I don't think anyone has been coerced.

I think the situation is a confluence of several factors.

First, the Rendo spokespeople stated about a year ago that they thought the site needed more Daz studio products, since the poll they took showed Poser to Daz users at about 50/50. This encouraged vendors to jump ship to Studio products. I was here... I watched it happen.

Second, Genesis 3 came out. For whatever reason it became the go-to figure for Studio users. The vendors saw an opportunity to port all of their existing products to the new platform, and did so. I was here... I saw it happen.

There was little existing clothing for Genesis 3, so what was offered was devoured like chum in a shark pen. This further encouraged those vendors to make more G3 items. IWH... IWIH.

Enter Poser 11.

I bought it, and was delighted with it (ok... the library sucked, but what's new? They fixed it.) I also found that the new figures didn't need a lot of new clothing, because it's now easy to convert from one figure to another. Also, as I've become more expert in the cloth room, I've drifted more and more toward clothing my characters that way.

For whatever reason, I've probably bought my last V4 products.

My friends over at Power World gave up on clothing and the like for any specific figure a couple of years ago. What they make (almost exclusively now) is props and scenery. THOSE, I NEED. About the only purchases I've made here in the last year have been props and scenery, and then ONLY if it is for Poser, not Studio.

My point? (Yes, there is one).

It's all about the money.

V4 is over. Those of us who have her have everything we can possibly need, want, or use for her. Due to long time merchant resistance in supporting other non-Daz characters, those of us using other characters are learning that Wardrobe Wizard, the fitting room, or a combination of the two along with the morph brush pretty much clothes anyone in conforming clothing, and frankly, dynamic clothing really is "one size fits all" and is getting easier and easier to use.

I think it is time to re-think the business model of making items "for Poser" or "for Studio" and start making 3D items that can be fitted and used inside the program the user likes. Spend the extra time not on morphs (that are not needed any more given the ability to transfer them from the character wearing them) and spend that time on materials that look good in the various render engines. I could even see selling those as separate items to make extra money. Ship the item with Firefly and basic Studio materials and sell the PBR shaders (I-Ray and Superfly) for a second profit stream from the same product. Put the textures in the Materials folder and stop wasting time making mat poses to apply them.

Another idea has to do with character textures. I could, for the most part, do without the dial-spun characters that come with most character textures. I know how to do that part. Spend your time making your textures compatible with both platforms, so that you can get income streams from both camps. If Texture Transformer (a separate app that does nothing to geometry, as far as I can tell) can do it, I think most of the talented character artists out there are either smart enough to do it, or could learn pretty quickly. Heck...I can texture! And I'm the well-known village idiot!)

It is short sighted to throw away half of your customers... either half. The folks over at Hivewire figured that one out first. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from that model.

$.02