Obviously, Steinberg isn’t going to want to have to maintain all the logistics of getting dongles to retailers. But what if Steinberg just sold the dongles direct to those who want them?
-User who wants to use dongle for permanent offline activation, buys Cubase online.
-Immediately is able to use Cubase via the new '22 online licensing system while they wait for Steinberg to ship dongle
-Dongle arrives, user transfers online license to dongle license.
Everyone wins, and if Steinberg allows two licenses - that = selling 2x Dongles.
edit
Also, this way, someone could activate a dongle on their permanent studio desktop, and then keep the 2nd license as an online activation for their travel laptop.
The new system is not going to use the USB-eLicenser. This is the whole point, why the new system has been created. The users asked for non-dongle license for many, many years.
Hi,
I’m talking about developing the system to be able to support both modes of authorization, as a suggestion.
edit
Also, this way, someone could activate a dongle on their permanent studio desktop, and then keep the 2nd license as an online activation for their travel laptop.
For sure many users have asked for it. But they have not asked for a network bound. And also a lot of people have asked not to remove the dongle. If you remove key features you will also lose users. Adding new restrictions will also lose users. Im sure the laptop people will love it, but for me Cubase is a studio software. With all the gear needed to be able to use the studio a dongle in size of a xlr connector is a very small problem. However my concern is the long term stability. For all products I have online licensing require updates more or less on monthly bases, so it will eventually become to a point where steinberg/yamaha one day don’t want to support the legacy OS that i might use. So it will end up that I need to buy a new computer and with that I might not be able to get the old plugins working.