I’ve never really understood this
You are not forced to upgrade!
Hopefully a hybrid of some kind, dongle for those who want to carry on using it and soft licence, like iLok, licence file placed on a computer. Ideally, two or three activations if possible since vast majority of users have multiple machines. Personally I don’t mind the dongle as I’ve not moved it since plugged it in years ago, but sometimes when away from home on a job for many days, I would have liked to use Cubase on my laptop without the dongle.
Seeing various forums discussing this news, i’m now starting to think that Steinberg may take a similar route as reFX have for Nexus 3.
Nexus 3 appears to be well protected despite also moving from the E-Licenser as it’s core protection, users can move across multiple machines, but most importantly an internet connection is only needed once every 30 days.
I appreciate that some people don’t want any kind of online activation at all. I’d be really happy if we had something like this, personally.
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That would be horrible and probably would stop me buying Steinberg products so constantly like the recent years. The 3 months re-activation game with Avenger is a desaster, because it always hits you when you’re not ready for such games.
And think about it for a moment: I own Steinberg software licenses for four machines, multiple Nuendo, Cubase, WL etc. installations with Halion and so on. Imagine all licenses have to be refreshed after some time. The more software licenses you have, the bigger the punishment in spent time and bookkeeping for this. Internet connections can go down and so on.
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I have never had a problem with the dongle, in 19 years since SX.
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Thank you for stating that very clearly!!! 
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No Dongle = no more money from me.
I surely don’t buy software where I have to rely on unlock codes or an activation server, especially from a company with such a bad customer service.
See what happened to cakewalk! All update contracts are now invalid! I have lost contracts with a value of> 1500 €
Never again!
No Dongle = no more money from me.
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A dongle-free Cubase? The thought of it already makes me happy. There is a huge potential for better performance, less crashes, and better portability. Steinberg developers take your time and get this right please!
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I’ve never had a problem with the dongle in 10 years, though obviously typing this will ensure that dongle will malfunction some time today.
Would this be any different than if Cakewalk had a Dongle, which would eventually without updates, become incompatible with newer OS updates? or if the dongle breaks, which they tend to eventually do after some time? nothing is forever…
Please, don’t change the Dongle-based license protection!
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Good news and hopefully this will then also eliminate the problems that existed with the last update. But surely we are talking about the end of the year at the earliest or even next year?
That clears up some of the hysteria around this announcement, thank you!
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Having no problems with them, and actually LIKING them, are two different things. I didn’t really have a problem with mine either. Do I therefor like it? Nope. Nothing worse than a USB device I even have to buy for 20 € plus to block one of my computer’s USB ports, especially when I have to plug in at least two other devices to make music anyway…
I’m perfectly fine with occasional online checks. Dongles are a nuisance though.
Thank you for these news.
The dongle was THE REASON why I never considered buying a Steinberg product… Then you developed the software e-licenser and I bought my first Steinberg product, the wonderful Retrologue.
Then my DAW (SONAR) was abandoned, and I had to admit that Cubase Pro was by far the best DAW! Now I’m used to the dongle and it doesn’t bother me so much. But I really hope that many, many DAW fans will come to Cubase after this highly anticipated change 
I read that some people don’t want a permanent Internet access, they’re right, but I think that a monthly connection like Roland does (I think I read this) is really acceptable. The new system HAS TO BE SECURED against piracy! Without piracy, SONAR wouldn’t have been abandoned and I don’t want Cubase and all the wonderful Steinberg products to have the same problems! We love your work!
Another important thing would be to allow a double activation. I work on a PC tower but on holiday I often bring my laptop!
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Why should you have a monthly connection for something you have already paid for ?
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Just to help the company not to suffer from piracy. It’s also our interest. We want to enjoy great new Steinberg software in the future! This is a niche market with many competitors. Piracy could be a problem for some companies.
Obviously the system should be flexible :
Unable to connect today ? You have 5 days to find an internet connection (for example).
Um no thanks , i don’t expect to be TOLD to hook up my system to the internet "or else " , that’s going a bit far especially as you have already paid for your licence .
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