News!
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I’ve been reading everything, and it’s not much more than a lot of mutual congratulation and a summary of everything we already knew. And the one thing that I eagerly awaited: an announcement about the upgrade pricing for perpetual licenses is not announced yet…
“How much will perpetual upgrades cost? Will it be possible to convert from a perpetual license to a subscription?
More details will come at a later date. However, providing value is and has been a primary philosophy of both Maxon and ZBrush that will continue as we move into the future.”
Also…
“What is the future of ZBrush integration with KeyShot?
KeyShot is a valued ZBrush partner, and the current integration will continue for the immediate future.”
Roughly translated: “Keyshot will remain in the picture until we’ve made a ZBrush to Redshift bridge.” 
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So many words in there but so much boilerplate. Well I liked these two sentences
Maxon is fully committed to continuing development on ZBrush under the continuing leadership of Ofer Alon.
ZBrush will absolutely remain a separate product.
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Thank you so much for posting this. The key part most will perhaps want to read tucked away inside all of that is here I think.
But you know the cost of a subscription 
Sounds for now at least very much like if you don’t want to be left out you need to always be on subscription. Also to me the general emphasis seems very much focused throughout on the big movies and games big business side of Zbrush. Rather than also focusing on it’s exceptional and incredibly large and diverse user base community built up over so many years. Right now it’s looking to be a very dramatic change of tone and culture for sure.
Lots more thoughts but too worn out right now with worrying about all of this and said quite lot already. I’m ging to focus for a bit on leaning more about Blender Grease Pencil.
All the best to everyone.
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It sounds like Maxon are only too aware that they should ‘NOT F**K WITH ZBRUSH’ or bear the wrath of the entire industry. 
It would be like Banksy buying a Caravaggio and then painting over it, it would be a crime of the highest order.
I have a feeling that Maxon will allow the Pixo team to continue their work uninterrupted and with full creative control. Zbrush is too legendary and admired across the board to mess up in any way.
As far as I can see, it will be business as usual, but with pricing increases, and additional resources that Pixo team can draw on. Dare I say it… 
This is exactly how the Allegorithmic sale to Adobe turned out, and it’s been far from the disaster everyone(including myself) heralded at the time.
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This is just speculation, but this line of thinking may or may not imply that Maxon will add always-online DRM and forced updating to ZBrush as well (in the name of efficiency in feedback and in bug reporting).
If so, the ZBrush brand will get the full corporate treatment and make Adobe look generous in what they are doing with Substance and friends (because the latter at least kept the indie licensing and expanded the concept to more areas).
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There are no announcements from Maxon or Pixologic yet, but a listing on the reseller site shows the cost of upgrading to Zbrush 2022.
ZBrush 2022 – Upgrade from Zbrush : € 579.00
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@Ratchet @Ace_Dragon please don’t go offtopic talking about Tencent etc. Open a new topic if you have to.
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I just hope they mean 579€ for an Upgrade if you have like ZBrush 3 or so but not going onward on a yearly basis with this amount (for example 2022 to 2023).
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This is what it will be yearly, I imagine. Same for all the other DCCs. You essentially have to buy the software over and over again, every year, whether you’ve owned it outright for 20 years or not…
Not a problem if you use it professionally as it’s a business cost, but for those that don’t…
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To be honest, If long time users get the next version update for free, I’m good with that. Zbrush can do so much, I learn something new all the time, even when I see someone using an older version. Cant see myself upgrading. I am always up to date but I find myself using the same basic workflow to get things done.
Current version works great with other dcc apps so the only thing maxon can do for many is to release a mind blowing upgrade worthy of the price they would charge. I’m an ex Modo user … so I am not building my hopes up.
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Any buyer of any Zbrush version should now legally own a 2022 license. This is the price for the future upgrades i imagine.
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@Musashidan @Hickz Yep, probably. I was just hoping to get it all wrong, but I guess this is how it will go.
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Hi Gregg. That Vessels piece is beautiful. Really wonderful work.
The next update is free only if you bought a perpetual for 2022 before the end of 2021. Most users I think are not really concerned about free updates and this seems to be clouding the issue a lot online. I also think it is distorting entirely the very legitimate concerns and fears a great many of us now have. The example of the hypothetical user who bought it 20 years ago for 100 dollars seems to get rolled out quite a lot now.
A fair open and affordable upgrade path and the continued valuing and support of perpetuals is the major concern for the vast majority I would think. I am sure most would be totally fine after all this time to pay for updates and have so for many years. Pixologic always gave such incredible value and customer service support. As it is there seems to be no sort of grace or adjustment period at all and the devaluation of a perpetual licensee seems immediate. Perhaps more will be worked out and we get better clarification but right now that’s how it looks. I hope it changes. There are other examples of these sorts of buy ups of course but ZBrush always occupied such a unique space.
( Edited recently for spelling punctuation. )
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What i like about Zbrush is it is among those rare application that are very well tested with almost no bugs.
I could sculpt long sessions without bugs neither application restart, i did not encounter issues or so few i don’t remember, i can’t say the same with other sculpting applications.
I hope they’ll continue such quality releases.
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Just upgraded my 3D-Coat 4 license to 3D-Coat 2021, with one year of free upgrades (so 3DC 2022 will be covered), for only € 89. Pilgway sales support responded rapidly and friendly to my questions too.
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3D coat is all in one sculpt, bake , retopot and paint, that’s awesome.
But unfortunately no apps really replaces Zbrush and many of it’s features and ability to suclpt in better resolutoin than most other sculpting apps and very smoothly.
Pixologic will perhaps propose some good prices geared towards individuals, or they will loose many customers.
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My computer pretty much runs 24/7 and I will often have the same session of Zbrush running for days at a time.
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Wow, that is even more than the $500us upgrade price I predicted in an earlier post. Maxon will be sure to pull out all their tactics to drive people onto subscription and dissuade perpetuals. This is sure to go down well.
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The cost of the Zbrush 2022 upgrade was also listed on other reseller sites. If they don’t intend to slander Maxon, this price seems pretty accurate.
-ZBrush 2022 - Upgrade from ZBrush : $659.00
Buy ZBrush 2022 - Upgrade from ZBrush - Best Price | Maxon Reseller (motionmedia.com)
Pixologic ZBrush 2022 - Digistor Shop Online
Buy Upgrade to ZBrush 2022 | from $659.00 | Pixologic Store @ NOVEDGE | Authorized Reseller | Buy Online or Call for Custom Quote | Best Price Guarantee
Maxon - ZBrush 2022 (creativetools.se)
Studica. Maxon ZBrush 2022
ZBrush (cinema4dstore.nl)
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