Corona Subscription Update by CHAOS

[ianosss]

I agree with you dj_buckley. I'm furious with this! Awful business practise to double a subscription price.

Also I'm amazed more people haven't been complaining. All I can think is they have not seen the increase yet or have been complaining directly to support.

I'd imagine a lot of people will be switching software. I really have had enough of subscription software companies. I'm looking into Unreal engine and possibly Octane myself.

[dj_buckley]

I don't have an issue with subscription models, it makes it much more affordable for those with potential cash flow issues.  I do, however, have a major problem with having my pants pulled down and basically being forced into paying annually to keep relative pricing, with the justification of additional products that I simply don't need or want.

[Jpjapers]

I couldn't agree with this statement more "If you can sell me it at 29.99 a month billed annually, you can sell me it monthly for 29.99 and youre choosing not to. Its bullshit."

The only reason I can think of why you couldn't manage to do the above, is due to cashflow issues.  But when you're a large corporation and your profits are visible to all, it's clearly not a cashflow thing.

The only possible reason is that annual subscriptions give them predictable income. Adobe overcame this issue with licensing by offering you the ability to sign up annually for 12 months, but you pay monthly. Meaning that they can still reliably predict income from subscriptions each quarter. However having to remember that one month out of the year im going to be hit with another annual bill is irritating and makes it harder for US THE CUSTOMER to predict outgoings.

Imagine offering a WORSE licensing structure than Adobe of all companies, and me having to defend subscriptions by using them as an example. Thats how shitty this new deal is.

Whoever is incharge of pricing, please offer an annual contract with monthly billing. Its far more sensible.
I really dont mind being tied in for a year. I really really dislike being forced to pay in one big chunk to retain sensible pricing.

Paying monthly gives far more predictability for both parties.

[dj_buckley]

I'd love to be in a position where I can predict whether I'll make $4m+ or $6m+ profit that year - or whatever the actual figures are.  I think last time I looked into it, Chaos were valued in the billions.

I think my biggest issue is just how steep the increase is when you total it up.  I've seen comments from the Corona mods justfying it by saying things like "there haven't been any increases in X years", correct there haven't, but you've just made up for that by bundling all those missed incremental increases into 1 massive hike this time around.  It's just the sheer audacity of it.  I'd be more open to it, if they said "there haven't been any increases in X years, so this year we need to slightly increase the price and moving forwards the price will increase in line with our costs etc etc"

I might try it with a client, "actually on your last few jobs I charged you way less than I probably should have, so this time round I'm going to charge you double/triple, I'm also stripping some of the benefits I've given you over the years, unless you decide to pay for your next few jobs in advance today"

[Jpjapers]

I'd love to be in a position where I can predict whether I'll make $4m+ or $6m+ profit that year - or whatever the actual figures are.  I think last time I looked into it, Chaos were valued in the billions.

I think my biggest issue is just how steep the increase is when you total it up.  I've seen comments from the Corona mods justfying it by saying things like "there haven't been any increases in X years", correct there haven't, but you've just made up for that by bundling all those missed incremental increases into 1 massive hike this time around.  It's just the sheer audacity of it.  I'd be more open to it, if they said "there haven't been any increases in X years, so this year we need to slightly increase the price and moving forwards the price will increase in line with our costs etc etc"

I might try it with a client, "actually on your last few jobs I charged you way less than I probably should have, so this time round I'm going to charge you double/triple, I'm also stripping some of the benefits I've given you over the years, unless you decide to pay for your next few jobs in advance today"

See i dont mind paying the pro pricing at the annual rate, id just rather pay it monthly. I see the need for the price increase. What i dont see the need for is the price gouging on the monthly subscription. Its completely beyond the realms of rational pricing to think that its acceptable to charge more per month than an entire creative cloud subscription.

[Philip kelly]

Very good analogy..............and agree .........well said

I'd love to be in a position where I can predict whether I'll make $4m+ or $6m+ profit that year - or whatever the actual figures are.  I think last time I looked into it, Chaos were valued in the billions.

I think my biggest issue is just how steep the increase is when you total it up.  I've seen comments from the Corona mods justfying it by saying things like "there haven't been any increases in X years", correct there haven't, but you've just made up for that by bundling all those missed incremental increases into 1 massive hike this time around.  It's just the sheer audacity of it.  I'd be more open to it, if they said "there haven't been any increases in X years, so this year we need to slightly increase the price and moving forwards the price will increase in line with our costs etc etc"

I might try it with a client, "actually on your last few jobs I charged you way less than I probably should have, so this time round I'm going to charge you double/triple, I'm also stripping some of the benefits I've given you over the years, unless you decide to pay for your next few jobs in advance today"

[jaspercrowe]

I'm trying to figure out how the pricing is being calculated?

