_Until the deal is further altered.

If DAZ manages to impose this step, they can (and will) go further down the software-as-service road. The "logical" next step is everything-is-"free" but then you have to pay a small amount whenever you try to render or export a scene. It is not far fetched, it is like what happens in pay-per-view video services where you have to pay whenever you watch a movie, regardless of whether you have already watched in the past (contrast with buying a DVD and then being able to watch the movie without further costs, as many times as you like)._

That is totally baseless and pretty clearly conjectured with out any knowledge of how a brokerage functions.

_Prices... The prices use to be a lot higher. Then dropped for a while. They stabilized for a few years. Then started an increase trend last year. For example, in 2004 when I purchased the Millennium Dragon it was $99 for just the model, texture and poses. V3 with just the head and body morphs was $79.

The prices went down. Then the ship started to loose direction. Lots of different things were thrown at the wall to see what would work. For a while, these were good. Innovations. Investments that yielded new products. That's how we got DAZ Studio. Back then there was no such beast. It came about because of a spat with whoever happened to be the owner of Poser at that time.

Then things started to get bad. Barn burner sales. Overnight changes in direction. Lack of communication. At three points it got so bad that I stepped away for years at a time.

Then it stabilized for a while. Things seemed to be improving. Then the ship lost direction again last year. Things thrown at the wall. 3D printing. Gaming licenses. etc. etc. None of them really seeming to work out.

Here's a secret for you... When DS went free; they were giving out refunds. You had to call them directly and plead your case. This happened repeatedly. DS4. The Auto Fit tool. Carrara Pro. The Supersuit bundle. etc. etc.

Yes, some people would have had a bad reaction no matter what. But if the things in the past hadn't happened, then the number of people having a bad reaction right now would probably be a lot less._

Not a spat.. a very real fear that the program would be turned into abandon ware as it was passed from hand to hand.

Actually... when Daz started to have an active and involved marketing team things started to improve. Daz is much stronger and the PA's much more financially secure now than in the past. 3D printing was always expected to be a down the road thing but it would have served no purpose to not get in some testing and so forth on it. Gaming licenses may not have had the impact you were looking for but it helped them work out the direction to go with Morph3d.

Charging for Studio was one of the few miss steps they have made and that was before most of the current Admin staff was in the positions they are. Thankfully they course corrected and once again is a very successful marketing tool. It can't have been too big a hit since they have been able to afford to do some pretty major expansions since then. I can think of a few people who have carried on like they were dumped by a lover after the return to free but most people are not quite so prone to a highly personal grudge long term like that.

www.Calida3d.com
Daz studio and Poser content creators