Quote - Genesis is ONLY usable in her full glory in DS4.

For a content creator, there is no competition actually.

SM has PoserPro2012 on 50% sale, and V4 and the free V4WM are here to stay.

5 Years??? WHAW.....

Welcome back.

The content creators whose posts I've read all pretty much indicate they see a fork in the road. For some, this presents a dilemma. But there's no question they are having to make a choice. Even with the opportunity Daz has offered to all with DS4 Pro being free, it's a content-product maintenance issue. Cross compatibility between apps appears to be limited to products that make use of features both programmes offer.

ETAnswer your questions:

Quote - Last question: When people say those programs are half off right now...Is 249.99 half off for Poser 9 ?  and 499.99 half off for poser pro?

  I'd check to see if there's an upgrade path from your version of Poser.

Quote - And if I am interested in creating for the marketplace, is Poser 9 still gunna do the trick for me?  - I really really don't want to spend 500 on the program, knowing darn well I probably have another 500 I have to spend in utilities and items anyway.  If so, well I guess it is what it is, but I'm gunna keep my fingers crossed until someone replies to this last part, lol

It depends what sort of items you intend to create. PP2012 allows you to create weight-maps for figures. P9 lets you use WMed figures. The rest is all about rendering and using a 64-bit environment and all that. I'd say weight-mapping is the key reason for a potential vendor to consider PP2012. All the SSS stuff and everything else is available in Poser9, AFAIK.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks