750 to update an older version of zbrush. 
you said this will be good for everyone, wait and see. we have been waiting, but we have not heard any good information that you talked about. rather just silence.
can we not get that good information soon? because right now everything is not looking so good.
âBecause Maxon is a publicly traded company, free upgrades are no longer possible as they are seen as anti-competition and can result in huge fines. This means that we will have to charge for upgrades that introduce new features.â
Thatâs so ridiculously wrong and a huge lie on the part of Matthew - absolute nonsense, so much so that heâs either massively ignorant over the roles and responsibilities of publicly traded companies, or heâs trying to knowingly give you bad information to obfuscate and excuse the prices.
You know who else is a publicly traded company? Microsoft. Do you know the last time I paid for Windows? Windows 7. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 were free upgrades, and every feature upgrade has been free.
Honestly, Iâm starting to think that Maxon and Pixologic think their customers are idiots - no one in their right mind could think that free updates are anticompetitive. Lowering prices and providing value is the very essence of competition - itâs not about making sure everyone has the same product. Buying a company like Pixologic with a unique product and then immediately turning on the full price upgrade switch isnât anything to do with competition - itâs the opposite, itâs taking advantage of a de facto monopoly.
Considering all the other major packages donât do free upgrades, thereâs nothing that could possibly be in competition law that says you have to charge. And thereâs nothing in the responsibilities of companies to your shareholders that says that you have to acquire smaller companies and then immediately change things so you charge them nearly the same price to upgrade every year.
Every time I hear Pixologic on this, I come a little closer to just jumping straight over to 3DCoat with both feet. Theyâre starting to sound like nothing but Maxon shills - probably because now they all work for Maxon and theyâre still trying to coast on that Pixologic goodwill.
By the way, this is Maxonâs parent company. They are not hurting for money, but theyâll get absolutely none of mine from now on.
@aurick Have you been able to find out what the cause of the confusion is that multiple resellers have all listed âZBrush 2022 - Upgrade from ZBrushâ and all seem to have a similar price? It would be reassuring to hear what is going on there, otherwise people will assume the worst?
[quote=âTheobeest, post:104, topic:418100â]
That doesnât automatically mean that those upgrades must be expensive.
[/quote] (I know itâs not @Theobeest saying this themself, so this question isnât to them)
What number would you think would be expensive for an upgrade, just to give us some idea to work on, because expensive can be very different for different people in different ecconomic situations?
I am working on getting that information.
Reading CKHUNTERâs post and following the links puts a knot in my stomach. I knew at once they were going to monetize us, but wow! And of course, Iâm not buying everyone pretending this just happened and no one has thought about pricing before the announcement, during the regulatory quiet period, or since. Thatâs not how mergers and acquisitions go.
So sad to see how fast came the fall. 
Iâll continue to use ZB as long as it is financially reasonable, but I can see more blender work in my future as my students wonât be able to swallow these prices.
Iâm also sorry to see the only significant independent 3D developer other than SideFX/Houdini go âbig corporateâ, but time will tell whether the change really allows ZBrush to expand its capabilities beyond what they have had the resources to do on their own. For myself, Iâve long wanted them to adopt a full PBR materials/shading/rendering workflow (BasicMaterial becomes a PBR UberMaterial like virtually all other 3D apps, direct support for Roughness channel), and build out their UV toolset.
If a reasonable upgrade policy is set for perpetual licenses going forward, I wonât have any problem with staying up to date. I long wondered why Pixo didnât just ask for that in the past: I would have been fine with it.
I would define âreasonableâ as say a 20% of new license cost for an annual upgrade if staying current, and with free interim updates during that product cycle. Under those terms, Iâll happily stay current.
The âred line in the sandâ for me is the âSAASâ model, where you effectively rent the software, and it no longer functions as soon as you donât pay your rent. Not now, not ever.
3D Coatâs pricing looks pretty good.
