So this is a suggestion for pixologic:
I understand that a lot of money goes into developing software, but the success of Adobe’s cloud makes me think that pixologic would benefit from something similar. The problem of course that there are hundreds of thousands of people who honestly can’t afford the risk of a 600$ purchase - that they do not know how long they will use the software or if they will lose interest. For many people 600$ is a serious investment, and yet many of those people buy monthly subscriptions in the millions. 30$/month for 2 years is more money than 600$ at one time - but if your savings is 10k or less, you have loan payments every month and so on it’s a lot easier to give up a cup of coffee everyday for the subscription than to spend a lot of effort into saving only to obliterate your savings with a one time purchase. Consider that for many people 200$/month is about how much EXTRA money they have left over for entertainment, clothes and the like. With that limitations it’s easy to see that 30$/month is a lot more accessible than 600$ at one time. This is why I think more people are buying adobe products these days than autodesk or zbrush, even though the later will likely result in more job opportunities. 30$ is also cheap enough that people who opt out for blender or sculptis will likely choose the subscription instead.
Zbrush is currently about $600 straight from pixologic, about $450 from discount retailers. The current target audience is obviously game developers and people interested in games as a career, but for them a cloud payment method would lose them money in the long run so they would likely opt for the one time payment for each software package (as they have been). For small businesses, studios and the like who decide to just focus on flash based games (again the cloud) or webdesign might consider branching out into experimenting with 3D due to an accessible price tag. Truly it’s been amazing to see people who never touched an adobe program opting for the cloud because they feel assured that they can “cancel at anytime” if it doesn’t work out for them.
The other business model to consider is Unreal, who just gives away their software then asks people to pay for publishing licensing. This is an exceptional way to widen the target audience, which of course leads to more paying costumers. I think this model would make zbrush more revenue because as more people began using the program more people would become serious about their hobby and wish to purchase licenses. Free programs like sketchup, blender and sculptis have very obvious limitations, and that’s enough to discourage the casual user who is already frustrated with figuring out the programs. Consider the sheer number of people who own Photoshop, which was once a “professionals only” type software. Zbrush really honestly should have a similar presence in the market, but simply doesn’t because of the price tag. The cheaper versions of photoshop, and photoshops counterparts do not have obvious limitations like 3d program alternatives. Opencanvas, Photoshop Elements, and Corel Paint does everything the casual user would want and gives them the ability to create a finished pieces that looks professional. Sculptis, Blender, Sketchup and others are simply too difficult to use and the end result is no where near professional – which of course causes many to question “why even try?”. With accessible pricing the costumer wouldn’t ask that question. Zbrush really could be as widely owned as photoshop, which is just more money in pixologics pockets.