AD: new SI licensing plans!!!

[IslandDreamer]

Maurice Patel just announced on the Softimage Mailing List that Autodesk has reversed its stance and will allow subscription customers to continue accessing their Softimage license indefiinitely after April 2016.

Moderator edit: split this into a new thread because of its importance - HB

[MauricioPC]

Maurice Patel just announced on the Softimage Mailing List that Autodesk has reversed its stance and will allow subscription customers to continue accessing their Softimage license indefiinitely after April 2016.

This is a good news. Now studios can have the Maya or Max option and still use Softimage. Should I restart my studying of Softimage? Damn.

[IslandDreamer]

Here's the text of Maurice's post:

Hi everyone,

I have an update to the Softimage Transition Plan to share with you:

When we created the initial Softimage transition plan our desire was to provide our customers with an easy, no-cost path to transition to either 3ds Max or Maya. We have been monitoring all of your feedback on the forums, including many direct conversations with our customers, and have made adjustments to the transition offering to address your concerns. As we had previously announced, a program is available to all Softimage customers on Subscription providing you with the option of migrating to 3ds Max or Maya via a bundle that will include a Softimage license until April 2016. Based on your feedback we will be adding the ability to continue to access Softimage indefinitely with your Subscription entitlement even after we stop support on Softimage in April 2016. We have heard you and we want to make sure you can continue to be able to access your Softimage projects even after the retirement of Softimage. Our intention was not to create more burden on you with this difficult change.

As many of you have also asked about this, we would also like to clarify what will happen if you do not want to transition: your licenses will not stop working. Any licenses you have purchased are yours. They are perpetual licenses and will continue working whether you are on Subscription or not. You will continue to be able to contact support if you need to move a license to a new machine.

maurice
Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134

[Hirazi Blue]

@IslandDreamer - First good news concerning Softimage I've heard all week! Thanks for that.

[azurecgi]

Here's the text of Maurice's post:

Hi everyone,

I have an update to the Softimage Transition Plan to share with you:

When we created the initial Softimage transition plan our desire was to provide our customers with an easy, no-cost path to transition to either 3ds Max or Maya. We have been monitoring all of your feedback on the forums, including many direct conversations with our customers, and have made adjustments to the transition offering to address your concerns. As we had previously announced, a program is available to all Softimage customers on Subscription providing you with the option of migrating to 3ds Max or Maya via a bundle that will include a Softimage license until April 2016. Based on your feedback we will be adding the ability to continue to access Softimage indefinitely with your Subscription entitlement even after we stop support on Softimage in April 2016. We have heard you and we want to make sure you can continue to be able to access your Softimage projects even after the retirement of Softimage. Our intention was not to create more burden on you with this difficult change.

As many of you have also asked about this, we would also like to clarify what will happen if you do not want to transition: your licenses will not stop working. Any licenses you have purchased are yours. They are perpetual licenses and will continue working whether you are on Subscription or not. You will continue to be able to contact support if you need to move a license to a new machine.

maurice
Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél: 514 954-7134

Common sense prevails! Although it shows how out of touch the Autodesk suits are that they didn't realise this would cause problems for a lot of us in the first place

[luchifer]

Im not buying that crap again, and I dont meant Softimage, I menat the bullsh*t autodesk keeps feeding us.

Fool me once I say!

[IslandDreamer]

Im not buying that crap again, and I dont meant Softimage, I menat the bullsh*t autodesk keeps feeding us.

Fool me once I say!

I feel the same way, but the rational part of my brain is reminding me that I still need occasional access to the other tools in the Suite. So spend $1000 now or potentially spend significantly more down the road?

[BenR]

Well that's an improvement. But does that mean that we would need to maintain a Maya subscription in order to continue using Softimage if we go with the transition offer beyond 2 years? It seems unclear. The updated Autodesk announcement says:

If you need to use Softimage after February 1, 2016 you will be able to access it through the Subscription center in the same way that Subscription customers can access prior versions today.

