Cubase 11 senseless upgrade price

Hi folks, I would just like to get people opinion on this. I’ll give mine to start. I’ll speak in Canadian Dollars, adjust to your preferred currency.

I updated my Cubase 6.5 to Cubase 10 about 9 months ago. It cost me 495$ for the update. Now if I want to update it to 11 it would cost 240$. Just that alone to me, doesn’t make that much sense. But that alone has not much room for argument. They fix the price, deal with it.

BUT

If you want to upgrade from Cubase 4 to 11, it’s the same price!!! So, to break it down : I paid 495$ from 6 to 10 but If I had waited 9 months I would have paid 240$ for a newer version? Another way to look at it, an upgrade from 4 to 11 is half the price of an upgrade from 6 to 10? That doesn’t make any logical sense, it’s bordeline fraudulent. I paid 495$ for a +4 update and someone today will pay 240$ for a +7 latest version update. In what world does that sound right?

2 Likes

This again?.. :cry:

I agree! Besides for being totally BUGGY! . It TOTALLY DESTROYED a project I have hundreds of hours put into!!! Hopefully the back ups work!

DON"T DO IT!!! IT’S BUGGY And NOT WORTH THE UPGRADE . I WANT A REFUND!!!

I saw many people talk about the high upgrade price, but didn’t see anyone talking about the fact that the 4 to 11 upgrade is half the price of 6 to 10.

But hey, if you don’t like it, it’s easier to scroll through than it is clicking the thread an posting a useless reply.

I for one have ZERO problems with Steinberg’s upgrade prices.
I simply think what they deliver is worth every cent to me. And frankly, I look at the price in the Cubase forums debates as plain silly for the most part. If you have any clue what it costs to develop complex software of this kind, you can’t seriously expect significantly lower pricing. DAWs are no mass product, and have to get by with a market split in fragments on top of that.

If someone feels free to discuss entrance fees at Mar-A-Lago, that’s something else… :slight_smile:

Oh yeah, it’s cheap now to update or upgrade from old versions.

They had more differentiated update paths before (more expensive for older versions). Then they also got critique that it didn’t pay off to “jump over” versions; people felt a bit like it’s a bit of a pseudo subscription model (if they wait for a later version, they need to pay more).

Now they changed it, there are now only 2 update paths (and only 1 upgrade path from Artist/Elements respectively). But now you give them critique that it’s too cheap to update from old versions… :unamused: (because you paid more a year ago - otherwise I suppose you would not complain).
(Regarding the update price from the latest version: it’s the same as usual, since many years.)

You paid for the update, because it was worth it. Now it’s cheaper, but that does not hurt you, does it? Prices are always subject to change in a free market. They want old customers to update too, instead of getting nothing or even losing them to the competitors due to too high update prices. Instead of being jealous that people can buy something cheaper than you did a year ago, you could think that Steinberg is now generous to old customers?

By the way, if you bought the update 9 months ago, you should have 10.5 now and not 10.0; thus CAD 150 to update and not CAD 240, right?

I think the thread is useless. What is the real goal? It won’t change the pricing scheme just like the hundreds of other threads exactly like this one. It really just amounts to complaining about prices. It’s a free market. They offer a price for a product. If you like it you buy. If you don’t you pass.
Maybe they figure someone who is still on Cubase 4 is “out of the game” and they want to lure them back in with a discount. It is their choice to do that. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. They can set their prices however they want. If people don’t buy, then they will have to adjust their prices.

Completely besides my point. Did you read the whole initial post? My complaint is about the upgrade from 4 to 11 being half the price of the 6 to 10 upgrade. And also the 10 to 11 upgrade being the same price as 4 to 11.

You know customer satisfaction is a concern for certain business right? If many customers manifest their disctontent, yes it might change something.

2 Likes

I can’t consider exchange rates and pricing for every country, but in the USA at least, NI does this as well so it’s not unique. With NI you can upgrade 20-year old plug (look at Kontakt version 2 going to version 6) for the same price as a 1-year old upgrade version. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong.

My guess is NI wants to tempt a casual user with a outrageously great deal. And, they are content they have enough dedicated users who upgrade annually.

Business are free to structure their prices as they see fit. Vote with your pocket book.

So send them a letter or an e-mail. Starting a thread here to garner support from others is really more of a campaign attempt (which, I believe, is against forum rules, at least it used to be). There are already hundreds of others similar threads. Just jump onto one of those instead of starting another one.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. I agree that your situation is unfair. Taking your issue “offline” will have no result. Sometimes exposing the issue and making people uncomfortable will get results.

1 Like

I just hope all the Steinberg employees are making good money!

Honestly I don’t understand the $240 price tag? I was running 10 (10.5) and the upgrade price I paid was $99.99 (US dollars). Does Canada control your Steinberg upgrade price or something?

Further, as far as I can remember, each new upgraded version is $99.99 (in US Dollars). Doing the math, from 6 to 10, that should cost you $400 US if you did it each time there was an upgrade. Doing the Canadian dollar conversion, you spent $379 US for your 6 to 10 upgrade. (You spent less than I than I did, right?) As someone else pointed out, you should be paying around $150 Canadian for your upgrade to C11(but is it actually $130 Canadian?) - that’s $114 US or $100 US if the $150 amount is actually $130 Canadian.

How can I feel sorry for you when I’m paying the same price as you? You’re not looking at things as they are.

Everybody complains about prices/the weather, but nobody does anything about it!

When buying anything, from anyone, you generally have four choices:

  1. Buy nothing
  2. Make an offer for a different price and see if they accept it
  3. Buy at the price they ask
  4. Buy a substitute product from a competitor instead

If price is the most important feature for you, maybe you should look at something else? Garage Band is free on Mac, Cakewalk is free on Windows. The FL Studio purchase price is less than what you suggest you’d pay for the many-versions upgrade, and their upgrades are free for life. Ardour is free and open source. There are tons of choices in the market! I’m pretty glad that we have the option of cubase-features at cubase-prices, because I make that work for me, but I understand that in an open market, not every choice is for everyone.

No need to go through all those prices, I said I paid 495CAD for a single update from 6 to 10 (not 10.5). But today, the 4 to 11 upgrade is 240CAD (180USD). The 10 to 11 update is also 240CAD (180USD). Is my complaint clearer?

It is. But 10.5 is a free upgrade - no? I don’t think I paid for it but I don’t recall… Anyway, the upgrade from 10.5 to 11 s/b $99 US.

If I didn’t have 10.5 and I jumped from 10 to 11, it would cost me $160 US which is - for reasons I don’t understand - $20 less than what you have to pay. So, OK you are spending $20 more than me.

As to perhaps your main point, that a person could have hung on to C4 for 10 years and saved some money today? Well, it is what it is, Steinberg’s decision. Write them a letter but skip the open forum I think. Who knows? But what ever the outcome I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be hanging with C4 these past 10 years… Stone Age software. All the Best, hardminder.

Just to clarify, there have never been free 0.5 upgrades. I am also in Canada and I believe I paid $105 Canadian to go from 10 to 10.5.

Lol this happens every year… I said something just cause I wanted a freebie haha…