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Last month, Maxon (the makers of Cinema4D) announced the acquisition of Pixologic, de company behind the widely used 3D sculpting software ZBrush.
At the time, some ZBrush users expressed their fears that Maxon might change the upgrade policy: until now, ZBrush upgrades where free, an unusual choice within the CG software industry. It seems that those fears where justified.
What’s new?
The official upgrade policy and licences types pages have changed. Here are the new rules:
- “ZBrush perpetual customers who purchased prior to December 29, 2021, are entitled to free updates for one year following their purchase”.
- “No free upgrades will be included for customers who purchased a perpetual license after December 29, 2021”, except for “critical bug fix updates”.
In other words: if you are a perpetual customer, in the future, you will have to pay to upgrade, unless the upgrade only fixes critical bugs.
ZBrush subscription customers will, of course, automatically receive upgrades to the newest version, at no additional cost and as long as the subscription is active. Studios should also be aware that at this moment, Floating Licences and Volume Licences are only available as perpetual licences, and not as subscription licences.
An inevitable evolution?
This new policy is not a surprise, but it won’t reassure fearful users. Some will probably this evolution as an inevitable step towards industry standards, and as a way to ensure the future of ZBrush. Others will highlight that this is the end of an era.
3DVF will of course keep you updated on this topic. In particular, at this moment Maxon does not provide any detail on the price of these upcoming upgrades.
