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

[TheOtherRoland]

The fact that you guys addressed this issue speaks volumes about the care that your company (Serif) takes to please its customers. In most instances, and I'm thinking mostly about audio software companies with whom I have long experience, there is a tendency to hide in the shadows and let the controversy just blow over. Cowardice, in other words. So hats off to you guys for airing this in broad daylight before the public eye.

That said, you don't owe any of us anything. I have been using Affinity Designer since what? 2016? And from the first day, I was already getting a HUGE discount just by using the software that your company makes. Since that time, I have bought the suite — all three — for both my Mac and PC at what is an incredible bargain basement price when compared to (that other company). And, it all works well. And you actually fix things that are broken.

So when you create a version 2 and sell it at the same bargain basement discount, I don't feel any tendency to criticize you for not making me feel special, whether with badges, gold stars, free trips to Italy or an additional 40% discount on top of the 40% discount you're already offering.

Let's face it, nature ensures that most animals are selfish out of a need for self-preservation. And sometimes that shows up a little too often in our behavior, especially where money and tribal bonding and affiliation is concerned.

So, from the bottom of my heart and wallet, thank you Serif for your Affinity line of products. I use them constantly and commercially and they have not let me down. I have yet to update, but if I miss out on the discount period, it will still be a bargain.

 

[Transrobotism]

V2: A MARVEL

Hi Affinity Friends, 

I hope all is well! I just would like to say something about the following...

Quote

Upgrade pricing

It’s been really hard to see some of the comments about us not looking after our existing customers – we’re pretty devasted that anyone feels like that to be honest. But the fact is we felt our hands were tied somewhat with being able to offer upgrade pricing in a fair way. The main reason for this was App Store customers (which make up around 35% of our userbase). The problems with that are two-fold: firstly, we didn’t have a way from within V1 to validate an App Store purchase receipt to reliably ensure customers who were entitled to an upgrade could get one; and secondly, we could not find a good way for people to get that discount via the App Store. Us pushing upgrade customers to go exclusively via our own site (including customers who were previously acquired via the app stores) may also have put us in violation of App Store Ts & Cs which we were obviously concerned about.

To Anyone feeling aggrieved about having to pay for an upgrade to V2... 

Guys!? You have to realize that the application landscape has changed over the years. What we have been witnessing - if some of us have been paying attention - is that there has been a change of business model in terms of pricing to users of various applications - including Serif's amazing Affinity range. As we all know, Adobe went to a Subscription Model, which works fine for those who are able to make a considerable living in Graphic & Multimedia Design. For those who aren't able to justify taking out a costly subscription, Serif has always been there for us. ALWAYS!!! Okay... Since they arrived on the scene (about some 30 years ago) with their Plus applications (Photo, Page, Web, and Design). Still, I, for one, am grateful for Serif applications! I went as far as Photoshop 7, and when Affinity Photo was released, I uninstalled Photoshop 7, and have not looked back. 

Any of you do music? Well, for your information, there has been a shake up in the Computer Music Industry as well as the Graphic & Multimedia Industry... Like Serif, a small collective by the name of Cockus - a little weird, I know - have taken hold of the Computer Music Industry with an amazing new DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), REAPER! Now, it has a fantastic price to the user model: $60 for a non professional license - if you are not making loads of money from your music. Then there is a professional licence that is $225. This is superb - especially when taking into account the costs of other DAWs! Of course, you have to renew the licence when a new version is released. That is still better than a lot of other DAWs! 

So, we shouldn't complain that we have to renew our licences for V2 of the Affinity range! It's the only way that a small sized company can continue to make waves - producing great, great applications! As soon as Affinity V2 came out, I made my purchase the same day! The upgrade value was / is so very generous! I am at a loss to understand why people feel that they've been let down for having to pay for a new version. I prefer this sales model to the subscription model. 

I feel so very proud to have made my purchase on the same day of release! I am proud to support Serif. C'mon... The Universal Licence is a freaking steal! If you don't want to upgrade, then it is likely you can carry on using V1 applications. I don't understand why you are unable to see how Serif has given us - not only superlative applications that have at last garnered recognition from the Creative IT industries - but a bonkers upgrade opportunity! It's a no brainer! 

NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS EXPECTING?

Look! When it comes to Creative IT applications, and "Something Big Is Coming" teasers, my mind is going to conjure up all sorts! I really thought that we were getting Affinity Web Designer. Why? I still enjoy creating websites, and I was rather hoping that I could use Affinity Publisher in conjunction with (my fantasy Affinity Web Designer) to produce interactive Digital Publications in the form of HTML 5 executables (exe), PDFs with custom audio and video controls, or even something new... Why not? Serif could create a new standard in Digital Publications - like PDF - to great effect! I am envisioning PowerPoint-like Multimedia presentations to revolutionize Digital Publishing! Affinity Web Designer or iMedia (as I call it) can act as a plugin - of sorts - to Publisher for Digital Publications - including websites! 

