Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 10, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Subscriptions are in: After Adobe entered the rental business with the Creative Cloud version, Autodesk is now following suit and offering the so-called pay-as-you-go model as an option. Autodesk wants to expand usage and payment options for the Design and Creation Suites in this way. However, unlike Adobe, the traditional license model is not being abolished; monthly, quarterly or annual subscriptions are being introduced as a supplement.
This is intended to allow Autodesk tools—including individual licenses of Maya, 3ds Max and Maya LT—to be used more flexibly and efficiently without high investment costs. The new pay-as-you-go model is therefore intended to be a particularly interesting alternative for freelancers, start-ups and medium-sized offices. For Maya and 3ds Max, for example, there is a monthly rental fee of 195 dollars, while Maya LT costs 50 dollars per month. The Entertainment Creation Suite is available as a rental model in Standard, Premium and Ultimate versions; the annual subscription fee for the Entertainment Creation Suite Standard, at 2,890 dollars, is about half the actual purchase price. You can find all prices for the Design and Creation Suites here.
If customers choose a subscription, they receive similar services to Autodesk subscription customers: regular software updates, access to selected Autodesk 360 cloud services and customer support.
What Does It Offer?
DP’s opinion of this model: It is definitely positive to see that Autodesk is accommodating artists through this additional subscription option for its tools and keeping an eye on the situation in the VFX industry.
By contrast, Adobe’s CC model works more according to the "take it or leave it" principle for customers, because no further traditional option is available apart from the previous CS6 version. With Autodesk, the rental period for the tools must be concretely established in advance, otherwise you may continue paying for several months even though the project for which the software was rented has long since been canceled or frozen.
For VFX freelancers, this model could mean a significant expansion of the range they can offer customers. This is because during a project they would no longer be tied to licenses they had once purchased: although they otherwise work with Maya, for example, they could deliver export formats from 3ds Max or first prepare supplied CAD models in a CAD tool.
Indie game developers who, for example, initially shy away from a relatively high purchase price of 800 dollars for Maya LT could look at the tool for a while first. And test whether it proves suitable for game development despite, for example, the export limit of 25,000 polygons per scene.
This model is certainly also exciting for medium-sized studios that cannot permanently set up any number of workstations. If they land a larger project for which many freelancers and workstations with corresponding software packages are needed, they have the option of renting the required tools at short notice for the duration of the project.
With this additional rental model, Autodesk, the top dog in the software market, is blowing a stiff wind in the face of smaller competitors whose revenue depends on offering cheaper software alternatives to Autodesk. This is because high-end tools from Autodesk can now also be used for an affordable price—even if for a limited period.
Availability
From September 16, 2013, the option to purchase a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription is available. The following products are available in the new rental model: Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite, Autodesk AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite, Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, Autodesk Building Design Suite, Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite, Autodesk Factory Design Suite, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite, Autodesk Plant Design Suite, Autodesk Product Design Suite, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk Maya LT. You can find all further information about Autodesk’s rental model here.
Image: Autodesk
