"DAZ vowed years ago to be the "Poser killer," even said so publicly in an interview.  That is their goal."

I can't get over the irony of that statement because of a post at a different forum by a former owner. If it was years ago then it was different management all together and you can't attribute the statement to the current management that implemented genesis and the new weight mapping.

Indeed.  DAZ is now a small piece of a $74 Billion corporation.  The question for their current management is; does it increase the value of DAZ more to increase sales by continuing to support Poser compatible, at some development expense, or not support Poser and eventually charge for the Pro/Advanced versions of Studio, as was originally envisaged...

Or option, three expand into the larger market (As with G3 DQ weight maps) and continue to drive revenue by offering a free platform and relying on the sale of content. There are some obvious advantages of giving DS away for free you do not seem to be seeing. DA has a whole bunch of powerful development tools included for free. Putting these in the hands of users mean more content will be developed for DS which in turn can lead to increased revenue for DAZ3D when those users partner with DS(the largest market) to sell their content. Giving the platform away for free also means costs are consolidated as the user base is for the most part is consistently on the same version of the platform. Poser suffers from a fragmented user base simply because the cost of chasing upgrades to the platform creates a lag effect. In its most basic application giving it away means more user -> means more customer buying content.

Daz3D having strong investors is more of an asset than a weakness. Investment on this scale allows daz to input that very investment directly into DS development and in turn content development. And in turn a stronger platform, larger user base, more content sold. I really don't see how you can be representing this with such a negative slant.

I find it funny how rife speculation is that DAZ will all of sudden backflip on their current business model just because they can, in ways that are obviously detrimental to their own business. It's like saying of course the most successful free to play game is going to start charging a subscription to play now they are so big. The very reason they are so successful is because of the free to play system, why would they take the risk to change to an opposing business model. Of course one reason would be so they can lol evilly "Muhahaha, gosh we showed them Poser users" other than that I don't see any logic to the argument that this model is any way linked to Poser content sales. Seems like scaremongering to me.