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Affinity V2, updates, pricing and no subscription (moved)


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8 minutes ago, Victor B said:

I'm a new customer and the release of the V2 was greatly dishartening for me.

I've purchased Photo and Designer just a month ago and it seems that if I want the V2, I will need to pay again. Last week I got the email about V2 launch, I thought to myself "Great!", but in the same email I got informed that there will be no updates to V1. I felt abandoned just a month after purchase. If I knew that this will be the case, I would wait especially that I've paid more for two apps that you are charging now for universal license at the moment for three apps.

When I was buying these apps, there was no info saying: "Hey, we are releasing a new version a month from now, so you may want to wait as there will be no updates to the current one. The update will be paid, so you will need to pay twice within a month".

I am very disapointed with the situation at the moment.

I've sent an enquiry to the Affinity support team a week ago, but didn't get a reply so far.

Don't get me wrong, I like the software very much and I understand the business model, but still... this is a curved ball for me. This should not be the case after just one month after purchase.

尽管我是2015年的用户,但我仍然理解你的感受。

这样我想起 Apple 新品上市的类似场景:Apple 当然不会提前讲新的 Mac 或 iPhone 何时上市,但在发货时如果发现有新品发布且订单时间在14(在中国是个时间)天内,就会邮件或致电客户,提示是否需要更换成更新版本——如果价格没有差异,而如果价格有差异,客户可以把老版本退货重新购买新的。

希望你能得到 Affinity 团队合理的解决方案。

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4 minutes ago, TheOtherRoland said:

This happens to people all of the time and different companies have different grace periods to get a free update. That said, the forum has been a ghost town for months because WE ALL KNEW that another version was coming. It wasn't stated as fact, but when the activity goes from full traffic urban to rural crickets, you can suspect that something is happening behind the scenes.

My point in mentioning this is that I would have waited. Sometimes companies have sales just before they put out a new version — a cheap trick, unfortunately. In this case, Serif put out a new version on sale. Life is good.

That said, I'm sure that they will do what they can to accommodate those who have purchase only recently.

I hope they will do something...

As I've mentioned before, I'm a new customer, so I knew nothing about the new version release and paid full price for the soft that was about to be abandoned. I was not a member of this forum at that time, so I had no clue.

Thanks for your reply.

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  • Staff

@Victor B

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

19 minutes ago, Victor B said:

I've purchased Photo and Designer just a month ago and it seems that if I want the V2.....

We sent a very particular set of email offers to all the customers (that we could find) who had bought in the last few weeks from our store, offering special prices via Add to Basket claim links. I do not know what happened to yours so I will get that looked into in case there are others like you. Perhaps you opted out of marketing communications.

Sorry that we have not replied to your email query about this, we are quite a long way behind. To avoid the need for you to wait I have given you a complimentary copy of the V2 Universal Licence. Please check your Affinity Account you should have received an email too.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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2 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

@Victor B

...To avoid the need for you to wait I have given you a complimentary copy of the V2 Universal Licence. Please check your Affinity Account you should have received an email too.

See. There is a God. :D

My BOOK (created with Publisher, Designer & Photo):
Clearing a Path to Joy (And finding contentment along the way)

My WEBSITE (also developed using Affinity apps):
www.RolandK.ca — "Relentless adventures in self-expression"

[Power Mac & Intel PC (HighSierra/Monterey/Win 10]

 

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Gosh, dear adepts, loyal fans and faithful defenders and advocates. No one is attacking your favourite software, no one is attacking you personally. Don't take it so fervently.

There are specific categories of clients who are well understood about the specifics of creating programmes, none of them are concerned about money and none of them want to get anything for free. All they already paid. All the issues in this discussion refer only to the topic of keeping promises, the commitments made by the Serif and the fact that they do not care about their customers at all. 

Acting in a secretive way. To some customers they send a free upgrade from v1 to v2, here's a screenshot, but me who bought a v1.10 license less than a year ago and many others they have completely ignored. All this is done secretly, non-transparently and smells like blatant fraud. Why are Affinity doing this? It damages their reputation. Next time, in a few years, when there are rumors of v3 coming out, people will stop buying licenses for v2, because they will know that the developers will cheat them and will not provide an update. 

This means sales of your favourite software will fall, developers will get less money from license sales and they won't have anything to create v3 with. The fact that so many advocates have come here, regular forum users, with registration from 2016, i.e. these are people who have had a license for 6 years minimum, and these people talk about how honorable users they are and willing to buy software every day, after at least 6 years without paying anything. Sorry, but I don't believe you. Don't tell users who bought the software just 6 months ago what you would do in their shoes. You are not in their shoes. 

