Hey all, just wanted to pop in here and say while we respect these types of discussions for everyone to voice their differing opinions, let's please keep it about the original topic and not make it personal.  We want everyone to be able to say what they feel as long as it's kept within the TOS and doesn't go personal.

Thanks and have a great day!

Stacey
Community Manager 

Quote - The first hypothesis is that they are getting ready to phase out Bryce and Hexagon.

Bryce is pretty old code by now, and practically no one uses (spit!)Hexagon. Makes perfect sense.

The outsourcing of the Bryce codebase also makes sense... it's way cheaper than developing it in-house, and if you don't particularly care what happens to a given program strategy-wise, then outsourcing it makes perfect sense. I think the only reason they're continuing to bother with it at all is the existing and continuing userbase.

Now Carrara represents one hell of an original monetary and human investment, and is something I can see them continuing to push (or push harder?) That said, I doubt that it has too awful much market penetration. 

Quote - What happened in the last few weeks? DS4 + Genesis. If we posit that sales of those items are way below DAZ management expectations (read pipe dreams) this action becomes understandable.

The base figure is free (just like the base V4 figure was, and the base A3 figure was, and the base V3 figure, etc...) Sales of the morph kits were always somewhat slow at first until other content started requiring 'em, so IMHO that's not a very reliable metric either.

The rest is intriguing, but was missing some critical info.  I hope I can help out with some of that, but it's been awhile.

--

PJ calls it perfectly about the alleged "financial difficulties" - no need to elaborate. I also find it humorous that those who claim these difficulties mysteriously have no recollection or inkling as to where they heard it from.  

I can claim that Bill Gates is about to write Renderosity a check for $10 billion, but damned if I can recall where I heard that from. Somehow, I doubt that Tim will suddenly call his bank and ask about rate breaks for large deposits, though. 

--

SnowSultan: What have you been up to lately? 

--

Dear "stepson": 

Kindly show where I bash any company, product, or a specific group of fan-critters  in that post you quoted. 

I'll save you the time: A pox on both of your houses. 

--

"I didn't much care for Stephanie 3 (her head is weird and too big), so I don't really care if I miss out on version 4 because I'm a Poser user."

Same here, though I still admit to a fetish for the original Aiko variant of S3. (evil grin)

"I'm not about to switch to another program that has an interface that I find alien, and where the majority of my content doesn't work."

Can't blame you viz. any new UI (most folks hate learning stuff they're not used to), but unless you have almost all dynamic hair/clothing, I'm wondering why you think that the majority of your content doesn't work...

"And I can't see a huge number of content creators continuing to support Poser 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Pro 2010 and 2012 and Daz|Studio."

Kind of a strawman there... if it works in Poser 5, it'll pretty much work in everything else, unless Smith Micro somewhere decided to stop doing backwards compatibility in their code design (they didn't).

That brings it down to just two variants (D|S and Poser), unless you want to include the positively ancient Poser 4 .rsr format.

"SnowSultan: What have you been up to lately? "

Mostly working on images (very slowly), making seam guides when necessary, watching a lot of CG movies, and arguing with people who think that Genesis looks too androgynous but can't be bothered to turn a dial. 

How about you? You are still writing very well thought out and intelligent posts.  ;)

I've finally gotten breathing room (new job, and one that doesn't require that I work myself to death :) ).

Still wrestling a bit with DS4, but only due to personal preference (I still prefer DS3).

I'll prolly grab hold of both DS4 Pro and Poser 9 (unless they have an IBL/AOL plugin kit for DS4 w/o going the full pro price).

Otherwise, I'm eagerly awaiting my new home server gear, which UPS is supposed to drop off at home today (file, print, backup, and occasional impromptu render node :) )

Quote - > Quote - --

PJ calls it perfectly about the alleged "financial difficulties" - no need to elaborate. I also find it humorous that those who claim these difficulties mysteriously have no recollection or inkling as to where they heard it from.  

I can claim that Bill Gates is about to write Renderosity a check for $10 billion, but damned if I can recall where I heard that from. Somehow, I doubt that Tim will suddenly call his bank and ask about rate breaks for large deposits, though. 

--

You forgott the rest of my post Pengi  "LOL rumors abound"  Its called irony. and was intended to mean pretty much what you just stated. People see a post someone else has made and take it as fact reposting and so on, rumors rumors rumors with no basis in fact. All the speculation is meaningless and has no value.

And so as I stated befor I am moving forward regardless of what either company does. I see a need for weight mapped figures new and old.

I've just heard that Renderosity, with a grant from Bill Gates, will be purchasing both Poser and Daz and then merging them into one single entity.  My question is, will it be called Dazzer?  Pos?  I know not what?  I'm rather excited about this interesting new development.  :laugh:

Thumbs up, Diogenes, for the going ahead with the weight-mapped figures.  There's always a need for figures which handle better.  :thumbupboth:

(Disclaimer: Cage has not been sleeping enough.  Really.  First, he moves out into the middle of nowhere.  Then, alone in the darkened, creaky house, he watches Night of the Living Dead.  Twice.  There's really no excuse for behavior like this, but hopefully this helps contextualize any bone-headedness in his recent forum posts.)

pjz99 wrote,

Quote - The whole thing with selling a single FBM for list price of $50 (S4 for Genesis) is just setup for later sales. 