Product: Corona Renderer for 3ds Max - FairSaaS - 1 WS + 5 NODES (12 months)

New price: 349.99 EUR
Price for the first month: 418.80 EUR

Am I being charged more than the standard cost of premium because of the extra render nodes I have in my plan? It looks like I'm being charged the new price for 5 render nodes?

In a previous email, we were informed the price would only be charged as a standard premium subscription price.

About your Corona Render Nodes.
As a long-time user who previously had a FairSaaS subscription, your new Corona Premium subscription will come with the same number of Render Nodes as your current subscription, at no extra charge. This will continue so long as your Premium subscription renews without interruption.

[TomG]

If you have any concerns or questions about emails of the form
"
New price: 349.99 EUR
Price for the first month: 418.80 EUR
"

please contact us via https://support.chaos.com/requests/new . Thanks!

[dj_buckley]

Hi Tom

What about the other concerns in this thread?  Where do we go for our answers?

[TomG]

All we can tell you is that pricing for both Solo and Premium was carefully chosen after much thought, based on the challenges faced by businesses in the current economic climate. We can answer specific questions like "What is included in Premium" or "When does my first charge at the new pricing take place?" (a ticket please, so we can check your specific situation :) ) - but in terms of what the pricing is, we've already said and explained all that can be said and explained.

[dj_buckley]

It certainly doesn't feel very thoughtful in terms of the customer and the challenges they face in the current economic climate.  I appreciate you yourself probably aren't directly setting the prices so my moaning isn't directly aimed at yourself.

Where do I go to get the remaining months of my existing Phoenix license refunded?

[steyin]

I'll also add that I've requested to downgrade to solo already, and it hasn't been done yet. 2 replies from Chaos on my ticket trying to upsell me still. You guys sound like a fucking cable company that can't take no for an answer, and honestly it's making me want to just drop Corona entirely or even bootleg it out of spite.

At the very least solo should have the ability to allow installation on 2 computers; I think that would please a lot of us that are pissed off. I understand price increases, expected them when Chaos took the wheel, and loved that up until now the promise of not raising prices was great under a new, young fresh company created by those in the same field. But throw us a fucking bone here, please.

[TomG]

For questions regarding the prior purchase of Phoenix, the same team would be the ones to look into and explain the situation, https://support.chaos.com/requests/new

For the confirmation on changing your subscription, you can reply to that last email confirming you still want to make the change (this is more related to the preserved FairSaaS render nodes, and reminding there is another option of moving from monthly to annual, rather than it being about trying to upsell you on Phoenix, etc that come with Premium).

Hope this helps!

[dj_buckley]

I'll also add that I've requested to downgrade to solo already, and it hasn't been done yet. 2 replies from Chaos on my ticket trying to upsell me still. You guys sound like a fucking cable company that can't take no for an answer, and honestly it's making me want to just drop Corona entirely or even bootleg it out of spite.

At the very least solo should have the ability to allow installation on 2 computers; I think that would please a lot of us that are pissed off. I understand price increases, expected them when Chaos took the wheel, and loved that up until now the promise of not raising prices was great under a new, young fresh company created by those in the same field. But throw us a fucking bone here, please.

Lol you should do the maths to compare what you currently get for 29.99 a month and what you'd have to pay on Corona Solo if you wanted to keep what you currently get and keep paying monthly.

So lets assume you currently pay 29.99 a month for a floating licence and 5 nodes.

The Corona Solo equivalent would be

2x Licenses (to allow you work on two computers) - 39.9 a month
5x nodes (you have to buy them individually if you want to pay for them monthly) - 37.9 a month

New total per month = 269.3 and you're still locked to two workstations rather than having the full flexibility of a floating licence.

Just a cool 800% increase PER MONTH.

[dj_buckley]

For questions regarding the prior purchase of Phoenix, the same team would be the ones to look into and explain the situation, https://support.chaos.com/requests/new

For the confirmation on changing your subscription, you can reply to that last email confirming you still want to make the change (this is more related to the preserved FairSaaS render nodes, and reminding there is another option of moving from monthly to annual, rather than it being about trying to upsell you on Phoenix, etc that come with Premium).

Hope this helps!

Whilst there is a physical option to pay annually on the pricing page.  Paying annually really isn't an option for some people, not so abruptly anyway, 30 days isn't that much time to fully re-evaluate already tight budgets.  It's always those less fortunate that get hit the hardest.

I've sent in my support ticket, looking forward to some answers