My understanding is that one loses access to old versions if subscription is dropped and only the latest version is considered perpetual. So does that mean that you lose access to Softimage, or that you continue to have access to the latest Maya and the latest Softimage which you had obtained during the term of your subscription?

[angus_davidson]

AD noticed the survey and saw just how badly they were doing. Seeing their plans to quietly migrate folks to Maya were going up in smoke.

[mirkoj]

just be careful what is behind all the legal mambo jumbo....
what you read in one way, to AD it can mean something completely else and later will be to late to say oooh but I understood it like this...

[Manticor]

So things go back to the way they were in reality ...Autodesk doesn't develop anything for softimage but now you don't have to give them your money .Pretty much almost the same as the past 5 years except the users arent obliged to pay autodesk anything.
So the wise decision would be to stick with softimage and get new tools via Fabric Engine for the foreseeable future.

[luceric]

Well that's an improvement. But does that mean that we would need to maintain a Maya subscription in order to continue using Softimage if we go with the transition offer beyond 2 years? It seems unclear. The updated Autodesk announcement says:

If you need to use Softimage after February 1, 2016 you will be able to access it through the Subscription center in the same way that Subscription customers can access prior versions today.

My understanding is that one loses access to old versions if subscription is dropped and only the latest version is considered perpetual. So does that mean that you lose access to Softimage, or that you continue to have access to the latest Maya and the latest Softimage which you had obtained during the term of your subscription?

That paragraph just says that that Softimage 2015 will be available as download from the sub center, after 2016, when it stops shipping with the migration bundle. It's part of this paragraph about the end of the migration : "We will no longer ship Softimage with these products. If you need to use Softimage after February 1, 2016 you will be able to access it through the Subscription center in the same way that Subscription customers can access prior versions today. "

[Pancho]

The thread title gives me the creeps all the time as I read rules as a verb.
Moderator edit: you're absolutely right, I changed the title ;) - HB


What kind of people made these decisions in the first place? How ill minded can sombody be to not realize this from the beginning? We think of Autodesk as an evil corporation. The truth is far worth and meets the core of Hannah Arendt's book on Eichmann, "The Banality of Evil". They simply don't care and know what they are doing. As simple as that. They might be highly educated, but that doesn't mean that on a social and global level they are competent.

[Hirazi Blue]

As this undoubtedly will get buried under other posts on the mailing list, I’ve decided to cross-post it here as well. I probably am interpreting everything wrong here, but as I state in the following “I’m having a hard time processing all this ATM”. After yesterdays change of plans, Autodesk issued an updated pdf. In my view one thing is however still unclear (to silly old me), that's why I posted the following mail to the Mailing List, directed at Maurice Patel:

Thanks for the update, but it raises another question:
(If this is a stupid question: sorry, I’m having a hard time processing all this ATM.)
Two quotes…
From the OP:
“Based on your feedback we will be adding the ability to continue to access Softimage indefinitely
with your Subscription entitlement even after we stop support on Softimage in April 2016.”
From the FAQ
“If you need to use Softimage after February 1, 2016 you will be able to access it through the Subscription center in
the same way that Subscription customers can access prior versions today.”
In the FAQ one element from your OP seems unclear. You clearly speak of accessing “Softimage indefinitely”,
while the FAQ states the usage “in the same way that Subscription customers can access prior versions today.”.
As I understand prior version rights aren’t indefinite. I believe older versions cease to be available after three years even under this program.
While I assume/hope the condition you’ve laid out in your OP to be correct,
but if so the FAQ could use some clarification in this respect.

Again, I am painfully aware, that I’m probably missing something here, but at the moment I have a hard time focusing on the important stuff due to everything that is currently going on…

The last sentence of the quoted text is grammatically wrong on so many levels but I wanted to quote what I sent to the Mailing List...

[KLONOA WORKS]

what about the new users can they purchase softimage ?

the thing that make me crazy they said at end of march I cant purchase softimage is that the shipment,
and I can purchase the download version ?

[angus_davidson]

Havent heard anything on that or the state of the EDU versions.