Stephanie was a temporary Platinum club bonus for members who bought the Michael 4-Victoria 4 shapes. Apparently the store software couldn't be set up so that only Platinum club members could put it in their cart, so they priced it that high so people wouldn't buy it. Weird I know, but it is what it is. The $50 price is not a setup for future sales.

Coldrake

Quote - I've just heard that Renderosity, with a grant from Bill Gates, will be purchasing both Poser and Daz and then merging them into one single entity.  My question is, will it be called Dazzer?  Pos?...   

My money  is on POS... :lol:

Quote - > Quote - I've just heard that Renderosity, with a grant from Bill Gates, will be purchasing both Poser and Daz and then merging them into one single entity.  My question is, will it be called Dazzer?  Pos?...   

 

My money  is on POS... :lol:

Not sure where you got the idea they can't list items that way (see pic).  I'm not just saying that to bash DAZ, it's a sound sales technique and I don't blame them a bit for doing it. 

It was the pre-purchase of M4/V4 shapes that the store software couldn't check for, not the PC membership part.

I think it's unlikely they absolutely COULD NOT FIGURE OUT how to make that work with their store, but okay I guess there was some impossible-to-work-around reason they couldn't just bundle it or list it separately with a more reasonable price.

Quote - My money  is on POS...

Oho.  I see what you did there.  With the acronym.  Hurm.  :laugh:

The problem was managing the item in people's order history if the same nominal product sometimes included a bonus item and sometimes didn't. They hit problems with the Expressions bundled with the Evolution morphs, which has made getting the updates tricky, so they tried this method (overpricing the item so people don't buy it stand-alone) instead.

Quote - pjz99 wrote,

Quote - The whole thing with selling a single FBM for list price of $50 (S4 for Genesis) is just setup for later sales. 

 

Stephanie was a temporary Platinum club bonus for members who bought the Michael 4-Victoria 4 shapes. Apparently the store software couldn't be set up so that only Platinum club members could put it in their cart, so they priced it that high so people wouldn't buy it. Weird I know, but it is what it is. The $50 price is not a setup for future sales.

Or maybe to get more people to join the Platinum Club... maybe.

Quote - It was the pre-purchase of M4/V4 shapes that the store software couldn't check for, not the PC membership part.

Thanks, I stand corrected. Anyway, whatever the reason for it, my point was that  the $50 price was not a setup for future sales.

Coldrake

then what's the logic for not just bundling it with V4/M4, or providing a separate listing?  it's a sales gimmick pretty much however you look at it.

edit: please note I'm NOT SAYING DAZ ARE SATAN FOR USING SALES TECHNIQUES, just pointing out that that's what they're doing and it's pretty normal.

Quote - then what's the logic for not just bundling it with V4/M4, or providing a separate listing?  it's a sales gimmick pretty much however you look at it.

Because it was a limited time bonus for Platinum Club members who bought the V4 and M4 Shapes for Genesis. You can still buy the V4 and M4 Shapes but the Stephanie shape is no longer available.

Gimmicky yeah, but that's hardly anything new in advertizing.

Coldrake

Quote - ... limited time bonus ... the Stephanie shape is no longer available ...

okay yeah I guess that is not a classic sales tactic but rather a gift straight from Jesus, my apologies for the mistake.

This is from SM's 2010 annual report:

"Our three largest customers are in the Wireless segment and each exceeded 10% of revenues for fiscal year 2010. Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T accounted for 66.3% of our revenues in fiscal 2010."

One may consider DAZ a mom-and-pop company and decry their every strategic move as a threat to Poser, but 3d graphics is their main (if not only) business.

3D Graphics is an afterthought for SM.  They bought Poser from E-Frontier in November of 2007 for $6 million as a content adjunct to their strategy of providing content as well as communication solutions.  Their flagship content product was (and remains, according to their annual reports) Stuffit, a product which has [begin sarcasm] taken the world by storm - becoming the defacto standard file compression software.  [end sarcasm]

There are two likely scenarios.  QuickLink catches fire and SM can continue to fund sidelines like Poser, or SM ultimately sells non-stratigic assets like Poser to raise cash.

Scenario two would be painful due to the mountain of goodwill piled up through acquisitions over the years.  Selling Poser for less than the carried asset value might trigger an analysis of all goodwill and intangibles which would not be good news as they make up $94 million of $213 million in total assets.

BTW, if you want some interesting reading, google the current shareholder lawsuit, investigation of management, and insider stock sales for some eye openers.

I still think DAZ has a better chance of owning poser than poser has of owning DAZ.

Klebnor

Quote - > Quote - ... limited time bonus ... the Stephanie shape is no longer available ...

okay yeah I guess that is not a classic sales tactic but rather a gift straight from Jesus, my apologies for the mistake.

No problem.

Coldrake

@Klebnor...

Possible, but not probable. I like that there's fact in the speculation, but alas it remains only speculation. Besides, Verizon isn't the only wireless customer/carrier out there. Personally, I kind of wish SM would break down profitability in their statements, so we can get a look at how viable Poser actually is, and how much it would actually be worth. Thing is, they don't so there's no way to tell how much of a "sideline" Poser would be for them.  

Meanwhile, I'm still using DS3, mostly because I still somewhat detest the UI in 4. :)