My impression is that phantom3D is doing his own thing and is more interested in making the best figure he can rather than approaching it as a strictly commercial venture. He seems to be working on a UV superior to Unimesh or any other. I still have not gathered what his financial/commercial goal is in terms of selling the figures or otherwise making money off them but it seems that his focus is on good design.

The idea of Daz benefiting from his V4 rigging is discouraging on one level but on an other I sure would like to have the figure optimized. As for a standard UV, Apollo and Miki did okay despite having their own UVs. If his UV comes out anything like it looks to it should be much nicer to texture than other UVs.

Once his figure is out I don't see what harm it would do his original figures if he released his re-rigged V4 since I can't see that it would be a competing product. Might generate interest in his original figure. I'm interested in his hi-res/lo-res option plans for his figure since a lot of people including me do have use for a lighter mesh that bends well.

On the down side, it does seem to me that no matter how good a new figure is, without the market clout of Daz you can not ever expect to rival "This Years Vicky" for preeminence; especially with newbie users. You just have to come to terms with your place in the market. Either do what Anton has done and give it away or come up with a low unit price to see if you can get a base that will garner support.

The least good option I would expect is choosing a dollar price you think reflects the value of your work rather than low balling it to try to get volume. If you look in clearance you will see a number of really excellent products that are getting pulled from the market all together because the developer just could not deal emotionally with a volume sales price and went above that magic number for discretionary spending whatever it is... $12? $15? $17? $19. I can't imagine that Uzlite has ever cleared the kind of dollars per month BATLAB has. I'm sure Richibari clears more dollars than Stonemasson for that matter so it comes down to a personal choice I guess. There was a time when a single Posette texture could sell at $16 bucks but people expect a hell of a lot for $12 now I think.

Is there any other buisnesss model?

Releasing a low res version and selling the hi-res upgrade? I don't think people love the Daz system of a freebie base model and expensive morph sets. To challenge Daz I would think the figure would have to ship with the full morph set and a basic texture at a pretty low price. Would vendors ever consider paying a 10% royalty to the figure developer for conforming clothes and skin textures if the figure was released by the developer for free?

I think the users and the developers were happier ultimately back in the old freebie/DYI days 1995-2001 maybe. It seems people get all caught up and put through the wringer by the market just for a few grand a year or a couple grand a month... something I can understand if you are in the developing world but maybe not so much if the money isn't critical. Even the people I know from Eastern Europe or Africa making sales for money that actually matters for them have a hell of a time actually getting their hands on the cash given the limits of the local economy... they end up with the money sitting inaccessible in Paypal or store credit!

In everything I say do it for yourself and treat the income as gravy. When I was actually earning my living with commercial work I figured I should do work I was proud of but not kick myself if I ever got screwed. I still get royalties from various telecoms etc. but to me it is all a gift... how would I ever be able to go after it if they decided to screw me out of my cut? I read the sales reports they send me and cash the checks they send with a sense of wonder that at least in America the honor system seems to be good for something and so far as I know I have never been burned. If I were? Well, it would have meant some hours of my life "wasted" doing work I enjoyed but didn't make money on...