Adobe Creative Suite becomes subscription-only, kills Fireworks

[Rick]

It was Adobe; in the billiard room, with the candlestick... In a single blow, the software-maker dispatched new sales of "perpetual" Creative Suite licenses and announced the languishing demise of Fireworks. The company today said it will no longer sell Creative Suite bundles (or its individual components) as retail products. In place of CS will be Adobe's Creative Cloud -- a subscription-only service. 

"We have no current plans to release another perpetual release of the CS tools and suites. Creative Cloud is going to be our sole focus moving forward," Adobe said.

Meanwhile, Fireworks development has been halted except for discretionary security and bug fixes. However, Adobe was kind enough to promise that Fireworks would remain part of Creative Cloud for an undisclosed period of time and be updated to support the "next versions" of Mac OS X and Windows.

The company claims an "overwhelming" number of customers actually prefer the switch to a $50/month (or $600 annually) plan when compared to purchasing the software à la carte for thousands of dollars. At present, "Creative Cloud" is essentially a digitally-distributed version of Adobe's CS: Master Collection, but requires a monthly subscription validation check. Gone are the days of perpetual licenses which could be used for as long as the owner saw fit.

Existing Creative Suite owners can score special Creative Cloud pricing: $30/month for qualified licensees of previous CS versions (CS3 or new). Meanwhile, CS6 owners (and educational customers) enjoy deeper discounts at just $20/month -- coincidentally the same price new customers can pay to access just a single application (e.g. Photoshop).

Adobe has been working toward a subscription-based model for years; however, no one could be entirely certain when that day would arrive. In March though, the famed Photoshop maker announced its imminent shift to a completely digital distribution system, canning retail sales of Creative Suite discs.

"We expected it to be a couple years before this happened. But we were surprised by how successful Creative Cloud has been," said Adobe. "We know that's going to be a difficult transition for some customers, but we think it's going to be the best move in the long haul."

Photoshop has long-been a piratical favorite, no doubt due to its prohibitive price tag and unique standing as the de facto world-class tool for graphics editing. This factoid has likely fueled Adobe's ongoing desire to move its products to the cloud as less-exploitable services.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52490-adobe-creative-suite-becomes-subscription-only-kills-fireworks.html

 

[St1ckM4n]

Double that for Australia. Servers cost more here, or something.

 

[Julio Franco]

Too bad that Fireworks is gone (or receiving no more features, and relevant updates which is the same) it was my all-time favorite image editing software.

 

[BlueDrake]

Double that for Australia. Servers cost more here, or something.

I honestly hope they don't really, because you already suffer enough. Just they make excuses for anything, distance arguments with online pricing is absurd. If you're actually shipping it to someone's door, or an actual store then 'maybe' it's logical.

Just extremely sad, for everyone down there with the prices. Online distributions costing more, such as Steam, etc has no standing excuse for price hikes.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Gone are the days of perpetual licenses which could be used for as long as the owner saw fit.

Gone are the days of temptation to purchase their software.

Good luck adobe as you migrate away form the "Average Joe" like myself.

 

[PCNP543]

Wow, I'm so glad I bought CS6 Master collection last year. Yea, it was a chunk of money, but I'll have access to the applications almost indefinitely (until they're not supported on whatever version of Windows is around in 15+ years). I just don't like the idea of all the content I create being essentially locked as soon as I stop a subscription to a suite of programs. In other words, I'd need to pay a subscription just to maintain access to work I've created with a particular program.

At least when I'm finally forced into a subscription, I'll have CS 6 to fall back on if I decide not to maintain the endless access fees.

 

[Jad Chaar]

This is good for casual users, but bad for power users. I guess it helps to eliminate fragmentation and promote newer, more feature-filled, and better performing software. I wish they could have killed Flash and Flash Catalyst instead of Fireworks. The good thing about this is less piracy and more money in their pockets.

 

[Guest]

As an event phtographer, I see problems with subscription services. I've already switched to other software (Darkroom, Corel).

 

[bryan19kc]

Considering that I'm only an occasional user of Photoshop and Dreamweaver, Adobe has lost my business. I will use my older versions until they are not supported by Windows. Currently, my older versions work fine on Windows 8 and after that. I'm done with Adobe.

 

[m4a4]

"We want more control to get more money" is all I could see while reading that. They hope that moving to the cloud will force people to buy their expensive software instead of pirate it (as the cloud will undoubtedly complicate things).
It's a good thing that I don't personally care to have the latest and greatest of the adobe suite...

