The beta version of Studio will be free. They're also releasing it in stages, as new modules become available and stable. My own feeling is that Daz is doing it right. The community here has said dozens of times that we'd rather have a very stable product with few bells and whistles to start, rather than umpteen service packs that don't fix the problems we've found. I tend to go by track record, and Daz has a good one. Their products until now have been the best quality. Their service and support is better than about anyone else. They keep the community informed (although an update on Studio and Mike 3 would be nice about now). They take the feedback we give them from here and use it. I also don't think that Daz will release Studio too early because of cash problems due to bad management, unlike some companies. I also think that Studio will support all of the major figures we use (since most of them are from Daz anyway). The nice thing about the modular approach is that the program will not have all the overhead on loading. I very seldom use animation. I don't use the hair room or face room in P5. Content Paradise is a joke. Yet every time I open Poser, those modules take my memory away from rendering. I'd rather pay for the parts I use, and cut down on the overhead. As for P5... It is a great product, and a bad product. Lots of things don't work as advertised, and many of the features are truly wonderful. I use it all the time. Except when I've got multiple high res figures and textures, or try to do animation, or use V3 in a final render. Then I back off to P4, or export the posed scene to Vue and render there. Pick the tool that works for the goal you have in mind. P4 and P5 and Vue and Bryce are all tools. Studio just adds a new one to our toolbox. We'll decide what to use it for when we actually see it.