From my POV the answer is no, and that is because, even when we are all happy that corona is reaching it's first commercial release and we will be able to acquire it, there has been a bit of general disappointment regarding the box license pricing, it felt a bit higher than what it was expected to be, and it's render nodes policy was a bit lower than what it was expected to be, so increasing the price again to include that first year maintenance will be counterproductive, IMHO any changes in the current price scheme should be to make the box license more affordable, or to stay as it is right now, any rise of the price will be bad for it I think.
Apart from that, I've always thought that modularity is great and make things more affordable to anyone, so having the subs price separate form the price make sense to me, I just think that acquiring the subs should be a bit more flexible than what is right now, that you acquire it when you acquire corona or you've lost the train.
I know that SaaS model is the main model you want to keep ebcause it will give you a more fluen income, but after speaking to some trusted people (bank, accountant, fiscal advisor) they told me that it has an added risk that we should not take, so it's great as a sidewing to increase the render licenses temporarily, but never as our base of work, because our incomes as small studio are VERY variable, and we should not risk ourselves to be out of busines because we cannot pay the monthly licenses of everything that it seems to come that will let us work, on the other hand the SaaS model is great to "per-project" based studios, like vfx tv studios or big project studios with projects that have a closed budget over time, this help those type of studios to have clear and justified budget, but for us, small and freelancers, is not good at all.
I don't understand why devs are so focused on SaaS, this is not good for users (being you the fairest company regarding SaaS pricing and model), even when some accountants are stubborn saying that renting is good... well it's good depending on every personal situation, anyways you keep the box licensing, wich is the great part of this :)
Well my post is a bit of a mess regarding opinions, and different thoughts, all this about SaaS revolution is making me dizzy and there are companies that will die because of this, in the end behind those companies there is greed, wich I don't think is your case, but the reasoning that says "if I don't rent my software I won't be able to keep upgrading it", that is untrue or we would not have any historical software as of today, like max, maya, softimage, lightwave, vray, krakatoa, and a long etc... and that's the reasoning that some companies like Autodesk or Cebas are saying to justify their jump to the only SaaS, Autodesk is big, and may be able to absorb the hit of users abandoning it, but Cebas is not that big, and IMHO behind that model change there is just greed.
The fairest model I know is subscription for box licenses, this give the dev yearly founds to keep development and live and don't leave the user in a disadvantage place were he won't be able to keep working if he cannot pay the monthly fee, even if the box licenses is a bit lower and the subs is a bit higher, I think this could be great for both sides, imagin paying for corona 250€ for the license and 175€ for the yearly subscription, this will leave the entry price in a similar fashion, but will let users that cannot afford the subscription the hability to acquire Corona, and in the end, since the yearly subscription is higher it will give the devs a bigger yearly income per license.
That's why, even when I thought the Corona pricing would be a bit lower than what it is, I think is good, and having the subs apart still gives the user the option to acquire it or not to.
Just my thoughts in a post, admin please feel free to delete or move this to the off topic forum if you think is neccessary because I think i've drifted a bit, but it's something I wanted to share since there is so much people talking about the pricing model of the box license.
Cheers.