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Would Like to Find Affinity Software Sold in Local Retail Stores Sometime in the Future.


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Affinity Designer is probably one of the best graphic arts software programs available for consumer use, the price is reasonable and the features are excellent.

I found only one option for buying and installing this program (along with Publisher) through the Microsoft Store.   For on-line purchases I use prepaid debit cards and they only work for purchases made in the U.S.A.   Could not use my Vanilla VISA prepaid debit card to purchase Publisher and Designer directly from the Affinity web site located in Europe.   The only work around that used to be available was using a debit card balance through Pay Pal, I have used this method in the past to make donations to Blender and Krita.    I was unable to purchase through Pay Pal due to a new restriction they have of a necessary portable phone for text messaging.    In the past Pay Pal would send you a security verification as many other web sites do yet my attempt to buy that way was rejected recently due to only having a lan line phone and no portable phone to text message back, things have changed.   I use only lan line phones, do not have enough use for portable phones and have used lan lines all my life.    All this insanity could be avoided if Affinity were available for purchase through local retail stores like Best Buy, Wal Mart or Staples by simply walking into a store and buying the way all software was purchased years ago and still is available for many popular software products.   It would be nice to purchase Affinity through a packaged retail product in a store that provides your serial and/or product code key that you could use to activate the program by downloading it from the Affinity web site, an .exe or .zip file.    Another better alternative would be from a disc that comes with your retail store purchase that has the .exe file for installation, this would be an advantage for anyone that does not have internet access on their computer.     You might even try a premium version that you pay extra for in retail stores that includes the option to choose from additional add on features such as brush packs or future plug ins.    Although the Microsoft Store did work for my purchase of Affinity Publisher and Designer, the way installation works through this method is a problem having back ups of the software.    You do not get an .exe installation program file after purchase through the Microsoft Store, when the program is installed there is nothing in your Program directory/folder.    There is no way to keep a copy of this program using the Microsoft Store, and problems with computers are a serious part of reality using computers and software requiring re-installation of the operating system and programs used.    There is the one option of creating an image copy type back up through Windows, yet from past experience this option generally works best when you first install the operating system and make a back up of your image.    As time goes by and you add more programs and updates these image back ups become less dependable and often will not work.    When that situation occurs you loose any programs that you do not have any back up copies of.    Another disadvantage of using this involves a situation where a program becomes corrupted and you only need to re-install one program, having to re-install the entire operating system to get one program back is insanity.     Again, if years later you find yourself in a situation where your computer no longer has access to the internet yet you still use it for personal use off-line you cannot access any programs historically purchased through the Microsoft Store.    I have used computers for several decades since college days of the 1990s.    The way you have always used computers and software over these decades was hold on to back up copies of discs or through external drives copies of all your software and operating systems.     It would certainly be the best way to purchase Affinity products if they were available in retail stores here in the U.S.A.   

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On 9/10/2021 at 5:52 AM, Stephen LoPiano said:

I found only one option for buying and installing this program (along with Publisher) through the Microsoft Store.  

Affinity Store? 

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/#buy

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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On 9/10/2021 at 4:52 AM, Stephen LoPiano said:

Another better alternative would be from a disc that comes with your retail store purchase that has the .exe file for installation, this would be an advantage for anyone that does not have internet access on their computer.

I think it extremely unlikely that Affinity (or most other modern software) would be made available on physical media like CDs again. Many new laptop and desktop PCs don't even have optical drives any longer. Additionally, I doubt if most software manufacturers would be happy to bare the massive costs of producing, packaging and distributing discs for the benefit of a handful of purchasers. Affinity regularly update their apps, and every time they do so the old versions of the discs would become redundant, resulting in a huge waste of outdated discs. (Apart from the costs involved, not very "green"!)

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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45 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

Is there ANY software still being sold via physical media?

TurboTax is still available on CD, or was this past April.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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2 hours ago, PaulEC said:

I think it extremely unlikely that Affinity (or most other modern software) would be made available on physical media like CDs again. Many new laptop and desktop PCs don't even have optical drives any longer. Additionally, I doubt if most software manufacturers would be happy to bare the massive costs of producing, packaging and distributing discs for the benefit of a handful of purchasers. Affinity regularly update their apps, and every time they do so the old versions of the discs would become redundant, resulting in a huge waste of outdated discs. (Apart from the costs involved, not very "green"!)

I agree, but it would certainly be possible to produce packages that had a product key or redemption code inside the box which could be used to validate a download, and those boxes could be sold by physical retailers.

I'm sure that Serif won't do that, because it is still a massive cost to produce the physical items, especially when they don't know how many they need overall, nor which retails need which quantities of them.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Physical Stores for selling software? I think corona must have killed even the last stores which sold exclusive software products.

@RNKLN for software as in programs its probably not to be seen unless catered towards old folks?
The only software which might still be sold in a physical store could be  games and only if its collectors editions with physical goods in it?
There are even game consoles which are all digital without a trace of a disk drive.

Even back in 2010 to now, it got more common that software products sold in a physical store only had a disc sleeve with a paper in it which had  the key for unlocking the game/program on it, that cut down the costs for printing discs and also the weight costs but resulted in backlash from people with slow internet connections.

 

Sketchbook (with Affinity Suite usage) | timurariman.com | gumroad.com/myclay
Windows 11 Pro - 22H2 | Ryzen 5800X3D | RTX 3090 - 24GB | 128GB |
Main SSD with 1TB | SSD 4TB | PCIe SSD 256GB (configured as Scratch disk) |

 

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I understand times have changed and many people no longer are interested in program installation the way things were done in the past.

I personally went through some very hard times after buying some software and a very good computer some 15 years ago.   Had to drop my internet service since my budget was reduced to only necessary spending, basically food, clothing and shelter.   It was a saving grace during those times to have the ability to run software on my computer off-line without any internet dependency.   Back then there were programs I used to work with artwork that would often get corrupted and required re-installation of the program to get it running properly again.    With copies of programs saved to hard drives or programs purchased through retail stores that came with the software purchase I was able to run everything efficiently off-line without internet dependency.

You always need some strategy of backing up software to prepare for some unexpected circumstance.    What if the world were to suddenly sink into another 1930's great depression era and many people found themselves unable to continue paying to keep their internet service?   It would be a tragedy to have a computer at home that runs very well yet no way of keeping your software usable due to problems requiring re-installation.    Instead of dependency on the internet, alternative options are the best strategy for back up.

If Affinity products were available in stores and they needed to charge an additional $25 to $50 dollars to cover their expenses, the software would still definitely be worth the extra expense to have this alternative option.

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You are right that backups, offline usage and archives are important.

As mentioned above by Pšenda, Serif is selling its Affinity Product Line as exe files in their own store. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/#buy
You can absolutely do backups and save those exe files wherever you want.

Affinity apps doesn't require an internet connection to work.
Affinity doesn't seem to require a connection to work nor requires to connect from time to time to validate the license.
The only time you have to go online seems to be for activation.

Edit; seems like Affinity doesn't even need an internet connection for activation?


Edit2:
you might have some luck with Microsoft and they allow a refund?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/returning-items-you-bought-from-microsoft-store-for-exchange-or-refund-81629012-aa4f-f48b-2394-8596f415072b

 

Sketchbook (with Affinity Suite usage) | timurariman.com | gumroad.com/myclay
Windows 11 Pro - 22H2 | Ryzen 5800X3D | RTX 3090 - 24GB | 128GB |
Main SSD with 1TB | SSD 4TB | PCIe SSD 256GB (configured as Scratch disk) |

 

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