If you love Affinity products, want them to grow and have a future so that people buy new and new licenses in the future without fear of getting screwed, then you should all be interested in Affinity giving a free upgrade to everyone who qualifies (those who bought v1 within 365 days of release v2, in my opinion). That would be fair and it would be a case for the future so that sales don't drop a year before v3 is released. 

Don't be blind advocates!

FhuQB9SWQAEChr-.jpeg

Edited by lettersign
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3 minutes ago, Loocor said:

Sorry I have to express it accurately in my native language, hope you can understand. 

You can use google translator from there https://translate.google.com/

Thanks :)

Got it. I'm used to seeing "translate" on Facebook posts, so I thought they might have something on here as well.

The good news is that, as of today, I can write in Chinese. :)

My BOOK (created with Publisher, Designer & Photo):
Clearing a Path to Joy (And finding contentment along the way)

My WEBSITE (also developed using Affinity apps):
www.RolandK.ca — "Relentless adventures in self-expression"

[Power Mac & Intel PC (HighSierra/Monterey/Win 10]

 

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1 minute ago, Patrick Connor said:

@Victor B

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

We sent email offers to all the customers like you that we could find (customers who we could see had bought in the last few weeks) , offering special prices via emails with claim links. I do not know what happened to yours so I will get that looked into in case there are others like you. Perhaps you opted out of marketing communications.

Sorry that we have not replied to your email query about this, we are quite a long way behind. To avoid the need for you to wait I have given you a complimentary copy of the V2 Universal Licence. Please check your Affinity Account you should have received an email too.

Patrick.

Thank you for your swift reply. I didn't get any email offer that you've mentioned before, but when I was reading I got the email about the complimentary universal license. I can see it in my account now.

You've came out with great class!

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I was expecting to pay up to €300 to upgrade my Windows, Mac and iPad licences. So a price of €120  came as a great relief! (It's even less if you can claim the VAT back.) I've completed my first project in V2, and it was a very smooth experience. Aside from the headline features, the many small improvements add up.

Thank you Serif.

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53 minutes ago, craftycurate said:

Hi @Ash ... it's good to read your response so thanks for taking the time to write so comprehensively, and for taking time to listen to the views of your userbase, esp v1 users like myself who are trying to understand the pricing model.

Like many others I bought all the v1 apps (desktop + iOS) as I wanted to support ongoing development of the best Adobe alternative out there bar none. I am a long time Adobe user and will be for the foreseeable, but I may jump ship at some point, and hope there will continue to be a decent alternative for professional publishing and graphic design work, which I do, and you need funding to continue developing and pay all your staff a decent wage. 

However I find myself hesitating to move to v2, certainly at this moment, as the flat introductory pricing model doesn't provide an incentive for me as a returning customer, especially one who uses Serif apps occasionally. If there had been a larger discount for v1 customers, even for 2 weeks or so, I might have decided to go for it, but as it is, I find myself with no sense of urgency to and am content to remain with v1, and will see how things look with v3, and this means less cash for you

So in these difficult financial times, I'm not able to continue supporting Serif financially for the timebeing, but I do wish you every success in the meantime, and look forward to seeing what develops. Who knows, when the v1 users bonus package is announced I may yet decide to jump on board v2 (if it's available during the promo period! 😄)

Best wishes
Richard

PS. One of your staff in the forum rather sanctimoniously advised v1 users to be happy for new customers getting the full discount, same as returning customers, which jarred a little, so they might need a quick refresh about customer care and tone of voice, as it doesn't come across well to people like me who are genuinely seeking to support Serif and also make best use of our resources in these troubled times.

PPS. There is a sense in the forum that v1 would receive no updates as of now (thanks to the wording of the v2 announcement) so it's good to hear that critical updates will still happen, but it might be worth making an announcement.

I'm confused by this stance but only a bit. I think it's a well-reasoned position to take.

You are suggesting you may come back with V3. However, you've surely read the post about how messy an upgrade price would be to implement. What happens then if V3 has the same price structure? Or are you just saying you'll hold off on V2, pocket the cash and wait for V3 to put down more money, since technically at that rate you're a new customers again. Did I get that right?

Otherwise, it sounds like you had other (legitimate) reasons for not upgrading. And that's OK. I just want to understand how the upgrade fee is weighing your decision-making. More out of curiosity.

Aside from that, it seems like from your post you're more of an investor. I think actually it is quite reasonable to take a wait-and-see approach. If the situation changes, or more features are added, etc that pull you to purchase, then it becomes something like a vote. I would've had a similar approach, especially since it sounds like you are paying for Adobe still. I didn't switch until I could justify dropping Adobe. Otherwise it made no sense to me.