Perpetual License: âŹ379
Subsequent update at 45 Euros (from month 13+ following the purchase) or 90 Euros (from month 25+ following the purchase) with another 12 months of free updates. Considering the amount of new features added in the updated version, this is a reasonable price. (10% price of perpetual license per year)
Itâs actually even better than that. Not only do they have the perpetual plus upgrade at 45 euro, but they have a regular monthly subscription at 20 euro, they have an annual rental at 150 euro, and best of all, they have rent to own - 7 or 11 monthly payments that total the cost of the perpetual licence, and then your yearâs included upgrades start at the end of your payments - so the total cost you get to spread over time is around that of perpetual + upgrade.
Also Iâve been playing with it, after having not used it for years, and itâs really good - thereâs also no polygon limit except what my PC can handle, which in the end was >200m polygons before it became difficult to use normal clay brushes. And the people on the Discord were super helpful - very unlike the Pixologic Discord.
The Pixologic Discord is FULL of Blender Users since the whole Maxon Announcement. they want nothing more than to destroy Zbrush in every aspect, cause they think of Zbrush dies, suddenly Blender Sculpting will âGet Goodâ somehow. anytime anyone even MENTIONS Maxon or Zbrush in there, someone (Usually 3 or 4 people) will pipe up with âBLENDER IS FREEEEEEEE!!â like that makes a difference to anyone who wants to use a Quality product for their job lol.
i hope to my CORE that a yearly upgrade isnât $660 GD Dollars, but i guess weâll have to wait and see.
and i tried 3D Coat, and it feel terrible coming from Zbrush as well, no Sub Divisions, it all feels incredibly unintuitive, hell id rather downgrade to Zbrush Core than go to 3DCoat for Sculpting.
that STILL Doesnât mean im paying Maxon $660 for a YEARLY UPGRADE Though. but im starting to firmly believe Pixologic is lying to us, which is Devastating after all these years. that or since Maxon now owns them, they feel they donât need to tell the Pixologic people anything, which i WOULDNâT DOUBT AT ALL EITHER! they should have their heads examined for letting a huge company like Maxon take the Reigns of their Baby. its like letting Uncle Creepy babysit your favorite kid.
I made a ton of macro for free and on demand from different users request. I am glad to read such of comment, man.
please be honest next time⊠just one guy did that, the other users are just worried about the current situation nothing else.
Nicolas
A lot of the Blender guys have been banned. but when i was in there yesterday it was a Zoo. incredibly offensive âmemesâ and other garbage being pumped in there. i am being honest and im not happy about what ive been seeing in there.
Btw you do know there is two different Zbrush Discords, right?
Edit: i just checked and i see i wasnât in the âOfficialâ one, i was in a Discord just named âZbrushâ
EDIT : No , nothing like that has happened on the OFFICIAL Discord Server.
Nicolas
Is this thread invisible in the Zbrush âCommunityâ section? I had to find it with search.
If Iâm logged in itâs showing as the top non-stickied thread for me, just above the Free Application Discussion thread. If Iâm not logged in though it doesnât even show me community to see this.
@Kerwin, Check on the bottom of the thread if it is set on Tracking or whatever but not Muted.
Thanks guys! Somehow, I muted myself. 
My senility must be kicking in. 
and i tried 3D Coat, and it feel terrible coming from Zbrush as well, no Sub Divisions, it all feels incredibly unintuitive, hell id rather downgrade to Zbrush Core than go to 3DCoat
3DCoat has subdivisions. Itâs the ProxySlider in Surface Sculpting mode. Iâm new to it, so Iâm not sure what the effect is in Voxel mode, but in Surface mode you generate reduced or decimated levels.
But also, 3DCoat doesnât particularly need them because it uses your GPU too, so Voxel mode (sort of the equivalent of dynamesh) can freeze areas and you can add local detail. And because the retopology tools are so much better than everything else, thereâs no need to move to an external program to fix your topology.
You just have to learn it, like you had to learn ZBrush.
Seriously ? Sorry to hear. I loved his tutorials.
Well, im currently buying 3DCoat, cause i figure its just one more tool in my belt. even if i donât use it for anything but Retopology, but i donât see it being better, or even nearly as good as Zbrush, sorry but just my opinion. id rather keep my 2022 license till something MASSIVLY better comes along, than downgrade to sculpting with 3DCoat for no reason. i mean, i got everything i need in 2022 anyway.
Have fun learning Blender