Huge (bad) changes to cubase upgrades-C11 and older Upgrades disappear

Cubase
1

I am digesting the upgrade paths to Cubase 14 and see some really horrible changes.

  1. Pricing. It used to be the same price to upgrade regardless of version. Now it is more expensive to upgrade from 11 or 12 than from 13. This is slightly annoying after many, many years of being the same price. Ok. Business decision. But then…

  2. See top article on Support page:
    Which states: “The end of the eLicenser service is scheduled for early 2025.” and
    “After the eLicenser service ends, upgrading your eLicenser-based product to Steinberg Licensing will no longer be possible. For example, users of Cubase 11 (or earlier versions) will need to purchase a full version to update to the latest version.”

I’m on 11. So it looks like for me to upgrade, I have to pay more than before, and I have a very short window (~2 months) to do it in (as they say they will close down the eLicenser Service in “early 2025”.)

Steinberg… REALLY? This sucks. Please reconsider.

I hope I am reading this wrong. If not, all C11 and older upgrades will disappear in early 2025. Really, really bad.

2

That was a one time exemption. The current pricing model is the standard pricing model.

3

Hi,

This policy was there with Cubase 13 already. Before, there were even much more “layers”, so Steinberg simplified the updates.

This information was released on April 17 (here), so the users have more than 8 months to act.

4

They’ve been telling you for a very long time that service will end in 2025. I wouldn’t call that a short window.

5

Welcome to the Forum

This was the case with all releases. The release level one before was half the price of two levels before. This hasn’t changed at all.

If you read the statement completely you will see it says “early 2025” and not 31st December 2024. So there is still some time to do the upgrade.

However, even when the eLicenser service stops, you can still use your software indefinitely, until the USB stick breaks, or the next release of the Operating System doesn’t support it anymore.

6

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I have not seen this info before even if posted months ago. Cubase is not my life/work. Just a hobby. I don’t check the forums frequently.

I can deal with the price changes. But when you have been offering upgrades for the last ~8 versions for years, and then cut it off, that’s disappointing.

I use C11 Elements. As mentioned its a hobby. I have not had a problem paying for upgrades every 2-3 releases and giving Steinberg the money. Fair. Its time where I am considering to upgrade to 14. Looks like my options are to pay a higher price in the very near future (yes, I realize it may not be Jan 1, but who knows when exactly…) or buy a full version later.

Given those, options, I may just wait for a few years and see if it makes sense to buy a new full version. Or just keep running C11. It works for me.

I still think Steinberg should reconsider this and give people a longer period of time to upgrade. I would expect many others to be surprised by these changes.

7

3 full years (Jan 2022 - Early 2025) is a lifetime of warning.

If anyone is “surprised” by this - they clearly have no interest whatsoever in their software vendors and little excuse (or runway) to complain.

VP