3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Workflow?
I’ve been using your products since inception, plus I have bought some of the new ones. I makes me a little disappointed us ‘old faithfuls’ wouldn’t get free updates for a year from the time of this announcement since we were the ones who had to bear all the trials and tribulations while the products were being developed… For one, I feel AI mask still needs some work. I do agree that the company needs to make money, so hopefully the new plan will take it to great heights.
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better have some pretty special features and capabilities coming out this year.
You’ve hit the nail on the head here: our whole challenge is making our products valuable and useful enough to be worth it for you to upgrade. Hopefully we can prove it to you in the coming months.
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If you own one photo product, it’ll be $49.99 for another year (after your first year of free upgrades). If you own two or more photo products, it’s $99.99 max for another year on all of them.
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I think you made a mistake on your email. " We’re Making Some Changes To Better Serve You". No, you’re not. Your making changes to better serve yourself, your profit. This does nothing for your loyal customers who made your company what it is today. You’ve made decent profit up to this point or your company would have closed; this is just greed.
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I can understand the need to shift your paradigm. A program I use, in another space, not photo related, follow a similar model. They sell a one year upgrade license that provides all new features. Like your plan you also can use the last purchased release I definitely. However, they provide existing users, whether or not they have an upgrade plan to receive any relevant bug fixes, just not new features
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Can completely understand the change in charging for “Major Upgrades”; however, I have 2 follow up questions:
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Are code fixes to correct a bug in the software going to be considered “minor issues” and
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Does this mean that Topaz will finally have time to actually FIX it so I don’t have to rotate all my photos to a portrait orientation before I can use the plugins while working in Photoshop; otherwise I get a solid black image - but then I’ll have to pay for it.
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I cannot say I disagree, I just find the price point somewhat high considering how (for example in DeNoise AI) most updates were fixing serious artefacts bugs (which took you at least 2 years to almost fully eliminate)
You should at least divide between bug fixing and upgrade.
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Hi,
what you write makes sense and it’s totally clear that you can’t innovate forever without constant revenue.
You have my support here, your decision will, have no influence on my use cases. Quite the contrary, if you were forced to stop working and innovating, I would probably run into a problem at some point.
Cheers,
Ralf
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I love your products, and keep buying the latest topaz tools but this news is like a cold shower.
I understand the need for recurring revenue to fuel upgrades and improvements, but $49 per app or $99 for more than one, plus $199 a year for Video AI is getting out of hand.
This is a drastic change and many of us have bought the whole suite of Topaz tools on the basis of a lifetime licence. In the same way that Afinity photo, Afinity publisher, Afinity designer are sold. If we had known there would be a $49 or $99 renewal I’m not sure so many would have been so quick to jump on the apps in the first place.
I would recommend providing your early adopters with some sort of compromise, maybe cap the upgrade fee to $49 covering all the apps they have purchased as a thank you for having invested in you to help you build the suite in the first place. And then make it $49/$99 for new customers.
Also what is going on with the Video Enhance AI pricing of $199 and $199/year renewal 
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This is just converting Topaz products to a subscription service. I’m uninstalling all my Topaz Labs products and will use other more capable products.
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I agree completely. Part of the reason I sometimes reach for the Topaz button vs On 1 is because of the free updates to the products which I purchased even in though some instances I far preferred the previous version. I will now have to think about this. If the entire suite of programs was offered for $99 a year that would be a different story.
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I have used a wide array of Topaz products for many years. With this change, I have a couple of questions that I hope your ongoing information will make clear. First, it would be helpful to know exactly which of your products are current and which are being discontinued. Is the charge for upgrades taking effect immediately or am I able to still upgrade the products that I have? My second related question is do I own these products that I now have? Some of them have license keys. Are those still good? Will I be able to continue using these after the 6 month period? My third question relates to using your products on. Mac or with Lightroom. When I upgrade my Mac OS or when Lightroom upgrades, will I need to purchase a Topaz upgrade even if it had no additional features? Just wondering. An informational webinar or video might be helpful.
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I did enjoy reading that it was “entirely your fault.” Not really sure what to do with that. But seriously, this really seems like a perfect time to recognize the value of grandfathering prior agreements. To me, it seems only fair, and perhaps, as someone else noted, legal.
Also, I was about a week away from purchasing a gift of your program suite for my young nephew as a graduation gift. I am seriously reconsidering that now because he won’t have the resources to keep current. In effect, you’ve lost a twofer with this act.
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And this is still extremely cheap in comparison to other established products, e.g. DxO. I was suprised when I read about the $99 offer and, since I some of your product, especially Gigapixel and your new upscaler, open new professional opportunities for me, I would be willing to pay more.
Heck, I already stuff alreadyy $99 into Adobe’s Throat every MONTH, like several million others. If your software saves me an hour work per year, it’s already a benefit.
Ralf
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One of your key sales pitches and the contract we bought under was “Free upgrades for Life”. Your sales guys at events “you will never pay for an upgrade - ever”. This is a breech of the contract you have with all of us which has me question the management team going forward. You can have a different contract with new clients but you can’t make a unilateral change with your current customers.
I own all your products because you already created a way to charge for upgrades, just change the name and call it a new product. Then you stop supporting the old plugins.
I will really need to rethink my relationship with Topaz, based on your breech of contract with your current customers. Maybe it is time to get a refund for all the dollars I have spent to date and just stick with Adobe.
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Dear Eric,
I completely understand.
Upgrades should cost money, and I think the “grace period” and 1 year of free upgrades is completely fair.
My only request is that you don’t develop a subscription model where the user is required to pay a monthly or yearly fee to continue to use the version we already have purchased a license to use.
Other than that, I find your policy change to be good for everyone so that you can continue to develop and improve upon what is already in place. I wouldn’t expect to get a hardware upgrade for free, and I don’t think we should expect to get a software upgrade for free either. Nor do I expect anyone to work for free.
I’m quite pleased to be a user of your Topaz Sharpen AI- it has exceeded my expectations, and I thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
Steve Cooper
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I can’t use the GPU acceleration option because it produces artifacts
You’re right that GPU/CPU should give the same results. Actively working on this one, sorry about the issues so far.
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It hasn’t even been available for a year yet!
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Eric, this is a sound business decision you are making, and fair to us customers, in my opinion. As a longtime user of Topaz plugins, I look forward to continuing my relationship.
Bob
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