Obviously, we did not get this Affinity Web Designer (iMedia) application... It turned out that this "one more thing" was Affinity Publisher for the iPad. Cool. Despite that little bit of disappointment, I made my purchase on the same day as V2 was announced! That's right... I stated it again, because I am so proud and thankful! 

CONCLUSION

For those who still feel bitter about having to pay a small fee for Affinity V2, you really need to do your research, and understand how application development works! 

Thank you! 😇

LOVE! SHOW SOME!

[Dan Connolly]

I think this is a great post, and appreciate the explanation.  Had already decided to upgrade, having been persuaded by other posts.  I will do it forthwith.  What I would love to see in the future is a DAM module integrated, which will have competition running.  I appreciate the time given to the explanation here. 

[okmike]

I bought this product under the impression that I would get free update. Apparently that only applies to small incremental improvements between the actual updates. I will NOT be buying this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Thanks but no thanks.

[Loocor]

这个话题的走向越来越偏——我们讨论的是Affinity（升级）定价策略以及如何对待忠诚度客户的问题——从 @TheOtherRoland @Transrobotism 等朋友的表述来看，我们说现行价格体系不合理/不严谨是因为没有得到 “free trips to Italy” 这样的好处而失望。

这是严重的误解！

首先我想说，我们如实表达不满不是为了贪图“小便宜”，相反我们为值得的产品和服务毫不犹豫的支付费用！我想附上部分软件/服务的订单截图更有说服力：

正如你能看到的，我是 2015 开始的 Affinity 用户，我为值得的产品和服务毫不犹豫的支付费用！不管是一次性买断还是每年按周期支付的订阅！

---

其次我想说，如果对 Affinity 当前的问题视而不见只表达毫无意义的“忠诚”，是在把 Affinity 推向更远更糟糕的地方，“纵容等同于作恶”！

我认为 Affinity 在这次升级中以下两方面是明显的失误：

1. 没有给最近购买V1订单的升级方案。我都不确定 Affinity 团队是真没想到这个问题，还是不认为这是个问题。我没有找到对此的任何官方回复。这种失误是完全让人无法理解的；
2. 信息不透明且不一致。关于 V1 是否继续提供升级维护的表达只在这个主题讨论中出现了肯定的表达，而官网、邮件都明确表示“Please bear in mind that V1 will no longer receive any updates.”

至于问题核心——没有为老用户提供提供专属的升级折扣——我只想问 Affinity 团队真的是有预先以客户为中心仔细思考过相关的方案吗？正如我在前一个回复里提到的，2015年讲“非订阅”是竞争力，经过7年还讲“非订阅”是不是有点过于“懒惰”了，Jetbrain 等很多授权模式值得参考啊？继续一次性买断授权，我都担心买不到你们的V3了——像目前这样的方式 Affinity 能再坚持 7 年吗？

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Loocor

[Burny]

3 minutes ago, okmike said:

I bought this product under the impression that I would get free update. Apparently that only applies to small incremental improvements between the actual updates. I will NOT be buying this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Thanks but no thanks.

You should look up how many new features have arrived during the life of V1...

[Transrobotism]

3 minutes ago, okmike said:

I bought this product under the impression that I would get free update. Apparently that only applies to small incremental improvements between the actual updates. I will NOT be buying this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Thanks but no thanks.

NO SENSE

Guys! I am not here to cause issues or to get into fights with anyone... But this quote above is typical of someone that does not know how applications are developed. Doesn't understand the extreme value in the V2 applications with a Universal Licence Upgrade option! You cannot get any fairer than that! I don't know if Serif made it clear that an upgrade to a new version was going to cost... To me, this is common sense that Serif would have to charge - albeit a relatively small one when taking the Universal Licence into account. 

Again, other small application developers have adopted a similar sales model. I must admit, I did not understand this model when I bought a Digital Audio Workstation called REAPER! When a new version came out, I was like, "What? I have to pay for a new version?" But I get it now... I felt embarrassed because I didn't understand that sales model. Now that I do, I will keep supporting the people behind REAPER, and Serif! Once again, I have dashed Adobe applications because of Affinity! I do not want a subscription model! I will pay for V3, V4, etc. 

