Chills

It was for me too!
Not sure what to do now.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

Someone has just sent me a [ripped off] corporate licence for Microsoft Publisher with a gif of a laughing monkey!
I had been promoting Affinity to a group of people who want to set up some  magazines and newsletters for some local groups. IT was one of them who sent it to me. 
We are going to have to re-think the strategy.

It isn't competing with Adobe and doesn't need to.  THAT is the problem.
I think it is more likely to take Affinity down to it's level rather than rise up to Affinity's [now previous] aspirations. 

Someone has just sent me a [ripped off] corporate licence for Microsoft Publisher with a gif of a laughing monkey!
I had been promoting Affinity to a group of people who want to set up some  magazines and newsletters for some local groups. IT was one of them who sent it to me. 
We are going to have to re-think the strategy.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

!00% agree.  A credible professional alternative to Adobe in this space seems to have committed suicide by linking with an amateur focused company.

At the moment we have integrations from Affinity to Pixababy and Pexel which are now Canva. Does it mean we will lose these on the perpetual versions? 

So the perpetual version will be the "lesser" version with fewer features?  Adobe said much the same about the last perpetual Lightroom V6 being supported alongside the CC version, and then pulled all support about a month before Google changed the Maps interface....   Stopped at Adobe CS6 and went with Affinity V1.
I have a magazine set up using Publisher. I need to be able to plan long term. 

It was for me too!
Not sure what to do now.

I pinged Affinity pointing out I was with Affinity  having used Adobe for decades because of the Adobe move to subscription. I urged Affinity not to go subscription.  I had a fairly quick response (surprisingly so as I can imagine many others are also emailing and asking)
The Response was "There are no changes to our current pricing model planned at this time, with all our apps still available as a one-off purchase. Existing Affinity users will be able to continue to use your apps in perpetuity as they were originally purchased – with plenty of free updates to V2 still to look forward to!

" My bold above.  Well as this was 2 months start to finish I would think that Affinity have not made any plans nor Canva told the Affinity staff what their long term intentions are.
Whilst the 2 months start to finish for this buy out was mentioned. I think this is a bit disingenuous.  If you note that Affinity integrates to two stock libraries: Pixababy and Pexel both acquired by Canva in 2019.   So I suspect Affinity has been on Canva's radar for some time.
The worry for me is that whilst Serif appeared to own itself and kept to its core ideals, Canva is owned by a lot of finance people and venture capitalists. who have spent the last few years buying up a range of companies.   Many of which have a subscription model.

At the moment we have integrations from Affinity to Pixababy and Pexel which are now Canva. Does it mean we will lose these on the perpetual versions? 

So the perpetual version will be the "lesser" version with fewer features?  Adobe said much the same about the last perpetual Lightroom V6 being supported alongside the CC version, and then pulled all support about a month before Google changed the Maps interface....   Stopped at Adobe CS6 and went with Affinity V1.
I have a magazine set up using Publisher. I need to be able to plan long term. 

* created with love in Canva
 

It was for me too!
Not sure what to do now.

Sigh. Only piece of software I recommend to everyone and the next version is going to be locked behind subscription or closed down. Thanks. I'm glad we get the fake happy corporate double speak too. Enjoy the money and flipping some other company I guess. 

ABSOLUTELY NOT!
I would point out that no (very few?) Professionals used Serif.  It seems to have bobbed along for decades until it started Affinity.
The company took off with Affinity so moving to Canva is a backwards move profile wise.
Unless..... Canva intends to expand on the Affinity professional portfolio by moving more tools to the Affinity stable?

Maybe I'm just being cynical – justifiably so, with all the enshittification we've been seeing – but this doesn't sound like good news for the users at all.
I'd honestly love Serif to prove me wrong! However, if there's an unreasonable price increase to push users towards subscriptions, or it becomes sub-only, I'm out. If you start pushing flavor-of-the-month tech like AI, especially opt-out, I'm out. If "growth at all costs" becomes the motivation behind the Affinity suite, then I'll lament the loss and move on. I seriously hope that doesn't happen.

Dear Affinity (aka soon to be Canva😢?)
I'm sure it's a good thing for economy of Affinity and appreciate all the hard work from you guys., But for your trusted users who took the leap and changed platform to Affinity for their professional work, this is not a good thing nor appearance. No designer can say they are professional and same time say they use Canva, or even Canva related. I'd guess the word "Canva" in a resume would be thrown away by any design agency. Canva is positioned as probably the biggest (most famous) amateur software. From what I've read from others as well regarding this situation, close to none users are happy with this acquisition. Regarding the potential subscription model in the future doesn't help. Is it worth selling to Canva if Affinity lose your loyal pro customers?
It would probably be a good thing to ask some basic questions from a user perspective before selling the hard Affinity work to amateur platform like Canva:
- Why did users switch to Affinity in the first place?
From own (and understanding of others), was that it was not bloated as Adobe, no subscription, meant for professionals, had professional brand association and name. Basically opposite of what Canva is.

- Will Affinity users like to be associated with an amateur brand like Canva?
Answer would probably be No.

- What will the long term effect be?
Would guess, also based on other posts here: Subscription model, change name to Canva, bloated, mix of amateur and "pro app" without the pro users.
- Short term (like most acquisitions) there are not much of a change and short term might be beneficial like Ash mention here with more focus on free updates in v 2. Still this is very short term.
- Would this acquisition make the Affinity users happy?
No, probably not based on all feedbacks.
The day (if) Affinity changes name to Canva is the day Affinity probably lose all the pro Affinity users. Probably some are jumping ship already.
Affinity, you have done so much hard work and come so far already. Truly hope you'll find a way out of this and perhaps reverse this acquisition. Rather ask your users for support. Rather speed up to v3 and charge for it if it's economical emergency in the Affinity company. I'm sure users will much more appreciate some extra payment one time, rather than be sucked into a Canva environment long term. Imagine all the work and sacrifice pro users have been through just changing platform, filetypes, workflow etc as they believed Affinity was the new alternative pro platform rather than Adobe. With Canva, this will probably take away a lot of trust Affinity build up with users for so long.

If there is no going back and soul is sold, perhaps consider to make a software for users leaving, that can convert AF and AD files to PS and AI files directly.