So they worded things to cover themselves for this situation. Cunning.
Eric,
Change is seldom easy to take, but often good in the long-run. This is one of those situations.
I’m a Loooooong Time user and until today, I did not know you, whom I’ve met at trade shows, was the CEO. HA…
You’ve helped us Create art, fix productions, differentiate our work, and even solve a Murder Case.
You and your wonderful Topaz team deserve the best and it is only right that you switch to a model that allows you to support your people while having the income to drive updates and enhancements as well as new products.
Love what you do… Keep doing it and we’ll accept the upgrade charges knowing we’re better for it, in the long run.
Thank you,
Bob Holbrook
Holbrook Multi Media, Inc.
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Eric - Please address the questions raised regarding the future of Studio 2 as development into a functional replacement for Studio appears to have stopped - will Topaz continue to support Studio 2?
Possibly. But the EULA wording is pretty standard for the software industry.
I’ll go out on a limb and suggest an alternative strategy. Based on what I see in many replies it is the annual nature of your proposed action that is causing more an a few folks to pause. I don’t think there is much disagreement that charging for a significant functionality or feature upgrade is a common and reasonable business practice. I do think that the idea of having to pay for a bug fix or minor feature enhancement just because a clock ran out is a bit of a stretch. As an alternative how about.
Major releases get a new number e.g., 2, 3 ,etc. while updates are sub numbered e.g., 2.1, 2.02, etc. We have to pay for all major releases at an upgrade price. 30 - 35% of original cost would be reasonable, but for discussion let’s pick a compromise price of $40 and drop the retail sales rubbish of ending pricing in $xx.99. If we want to get multiple upgrades (because we may have skipped a few but decide there is one we really want and there have been others released) we can buy that for $100.
In the interim between major releases (main version number change), all updates e.g., version 2.0.2, 2.2.3, etc. are free to existing users irrespective of the time of the release. That way, we aren’t on an artificial and unequal clock as to whether we have to pay for an update. If it is an update to something we own it is free. If it is an upgrade to a new release we pay. The only way we get the updates to the new release is to buy the upgrade to that release. Once we do that we get all updates to that release until the next major upgrade is released.
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If you only have one app worth upgrading, you would only the $49 for that one. The others you have would remain on whatever status they are. I own every app put out and in the case of the legacy plug-ins, a duplicate set purchased for a friend as a gift and never used. No one shoe fits all so the decision to upgrade to one that offers something new and worthwhile would have to be made. There are only four AI apps mentioned as having to be upgraded in 2020 at this time and there is at least six months I believe before they are due and hopefully all the bugs are ironed out by then.
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Yes, but that is no where near annually.
Makes sense to me…
It’s closer to annually than it is a one-off lifetime payment. The point is that Affinity do NOT offer a lifetime licence.
Eric,
Judging from the amount of NEGATIVE responses, it looks like you may be losing a LOT of consumers of your TOPAZ products!! You NEED to consider VERY HARD taking care of the people who were with you when you began your business model!! TOPAZ can’t just randomly go around and change policy in the “middle of the stream” and start charging them/us for updates because you now find…“hey, guys, we think we need more revenue!!” Should have thought about that BEFORE offering FREE UPGRADES FOR LIFE!!! I’m just small potatoes, who owns 5 Topaz products for personal pleasure, which for the most part run fairly well (except if you try to increase size of image in GIGAPIXEL more than 2X, it looks like something created from Mars!!!), but I don’t think I will be either updating or purchasing ANYMORE from the TOPAZ product line, if this is what you are doing to your former (or initial) customers!!! TRY remembering THOSE WHO MADE YOU SUCCESSFUL TO BEGIN WITH before changing policy!!! I’ll be watching to see what happens, while looking around for OTHER products!!! Please keep us posted, unless this is your FINAL WORD!!