I am truly baffled that the person quoted above does not understand and appreciate how applications are developed - especially by a small team! 😲 If we want Affinity Photo do adopt AI, we have to continue to support Serif! Once again, I have ditched Adobe for Serif Affinity! I even used to use pirated Adobe software - especially Illustrator. Now, those days are over! Many small software developers have done wonders for respective industries, e.g. Black Magic and its DaVinci Resolve professional video editing application that has caused many to ditch Adobe Premiere. Then there's the aforementioned Cockos REAPER, which has toppled Music Industry staples like Cubase, Ableton Live, and ProTools. Look! If you want quality professional industry standard applications, we have to be prepared to support smaller application developers. It's not rocket science!

Thank you! 😇

[TheOtherRoland]

17 minutes ago, okmike said:

I bought this product under the impression that I would get free update. Apparently that only applies to small incremental improvements between the actual updates. I will NOT be buying this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Thanks but no thanks.

From my experience using Apple computers since 1993, this is how software sales work. You don't get new versions free, unless you've won a contest or work for the company. The people who write code have to pay for their rent and food somehow. Giving everything away free in perpetuity does not allow for that.

Q. What do you do for a living, and can I get you to do it for free for the rest of my life as well if I pay you once? (Don't say "psycho killer," cause that would derail my joke).

[factus10]

19 minutes ago, okmike said:

I bought this product under the impression that I would get free update. Apparently that only applies to small incremental improvements between the actual updates. I will NOT be buying this AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Thanks but no thanks.

You did receive what you paid for: free updates to the version you purchased.

All software has a limited shelf and maintenance life, software publishers iterate new versions as a part of a stable and reliable business model. 

As I said above, I have been purchasing new versions since the mid-90s. I could, in theory, build a Win 95 machine and roll back to Page Plus 3 in protest, I suppose.

[François R]

23 hours ago, Ash said:

Updates to V1 moving forward

We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update. 

A good and much appreciated way to make a (maybe) last stability update of Affinity Designer, which has been a great and steady workhorse for me would be, in the forthcoming stability update, to give it a new worthy, nice and professional splash screen that doesn't look like a acid trip from the 70s.

I close my eyes or look away every time I start 1.10. 🙂

[fireman-sword]

23 hours ago, Ash said:

Hi All,

Well, it’s been a pretty crazy week since the launch of V2!

This has been a real labour of love for us over the last year or so, and I can’t even begin to describe how hard the development team have worked on it. Not only getting the V2 apps launched, but also of course finally bringing Publisher to iPad. 

With this being our first paid-for upgrade there has understandably been a lot of feedback / questions around future updates and our pricing policies. I thought it was worth addressing / clarifying our position on some of these personally...

Updates to V2 moving forward

Buying V2 not only gets you all the new features you have seen, but we have various updates planned – including many more new features and improvements – which you will get for free. This will continue until such a time that V3 is released. We’re not sure exactly when V3 will be, but I can confirm we are not going to move to anything as regular as an annual upgrade cycle as has been speculated.

It’s worth saying too that V2 does include many under-the-hood changes to our underlying technology, and we have also been investing in several new areas of research recently. Some of these haven’t manifested themselves into new features yet, but overall V2 does give us a better platform to develop on moving forward and I’m sure you will be pleased with the updates V2 will receive.

Updates to V1 moving forward

While we did say on the FAQ that V1 would no longer receive any updates, I want to clarify that was about new feature updates. We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update. 

We will update our FAQ shortly to make that clearer for everyone.

Offer period

In case you didn’t see, I’m pleased to confirm we have decided to run this initial launch offer until 14^th December to give everyone the best chance possible to get it if they wish / have a decent amount of time to trial it. 

Upgrade pricing

It’s been really hard to see some of the comments about us not looking after our existing customers – we’re pretty devasted that anyone feels like that to be honest. But the fact is we felt our hands were tied somewhat with being able to offer upgrade pricing in a fair way. The main reason for this was App Store customers (which make up around 35% of our userbase). The problems with that are two-fold: firstly, we didn’t have a way from within V1 to validate an App Store purchase receipt to reliably ensure customers who were entitled to an upgrade could get one; and secondly, we could not find a good way for people to get that discount via the App Store. Us pushing upgrade customers to go exclusively via our own site (including customers who were previously acquired via the app stores) may also have put us in violation of App Store Ts & Cs which we were obviously concerned about.

I’m not saying that these issues were completely insurmountable, but any solutions we came up with would be messy, and most importantly could have resulted in some bona fide V1 customers struggling to get validated and claim their discount. We certainly don’t have the support resource here if we ended up needing to manually validate tens of thousands of receipts for example.

