Nails60 posted at 10:49AM Fri, 27 December 2019 - #4374677

Penguinisto how do you know how many hobbyist users of poser there are? I'm not disputing your knowledge of the professional market, just the fact that as far I'm aware nobody other Bomdware, and perhaps not even them really knows the breakdown of the poser user base.

Smith Micro would know precisely, but consider that hobbyists alone wouldn't have kept Poser alive all these years, mostly because piracy of the Poser software suite was (and likely still is) so easy to accomplish for the hobbyist crowd. (Pros won't pirate anything if they're smart, because 1) they can afford the 200 bucks per seat (or bulk rates), and 2) the BSA would rape their financials the moment they tried and a disgruntled employee blew the whistle.) The other really big reason is that hobbyists, especially newbies, are going to go with something free first, then maybe get around to Poser (no, I won't mention the competition directly, but you know what I mean.)

All of this means someone had to keep CuriousLabs/EGISys/SM's bills paid... hence pro customers.

Now is this a static ratio that always was and always will be? Hells, no - which is likely why Bondware is weighing the issue and not just going for it.

I can't imagine professionals spend their time and money stocking up their runtimes with content they might, but probably never will, use, that's the domain of the hobbyist.

Pretty sure the pros aren't loading up their runtimes with lingerie and impractical armor either... in most cases, pros are going to use the stock stuff for cheapie illustration/animations, import homebrew stuff from FBX or similar and rig it to taste, or use cheap-enough bridging software to drag in their own content.