little further and get into the alternative NLE business.

[Eric Stemen]

I do thank Adobe for responding to me in a timely manner but am not pleased with the response:

Eric Stemen:

I was told to send a private message. About a comment I posted.

(This is the comment I posed on their Facebook page)

"Could we get the regular yearly upgrade cost for the regular CS suites ($300) and not get the entire master collection? I purchased CS6 Production Premium last year for $1000(upgraded from CS3) and was planning on just doing yearly upgrades at ~$300 for Production Premium and now looks like it will be $600 a year to stay up to date. I would get more programs, but I don't need the extra ones. Will not be upgrading if they don't price this more in line with the older cycle."

I don't mind paying $300 a year for a hobby and I understand small price increases due to inflation. I would really like to be able to keep paying for just the Production Premium for the foreseeable future and I would be a very happy and loyal customer. I was planning on upgrading every year from here on out and not skipping generations since I have a decent paying job now. I'm alright with not being able to use the product if I quit paying for it.

My Adobe ID is:
*adobe ID name*

I appreciate your willingness to talk with me.

5:38pm
Adobe Creative Suite:

Hi Eric - thanks for the message. The only way to receive new updates and features is through Creative Cloud.

In terms of pricing, since you are an Adobe user, you can receive Creative Cloud for 40% off. Here are the details on the offer: http://adobe.ly/10eKBZd.

6:02pm
Eric Stemen:

Thank you for the reply, that deal does sound fair, however what happens after the first year? Will the price jump up to $599.88 a year instead of the $359.88 a year with the special offer? The $359.88 is fine, that is roughly what I was expecting to pay each year for the CS upgrades. I wasn't expecting to pay almost double for that. I want to keep supporting innovative products but this is kind of like what happened with Apple and FCP X. They changed everything all at once and for loyal customers no longer had an incentive to stay. I sadly will not be joining the cloud if the price jumps to $599.88 a year after the first year.
Respectfully,
Eric.

6:15pm
Adobe Creative Suite:

Hi Eric - as of now, the offer is valid for just one year. Any updates on that front will be shared on Adobe.com. Thanks.

6:17pm
Eric Stemen:

I appreciate your response, best of luck in the future.

[Kevin Duffey]

I'll put my 2 cents in here...

As a long time adobe user who can't afford the full product suite, I think the cloud option opens up opportunities to a huge group of users who would otherwise NOT pay $2000+ for the full suite. At $50 a month with all updates, forever, it's not that bad. I am not sure where the $300 for upgrades comes from, I've seen the full suite at around $2000+ and upgrades from one version to the next (yearly) at around $650. At those prices, the yearly price of $600 for all updates, all versions, all software is a steal.

That said, I will agree that their model is really screwed up. The full suite is a great price in my opinion. But to offer a single app license at $30 a month, and the full suite of what, 10+ apps for $50.. is ridiculous. They really should offer a custom approach where each app is like $5 a month, or at least on some sort of sliding scale. For example, the Video peeps, should be able to get premiere and AE at say $20 a month. Or for full audio/video, throw in Grade, Encore and Audition for say $30 a month. For photographers, offer Photoshop, Light room for like $20 a month, and for web designers, include dreamweaver, illustrator and stuch for maybe $30 a month.

If Adobe is listening.. I sure hope they offer a lower price for specific apps or some sort of a la carte option at a lower price. Right now they are basically pissing off a lot of people by forcing them for the all or nothing option. Two apps at $30 a month is stupid.. because for $10 less you get ALL of the apps. It's just really a bad way to go in terms of ALL for $50 and one for $30.

I for one would only want AE, Premiere and Photoshop (and Media Encoder I suppose, but that should be free with AE and/or Premiere). I'd pay $25 a month for life for just that combo..but $50 is double and a bit more than I want to pay.

[Noa Put]

Not so sure about it but could it be that running software through a "cloud" prevents anyone to run a pirated copy off-line? It's a known fact that adobe's software is very popular in the illegal circuit, their move to a cloud could put a full stop to anyone not willing to pay for it. Not that they can expect all these people to start getting a subsription but as a software supplier this kind of copy protection is a big deal so that could be one of the reasons for this drastic change.

I have been working with adobe premiere up to cs3 but made the switch to edius then. I just checked out their cloud pricing options for Premiere only and it would mean paying for a full version about every 3 years, I think that with other nle's it would cost about half that price to stay up to date.

I also wonder what effect it might have if your internetconnection is down for a few days, would that mean that the software won't work?

[David Chapman]

I keep seeing posts asking, "What if I don't have Internet for a day or two? Will I not be able to work?"

You do need Internet connection to download the apps (or update them as new features are available) but annual members (paying monthly) only need to "check in" with Adobe every 180 days. It's the month-by-month people who need to check in every 30 days, and even then there is a 7 day grace period.

From past history, I skipped a CS version too. But when CS6 came out (I had CS5 not 5.5), the Creative Cloud was the best option for me. I owned and updated both Design Premium AND After Effects. Now, I have everything and have been a very happy CC customer.

[David Chapman]

I'd also point out that you get all of Adobe's services too. That includes Business Catalyst for 5 sites. That's a big deal in itself, especially if you're paying $20/mo on hosting elsewhere.

The 20GB of storage is great too. I've never even thought about buying extra DropBox space. And the Creative Cloud Files function just like DropBox on your system. I will say sharing on DropBox has been easier, but Adobe seems to have cracked that nut with the latest reveals (folder sharing and commenting!)

It's a lot more than the apps, and that more than justifies it for me.

$50/mo for all that, compared to my iPhone data and tethering (AT&T). What seems like the better value?

[David Chapman]

Originally Posted by Kevin Duffey

I'll put my 2 cents in here...

That said, I will agree that their model is really screwed up. The full suite is a great price in my opinion. But to offer a single app license at $30 a month, and the full suite of what, 10+ apps for $50.. is ridiculous.

Actually, it's only $19.99 for individual apps. So Photoshop CC (the extended version) would be $19.99/mo and still include file storage and Bridge (from what I can tell).

[Gabe Strong]

I moved to Adobe CS 6 from FCP 7 after the FCP X disaster. I will now be moving back and
learning FCP X. One customer Adobe has just miffed and lost right here.