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Gone are the days of temptation to purchase their software.

Good luck adobe as you migrate away form the "Average Joe" like myself.

I can't image the average joe paying $1200 (or $700 for the upgrade) so I don't understand your argument.

 

[Guest]

Bye Adobe, welcome The Gimp.

 

[Arionic]

There will be a crack or patch released that will eventually halt contact with the cloud or create a fake connection for the program to connect to for authentication. This in no way will stop pirating. Any offline version will most likely arise.

Greed is pathetic.

 

[spydercanopus]

Adobe needs a tablet oriented version of Photoshop.

 

[Ranger12]

Greed is pathetic.

If by "greed" you mean stealing products from companies and employees who invest millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours into making their product, then yes, that is pathetic.
Hopefully I just misunderstood your post and you don't actually think that greed is expecting someone to pay for the product they use.

 

[TS-56336]

Glad I am using Corel although they won't be far behind no doubt.

So those of us who don't need to upgrade every version are screwed. Lets hope it comes back to bite them on the arse.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Adobe needs a tablet oriented version of Photoshop.

It's already here, and getting better.

 

[Tutac]

They could at least make the photoshop elements stay the way it was. (It costs only about 100$!!) I mean common, as a student do I really have to be constantly online when I want to work on a picture or two now and then ??

 

[WillemVanVliet]

I think it is a mistake, at least when piracy is one of the concerns.

The Adobe Suite, like most many other professional creative software, is build on the fact that it is massively pirated.
If the vast amount of teenagers and students didn't pirate and use Photoshop for example, I doubt it would have went to be the worlds most use image processing program.
Rarely newcomers to the design market would be able to state any of the CS programs on their portfolio.

I'm working at a small startup studio that develops games for Android and iOS.
I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be able to learn to use Adobe software (Autodesk the same) since I was about 12.

I'm quite sure this counts for most people who use it professionally (and legal) today.

However, the more used the software is, the less likely the maker can prevent piracy of it.

 

[MDSchneider]

Well this is bad news for power users. For people with a focus on using fireworks in conjunction with photoshop or layouting websites and larger UI design projects, www.antetype.com is becoming more and more of an alternative.

 

[dennis777]

Too bad that Fireworks is gone (or receiving no more features, and relevant updates which is the same) it was my all-time favorite image editing software.

you got it right sir!

 

[Guest]

Fireworks is an amazing program.

If Adobe does cut it, I will never support them again!
I'm a Web designer, I NEED Fireworks to make my living!

Thanks Adobe for sucking EVEN MORE!

I hope they see these posts a lot of people are unhappy about this news

 

[Guest]

Good luck with that Adobe It's like being forced to rent your house with no option to buy one whether you can afford it or not. A very poor investment. Great news for adobe's competitors though. (y)

 

[mailpup]

I hope they see these posts a lot of people are unhappy about this news

Instead of just hoping Adobe will see it, you could email them, express your opinion and perhaps link them to it. Just a thought.

 

[Guest]

Just another example of what the Cloud is all about. Total control over the customer and perpetual payment or else! This is the future!!

Here's a good example of just how backward this concept is for the consumer. I installed Office Home and Business 2013 for a client last week. In the old days, he would have purchased an installation disc, popped it in the drive and within 10-15 minutes max would have been up and running.

Instead, the man paid for a box of fresh air online. It got delivered to his home. I then had to create a Microsoft account for him before I could "download" the software (so now he is no longer anonymous to Microsoft). I was the "allowed" to download the software. After 10 minutes, it became blatantly obvious that his less than 2Mbps Internet speed was going to hold up the proceedings!

I explained that I had another job to go to and would leave it downloading. I returned 2.5 hours later and the damned thing was still sorting itself out!

So to sum up:
The "software" was purchased via a distributor but the client had to go back to Microsoft to download. Where's the logic?

Production costs minus disc must have been halved but the price of office has risen, Why?
You can no longer be anonymous when purchasing software!
The install took over 4 hours!
The client could buy a "back up" disc and pay extra! What?

I am horrified with the way the software market is heading. Is anyone else?

These corporations are laughing at us! Some form of legislation needs to be introduced with regards to cloud computing and fast. The vendor is calling all the shots and "ownership" of products seems to be very questionable.

This is the future? The future is changeable so let's change it before we get completely stuck in this mire!!