Hi everyone,
First of all, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who participated in these conversations for their time and contributions. I spent some time over the weekend reading them, and the ProAudio team will be conducting a more thorough analysis of all the posts. There are many ideas, valuable criticisms, and perspectives contained in all of your contributions.
The level of detail in the discussion is truly impressive, and I must honestly say that I am deeply impressed by how thoroughly all aspects have been examined, even though some of the topics are discussed controversially. It helps me and us to gain a more precise understanding of the background of the discussion. This includes feedback on topics such as more active communication in the forums and bug situations, but also feature prioritization (which is always very, very complicated) and payment models.
That said, I would like to highlight a few things.
First of all, there are no plans to introduce subscription instead of perpetual licensing. My comment on this was due to a different development model that came up in this discussion. Replacing Perpetual with Subscription is not an option.
In the pro audio segement in which Nuendo is being used, subscriptions are primarily requested by institutions, larger companies, and universities. This is mainly due to consistent budgeting, simplified deployment, and tax advantages. It is explicitly not driven by “our” desire to change the payment method. There may be additional and more flexible payment models in the future, but there are no plans whatsoever to get rid of the perpetual license.
I’d also like to comment on the financial situation. Steinberg has always tried to keep prices competitive. Ten years ago, Nuendo cost twice as much, and updates started at €299/$299. One could argue that software—unlike many other products—has generally become cheaper. Logically, this can only be offset by higher sales volume. While scaling is faster in the consumer market, it’s more limited in the pro audio market.
Nuendo is certainly not the cheapest software on the market and is a premium product (although some of its direct competitors are significantly more expensive). However, we have always tried to keep pricing fair. We reduced the update price by a third in 2017 and have maintained that price point since then. Due to inflation alone, it should be considerably higher.
Even though we can and must improve many things (as already discussed in this thread), it is the close relationship with our users and friends that enables us to continuously develop our products. We have always tried to manage our resources thoughtfully, and so far this has allowed us to weather difficult times and further develop our products – something that is no longer a given these days, as many examples from recent months and years have shown. The industry is going through turbulent times.
I thank everyone for their contributions so far and would like to emphasize again that we will look at this in more detail with a larger team during regular working hours.
Thanks,
Timo