I did look back in my history out of curiosity and I paid full price it seems for AP/AD, but did wait and see for Publisher and then bought at a discount. So I think that $99 is a pretty good deal (for me) considering I am paying significantly less than what I paid for V1. Also I'm not paying subs. Edit: Also, I have considered an iPad on and off, but mainly for Procreate.

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@debraspicher I personally bought a licence for v1 ten months ago to support the developers financially because of their ideology and to stimulate the release of v2. I haven't even had a chance to use v1 yet, because it need time for adaptation. But instead in response to my support of their product I received a disrespectful attitude, no free update and tales of how gorgeous offer I received and from community sentences about how ungrateful I was.

It's a very unpleasant experience, completely the opposite of the impression that Affinity has formed through user reviews.

Edited by lettersign
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Hi,

10 minutes ago, lettersign said:

I personally bought a licence for v1 ten months ago

Sorry that you feel hard done by. I can only see a copy of one Affinity application bought in November 2021 bought during our 30% off sale. As a matter of interest how much discount would you have expected ?

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Hey Mr. Ash

thank you for your clarifying words above, thought I don't see any need for them. You did an awesome, marvelous job on v2 and as a customer whos been around for years now, I think the 40% off starting price for v2 is more than each customer around can wish for. I gladly would have paid even the full price, since I think that even this is (200 for the whole stuff) is more than fair.

So what I want to say is, unfortunately you can't make it right for anyone, there are always some out there who has sth to complain.

Keep on that awesome work

Gordon

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1 hour ago, Victor B said:

there was no info saying: "Hey, we are releasing a new version a month from now, so you may want to wait as there will be no updates to the current one. The update will be paid, so you will need to pay twice within a month".

That is why I won't be upgrading or buying Affinity product again. This lack of communication about the upcoming update is a choice of a business model. 

I've bought V1 of designer beginning of November, to be clear.

 

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12 minutes ago, Viridian said:

That is why I won't be upgrading or buying Affinity product again. This lack of communication about the upcoming update is a choice of a business model. 

I've bought V1 of designer beginning of November, to be clear.

 

I am sure that Serif didn't mean for anyone to be hard done by. I would imagine it was an oversight, and that Serif has learned from it and, I hope, they will put something in place to avoid others experiencing the same issue. Still, that said, that's no reason to abandon Serif and its Affinity range, right!? Surely, you are not going to go back to Adobe? What else is out there that can really produce professional results? 

Had that be me, I would have called Serif sales and had a kind word with representative to cut a deal. You hitting out like you've been beaten within an inch of your life is a bit dramatic, wouldn't you say? 

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1 hour ago, debraspicher said:

I'm confused by this stance but only a bit. I think it's a well-reasoned position to take.

You are suggesting you may come back with V3. However, you've surely read the post about how messy an upgrade price would be to implement. What happens then if V3 has the same price structure? Or are you just saying you'll hold off on V2, pocket the cash and wait for V3 to put down more money, since technically at that rate you're a new customers again. Did I get that right?

Otherwise, it sounds like you had other (legitimate) reasons for not upgrading. And that's OK. I just want to understand how the upgrade fee is weighing your decision-making. More out of curiosity.

Aside from that, it seems like from your post you're more of an investor. I think actually it is quite reasonable to take a wait-and-see approach. If the situation changes, or more features are added, etc that pull you to purchase, then it becomes something like a vote. I would've had a similar approach, especially since it sounds like you are paying for Adobe still. I didn't switch until I could justify dropping Adobe. Otherwise it made no sense to me.

Hi Debra ... yes that's pretty much it. If purchasing a new version puts us back on new customer footing, then I find I can happily wait for a future version. Had there been a returning customer benefit with v2, it might have tipped me into upgrading. The promised bonus pack for v1 customers might still nudge me that way - will wait and see what it contains!)

I understand there are complications with offering different discounts to new and returning customers - Serif will have to figure that out, and I hope their chosen path brings in a healthy revenue. When v3 comes round, I'll see what the deal is, weigh a possible purchase in context of my business needs and funds at that time, and decide. The features I used in a previous client job are in v1, and the new features aren't "must have" for me.

Also, Serif apps don't bring in any revenue for me at the moment, as I have an all-Adobe workflow, and that's an operational necessity given the projects I'm working on and my client base. So I have to be very strategic with my limited funds right now. I hope to be able to continue supporting Serif by purchasing future versions, but the current pricing model offers no incentive tbh. Not that we're entitled to some discount or other (we're not), or that its a bad deal (it is a great deal!) but I have other financial priorities for the foreseeable future.

But I still hope I'll be able to pick up a future version (or maybe v2 in a future sale) and will certainly keep an eye on developments in coming months and years.

