staigermanus opened this issue on Apr 07, 2007 · 9 posts
pauljs75 posted Tue, 10 April 2007 at 6:29 PM
Yep, just might be a little suprising that the old version is free...
May seem a bit silly to most folks, but really it's quite a shrewd and apt move on DAZ's part. Here's some theories that might explain it:
1. The content mover theory: DAZ gives away the render environment for virtually nothing, because they make all their money on selling content. This could be considered a similar approach to what most printer companies do: sell printers for cheap and profit on the ink.
2. The piraten bypass avoidance theory: (Loosely based upon something I think Dann-o expained somewhere.) If DAZ didn't give away their product, people would bypass it by pirating more advanced and expensive software. Sure the people targeted in this case could afford Bryce, but deem doing something unethical and illegal would provide them a greater return in terms of more valuable software. So they'd skip the Bryce. But if Bryce is free, then there's a return for no risk at all and they reason "Why not?" Get exposed to Bryce, find out that it's actually pretty easy to use... And then end up buying the upgraded feature-enhanced version at a price they should find reasonably affordable.
3. The curiosity draw: Basically a way to garner interest amongst people that dabble in random free software. Usually these people sample everything at Tucows, Cnet, SourceForge, etc. to find really cool stuff. They find a really cool free 3D program, and guess what? DAZ gets some free press. This helps with carry over exposure that moves their pay-for products.
Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.