I would add to that there MUST be some means of
Paid update, Major update, Lite to Full, Updates/Support Subscription or some system so that a developer of a software tool can account for the ongoing development and cost that supports their customers properly.
As it is, FAB is only fit for purpose for 3D models and 2D textures. Maybe audio … but software No this is not gonna cut it. We will be here for a year at least but we cant remain after that if there isn’t some means to address this.
Major Update / Paid Update
Is not ideal but works in a pinch
Lite to Full
Is required for various use cases
Subscription
Is the gold standard … no I am NOT talking about SaaS
I mean a “maintenance” subscription aka Updates and Support subscription.
The idea that you can buy once and receive life time updates and support for that initial purchase is not sustainable and Epic knows that they are a functional software company with various systems in place for recurring revenue.
What we would ideally like to see is a subscription model so that clients can buy updates for the period that suits them be that a month, a quarter, a year whatever and such that returning customers dont get screwed but can simply pick that sub back up to get the latest updates.
Major / Paid Update can fake this via annualized paid update and a steep discount for existing customers but the MAJOR draw back to that is customers that purchase any time after release are losing out on that first year, even if you add a Grace Period system in place its still not ideal
The ideal is that you can subscribe to get updates
The license to use it is perpetual, but if you want updates and support you need to pay for that service as a service e.g. a recurring cost.
For our direct customers they can sponsor us on GitHub or Patreon and that gets them a site based perpetual license to use all our tools. While they are “subed up” they have access to updates and elevated support channels. They can cancel at ANY time and they DO NOT lose access software, the license doesn’t stop, etc. they can keep using it all … they ONLY lose access to updates and elevated support channels.
As a subscription a user that subs up for a month on 6th June, can choose to renew on 6th July if they want
Where as the Major updates if we release on 1st Nov (as we tend to do) and you buy on 3rd march then you just lost 4th months of that 1st year, come 1st Nov you would either stop getting updates as we moved to the next years release or you would be asked to pay (for us 20% base price) for the next year worth of updates.
We NEED a maintenance subscription tool
At minimal we NEED Major / Paid updates
And without at least the Major / Paid updates the store is not fit for purpose we will have to disable our asset on it within the year.
We cant give FAB users free for life updates
1st that isn’t sustainable at all
2nd that isn’t fair to every other channel user who pays for updates and elevated support if they need them.