Hope that makes a bit more sense 😃 

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2 hours ago, lettersign said:

Gosh, dear adepts, loyal fans and faithful defenders and advocates. No one is attacking your favourite software, no one is attacking you personally. Don't take it so fervently.

There are specific categories of clients who are well understood about the specifics of creating programmes, none of them are concerned about money and none of them want to get anything for free. All they already paid. All the issues in this discussion refer only to the topic of keeping promises, the commitments made by the Serif and the fact that they do not care about their customers at all. 

Acting in a secretive way. To some customers they send a free upgrade from v1 to v2, here's a screenshot, but me who bought a v1.10 license less than a year ago and many others they have completely ignored. All this is done secretly, non-transparently and smells like blatant fraud. Why are Affinity doing this? It damages their reputation. Next time, in a few years, when there are rumors of v3 coming out, people will stop buying licenses for v2, because they will know that the developers will cheat them and will not provide an update. 

This means sales of your favourite software will fall, developers will get less money from license sales and they won't have anything to create v3 with. The fact that so many advocates have come here, regular forum users, with registration from 2016, i.e. these are people who have had a license for 6 years minimum, and these people talk about how honorable users they are and willing to buy software every day, after at least 6 years without paying anything. Sorry, but I don't believe you. Don't tell users who bought the software just 6 months ago what you would do in their shoes. You are not in their shoes. 

If you love Affinity products, want them to grow and have a future so that people buy new and new licenses in the future without fear of getting screwed, then you should all be interested in Affinity giving a free upgrade to everyone who qualifies (those who bought v1 within 365 days of release v2, in my opinion). That would be fair and it would be a case for the future so that sales don't drop a year before v3 is released. 

Don't be blind advocates!

FhuQB9SWQAEChr-.jpeg

 

i agree 100%    i feel the same ...   i got no email offer though ...

 

 

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As someone who bought v1 a few years back, I read and understood the license terms. I knew I would be paying for major updates, and now that the time has come I'm more than pleased with the -40% discount. Even if I was paying full-retail, this software would still be worth the asking price.

 

I bought v1 on-sale ($35x3), so buying v2 for $99 comes out to being about the same as what I paid for v1.

 

Hopefully this fresh wave of revenue will provide the fuel needed to continue pushing forward. I'm excited for incoming updates and what v3 will eventually bring!

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44 minutes ago, WirlyWirly said:

As someone who bought v1 a few years back, I read and understood the license terms. I knew I would be paying for major updates, and now that the time has come I'm more than pleased with the -40% discount. Even if I was paying full-retail, this software would still be worth the asking price.

I bought v1 on-sale ($35x3), so buying v2 for $99 comes out to being about the same as what I paid for v1.

Hopefully this fresh wave of revenue will provide the fuel needed to continue pushing forward. I'm excited for incoming updates and what v3 will eventually bring!

WirlyWirly, that's a concise and accurate summary of the situation. Like you, I'm looking forward to the incoming updates.

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1 hour ago, Viridian said:

That is why I won't be upgrading or buying Affinity product again. This lack of communication about the upcoming update is a choice of a business model. 

I've bought V1 of designer beginning of November, to be clear.

 

Well... They've granted me a V2 license today (one month from the purchase of V1), so I consider it solved. Can't complain. I was very disappointed at first, but not any more. @Patrick Connor Thank you👍

I hope there will be more clear communication from the Serif staff when V3 will be coming, thou.

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I would have no problem rebuying v2 if I owned v1 for any amount of time, but to ask someone to buy it twice to get any sort of future features within 90 days is sad.  Sure, tons of people benefitted for years of v1 support, not me.

I have no received any upgrade offer, purchased 9/22/22 from your store (not App Store)..

Edited by phillychuck
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@Patrick Connor Just an idea, but it might be a good to place a DIV (if possible) above the main forum itself, put something promotional like an advert/upgrade graphic, letting people know 1) about the v2 release but also 2) where to go to get an upgrade/support and maybe point it towards something like Ash's post regarding the upgrade decision so people know to check their emails and how to reach support. That will give people a better sense of where to look when they have questions.

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29 minutes ago, phillychuck said:

I would have no problem rebuying v2 if I owned v1 for any amount of time, but to ask someone to buy it twice to get any sort of future features within 90 days is sad.  Sure, tons of people benefitted for years of v1 support, not me.

I have no received any upgrade offer, purchased 9/22/22 from your store (not App Store)..

Same here, a trail version would also be nice to see if it is worth the upgrade. As it is, I would not buy V. 1 again.

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3 minutes ago, okmike said:

a trail version would also be nice to see if it is worth the upgrade.

You can find a full 30 day free trial of the V2 Universal License here - https://store.serif.com/get/universal-licence-2/trial/ :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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