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I can totally understand where you are coming from Eric. There are a lot of naysayers out there and they obviously do NOT use Topaz as much as the percentage of us who love it do. $49 for a year of updates is NOTHING if you value a program. $99 for a series of indispensable tools -at least for me. Sure I can do the same thing in Photoshop but with a LOT of effort compared to Topaz and not always as well! I would rather see Topaz stay in business and continue making great apps and updating them to make them even better than going out of business because some people are too cheap to buy an upgrade! Sure you promised free upgrades for life and that stings a little but in order to stay in business, you have to. Every other company out there charges for major upgrades and gives incremental ones away for free. You are on the cutting edge of AI processing. Others, including Adobe and On1 are catching up to you but you are still ahead of the game in my opinion. I would hate to see you fail because you can’t make any more money to pay for all your research. I think the idea of doing a trial for new versions is a good suggestion. If you don’t like it, you just revert back to the previous version. If you do, you purchase it and then have a year of free incremental and even full updates. And if you are happy with what your current version already does, you have it for life. So what is the problem? For those who want to stick you for “free lifetime” promise, they can keep their current versions forever! I will be very happy to pay for a year of new, amazing technology!
Eric - The elephant in the room is what will happen to the “Other Products” indicated below after 2020:
Only DeNoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel, and Mask will require an upgrade license in 2020. Other products remain under the old policy.
I expect that after Topaz gets us use to paying $99 for DeNoise, Sharpen, Gigapixel, and Mask; we will be hit with another annual charge to remain current on Studio 2 and additional annual charges for other products. (Like we are seeing the annual $199 charge for the video AI just announced)
Perhaps Topaz is moving to a business model of a smaller user base that has the resources to pay multiple sets of annual fees for individual products - This appears to be the direction from the announcement. Topax needs to clearly state the support direction for all products not time limited to what is happening in 2020.
Thanks for sharing the link as it provides perspective on this announcement amd it is good to see that there are discussions going on outside this forum
Too time consuming to read all 448 replies to this point, but I would like to know or at least wish, that there was some way to try the upgrades before purchasing since that is the road you are taking. Not all the upgrades have impressed me at all, and I have found myself going back to the previous versions. I work part time, and all of these additional costs and subscriptions are sinking my financial boat fast. Do as you must, and I shall consider whether it is worth my while to continue using Topaz.
The issue with the EULA is not whether it promised free upgrades, but whether it provides cover for Topaz’s retreat from its stated commitment to lifetime free upgrades. That clause you mention does provide such cover this retreat, applying to both purchase and use of Topaz products. I agree this means there is likely no breach of contract involved. There is, however, considerable breach of faith with their customers, which it will take more than lawyers to heal.
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Ok, but what would you have them do? Honour their old promises, go bankrupt and then all your software eventually becomes useless?
If the options really are that stark then at least Topaz are trying to find a sustainable way forward.
You can of course stick with what you’ve got and refuse to upgrade, which is about the same as them ceasing development.
At least in this scenario you have a choice. If they carried on as before you would eventually have none.
I’m afraid this is a case of reality catching up with unrealistic ideals on Topaz’s part and unrealistic expectations on ours…
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Now your changing the contract you made with me, buy my purchase, to fit your financial needs.
Hi - I really understand where you’re coming from on this one. If I bought someone’s products and the #1 selling point was that I believed I’d get free upgrades for life, I’d be frustrated too and would write a similar post.
If this applies to you or someone else reading, please contact us, send us your receipts, and tell us you want to deactivate and receive a refund on your purchases. Our payment processors usually restrict this process to a certain time period, but we can consider Paypal-ing you your purchase price if it’s beyond our return policy.
That said, while I realize these technicalities are little consolation from a human perspective, I’ll still mention them. We haven’t listed free upgrades on our website or communications for the past year, and we’ve never had it in our actual product license agreements. The AI products are also technically new products instead of existing ones, which is why the version numbers restarted (even though we upgraded people for free).
The truth is that we need to make this change, and our main goal is that we communicate it as honestly and fairly (and with as much lead time) as possible. If you think this means your initial purchase is no longer worth it, please let us know and we’ll make it right.
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Thanks Hans, makes sense. The main thing we wanted to communicate is that you can continue using your purchased versions for as long as you like even if you don’t upgrade. To me, a subscription would imply that you lose access to the products if you stop paying, which is not the case.
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I get what you’re saying and do not disagree that there is really nothing else Topaz can do from a business perspective. But as I said in my OP a while ago, they must be very careful about (1) distinguishing between bug fixes to existing features and major upgrades that introduce new features, charging a fee only for the latter and (2) ensuring more rigorous QC process so they avoid the buggy releases that have at times been an issue.
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