Autodesk rising maitenance plans pricing

Autodesk has announced that it will be raising the prices of its maintenance plans. As the company states: "managing two business models (subscriptions and maintenance plans) is quite costly. To continue supporting maintenance, beginning May 7, 2017, renewal prices will increase by 5% in 2017, 10% in 2018, and 20% in 2019. Also, you should be aware that maintenance plans can now only be renewed for one year at a time."

Users now have 3 options:

• Switch from individual product on maintenance to a subscription of the same product
• Switch from individual product or suite on maintenance to an industry collection subscription
• Renew maintenance plan for one year

Autodesk is also offering discounted prices to those who choose to give up their perpetual licenses and join the rental-only plans.

"Beginning June 2017, you’ll be able to move your products on a maintenance plan to a subscription for up to 60% less than the cost of a new subscription. This discount will decrease by 5% in 2018 and another 5% in 2019, so the earlier you switch to a subscription, the less it will cost—and the more you’ll save compared to those who wait to move, or choose to stay on maintenance. When you make the switch, you’ll also be able to lock in your discounted price for up to three years and continue to receive discounted pricing for as long as you renew." - as stated in Autodesk Maitenance FAQ.

Not everyone is happy about these changes.

Citing costs related to maintaining two separate delivery models is pure hogwash. Suggesting doing so will get rid of piracy is simply naive. It is greed. - Kris Holland in "Open Letter to all Autodesk permanent license holders". - Since the development in Autodesk software has dramatically decreased over time, one can only assume that this new model will only lead to higher costs with dramatically less value per dollar. Fundamentally, though, they want to take our permanent licenses away from us one way or another.

The price is increasing to push customers into expensive rental arrangements and remove the Autodesk payment escape route provided by perpetual licenses, not to recoup costs - writes Steve Johnson from Blog Nauseam. -. Even if there were substantial costs involved in managing an additional business model (rental), there is more than enough margin in the massive rental costs to cover that. And Autodesk, if the costs are substantial, then you’re doing it wrong. If your management is not competent enough to arrange its affairs efficiently and cost-effectively then I have no sympathy.

Even if you were to consider switching from maintenance to subscription because of the substantial short-term discounts, you may want to reconsider after realizing that these discounts are only available if you agree to give Autodesk the car back that you bought from them a while back - writes Bertrand Benoit from BBB3viz blog. -  This is from the FAQ that came with today’s email:

2.6 Can I continue to use my perpetual license software after switching my maintenance plan to a subscription?

Upon the commencement of your subscription date, you will no longer be able to continue using your perpetual license as the option to switch to subscription at this significant discount is conditional upon trading in your perpetual license/s on a maintenance plan for a new subscription.

This is called burning your bridges. It basically guarantees that anyone who moves from maintenance to subscription can never go back. From an economic point of view, this is of course nonsensical: Why would anyone give away a very valuable, gold-plated permanent license for a more expensive, vastly inferior rental car?

There is also quite lively discussion on Autodesk Forum. What do you think?