The only option we felt was safe to move forward with was a general launch offer, which would guarantee that every V1 customer could get the discount, whether they purchased directly through us or the App Stores. We knew a side effect of that would mean some new customers would end up receiving that same discount – but we felt that was a better option than V1 customers missing out. It’s also worth saying that while there has been some good press about V2, all our main marketing has been via email and through social media to our followers. In other words, we felt ok about it because we knew the vast majority of people who would find out about it or take advantage of the offer would be existing customers. I would be surprised if over the offer period customers upgrading from V1 didn’t make up more than 90% of our sales.

Overall I do believe us giving a 40% discount, along with the addition of the new Universal Licence of course, is offering fantastic value for money for those who want to upgrade. 

However, taking on board some of the feedback there is something extra we can do – we will offer a new free bundle of content exclusively for V1 customers upgrading to V2 as an extra thank you for your support. I’ve seen this suggested by a number of customers and it’s a great idea as it does remove the App Store conflict entirely. 

We’ll need a little time to put something together, but all customers who previously registered or purchased V1 and have since upgraded to V2 will receive a voucher code for this via email as soon as we can.

A comment on no subscription

I do want to say that some of the points above are exactly the reason why software companies move to subscription. Whatever you do with upgrade pricing, you still have the issue of customers who bought the previous version 3 months ago vs. those who have had it 2+ years. Offering perpetual licences also gives the additional overhead of needing to maintain the previous version longer than you would if everyone was on subscription / generally always on the latest version.

We are a small team so some of these complications are not ideal — all we really want to do is focus on developing our latest codebase, push out regular updates and continue with our mission to make great creative software accessible to everyone. 

But it does need to be funded somehow. We know you love our no-subscription model, but there also needs to be a level of appreciation that the alternative is having paid-for upgrades from time to time. That unfortunately comes with its own problems.

All of that said, I have to say we have been blown away with the response to V2 - around 3 times as many people have upgraded in the last week than we expected - and we really can't thank you enough for the support you have shown. More than anything the success of this upgrade puts us in a great place to continue investing heavily in development which is ultimately what it's all about, and we’re super excited to crack on with some great updates coming next year!

All the best,

Ash

just great software - at a very good price - if I have to pay a bit every few years to upgrade then I will... thanks

[TheOtherRoland]

23 minutes ago, Loocor said:

This topic is going more and more sideways - we are talking about Affinity (upgrade) pricing strategy and how to treat loyal customers - from @TheOtherRoland @Transrobotism Judging from my friend's statement, we say that the current price system is unreasonable/ imprecise because we are disappointed that we did not get the benefits of "free trips to Italy".

This is a serious misunderstanding!

[etc.]

 

The company did explain itself and why they "had to do" what they had to do, pricing wise. We are getting 40% off the upgrade price. The fact that we have to share that privilege with "outsiders" should not make us upset, unless we believe that we belong to a special club of insiders. (I write about human psychology and sociology, so these kinds of explanations tend to creep into my posts because I take my work home with me. ).

That said, I get discounts on upgrades all the time. And here at Serif, I'm getting them too. I'm happy with that. Why aren't others?

[Victor B]

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.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Victor B

[Loocor]

3 minutes ago, TheOtherRoland said:

The company did explain itself and why they "had to do" what they had to do, pricing wise. We are getting 40% off the upgrade price. The fact that we have to share that privilege with "outsiders" should not make us upset, unless we believe that we belong to a special club of insiders. (I write about human psychology and sociology, so these kinds of explanations tend to creep into my posts because I take my work home with me. ).

That said, I get discounts on upgrades all the time. And here at Serif, I'm getting them too. I'm happy with that. Why aren't others?

好吧你说服了我！我在这个话题上已经花了不少时间了，显然如果不能理解我、以及那些持有相似观念的朋友，我们讲再多也无益。

所以我该停止再继续讨论这个话题了，谢谢你 😄

[TheOtherRoland]

3 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. ...

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.

[TheOtherRoland]

Loocor, I'm seeing your posts in Chinese. Not sure what you're saying: is there a link for translating foreign posts here?

[StarterMan]

Can we import procreate brushes in the future updates please?

If yes,i will purchase the Affinity Designer 2 right now!!

[craftycurate]

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 was a bit alienating, but your post here has certainly given a truer sense of what Serif really thinks its customer base.

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.

[Loocor]

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。

[Victor B]

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.

[Patrick Connor]

@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.

[TheOtherRoland]

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.

[lettersign]

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!

Edited November 17, 2022 by lettersign

[Loocor]

8 minutes ago, TheOtherRoland said:

Loocor, I'm seeing your posts in Chinese. Not sure what you're saying: is there a link for translating foreign posts here?

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

[TheOtherRoland]

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.