Hi Mike,
Thank you for your interest in Nuendo!
In previews versions, the fact that the Cubase license had to be replaced by the Nuendo license when crossgrading, was a technical restriction of the eLicenser. It wasn’t technically possible to keep both.
But now that’s no longer the case with Steinberg Licensing! Now, if you crossgrade from Cubase 12 to Nuendo 12, you get to keep your Cubase license so in the future, when a newer Cubase version is released, you can keep updating it if you want. The crossgrade to Nuendo is restricted to one per Cubase license though! Applying the crossgrade twice on a single Cubase 12 license is not possible. (That’s what’s meant by that notice in the shop).
When crossgrading from an eLicenser-based Cubase version, e.g. Cubase 11, the license in the USB-eLicenser will remain active and can be used to open Cubase 11 (and older) indefinitely, but that license can no longer be updated or crossgraded in the future.
So, the best way to go, though the more expensive one, is to first update to Cubase 12 and then crossgrade to Nuendo 12. That way you keep your Cubase 11 license in your Dongle, and you also keep your Cubase 12 license active for future updates. If the day comes when you realize that you no longer need Cubase because Nuendo does everything you need and more, you could always resale your Cubase license.
Hope this helps!
All the best,
Luis