Why is Software so Expensive?

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

Permabanned
Joined
3 Oct 2009
Posts
14,033
Location
North Wales
I just bought the Mastering Unreal volume 1 for UT3, and it uses autodesk maya in the tutorials...so I went to check the price.

£3,300!!! I was hoping to ask for it as a christmas gift :rolleyes:

Why is it so expensive? I can get it for free if I'm a student, but I'm not.

Any alternative to maya I could use?

Just found something called Blender which is free, not sure if I can learn to use it though.
 
Generally it's priced so that the company making it doesn't lose money. Since very few people (comparatively) use 3D modeling software the price per unit is higher. It's the same with CAD stuff.
 
Because normally the things that are created in it are worth a lot of money and the sort of companies/people that use it can afford it and a comparatively small user base compared to mainstream software.
 
Caged said:
Generally it's priced so that the company making it doesn't lose money. Since very few people (comparatively) use 3D modeling software the price per unit is higher. It's the same with CAD stuff.
Click to expand...

It's not really about losing money, as they can't lose something they never had.

It's simply price gouging. It's a tool the industry relies on and they know that's not going to change any time soon so they can get away with pricing it very high as the industries that will be buying it will be using it to work on expensive projects.

Basically, it's a tool they know loads of people need and can get away with charging big money for.
 
Maya used to have a 'personal learning edition' which was free to use....

As to why it's expensive.... usually because it's one of the 'defacto' software for a designated field which means they get to set the price while doing very little to update it each year, autodesk is pretty much the equivalent of adobe when it comes to game (edit) production (/edit) and certain cad fields.
 
Last edited:
The high end creative software has always been expensive, you just have to look at Adobe products if you were to buy them legally.

Engineering software such as CAD is exactly the same, costs an arm and a leg but you have to take into consideration how much work you generate from it and it soon pays for itself in a business environment.
 
spoffle said:
But you said create. The things you listed aren't part of software creation.
Click to expand...

I'm curious what your point is? Are you saying that because he chose a word poorly, that suddenly 'support, performance, ecosystem, growth/training, and maintenance' don't cost anything?

Also, go look up 'free market economy' and think about the fact that you would rather use this package, which is expensive, than learn to use blender which is free.
 
Also in Computer Forensics there is software such as Encase. Very expensive and the last version I used extensively (Encase V5) crashed all the time.

The best type of software is software used everywhere by more people, because the companies have more customers that can report bugs to them, meaning they can iron them out better.

With a small niche software this is difficult and expensive. It's not just writing the software that is expensive, but the Support as well.
 
Linkex said:
I'm curious what your point is? Are you saying that because he chose a word poorly, that suddenly 'support, performance, ecosystem, growth/training, and maintenance' don't cost anything?
Click to expand...

I don't think he did choose a word poorly because he used different words in a follow up post.

My point was about people misunderstanding why such software is so expensive, and it's not because of the costs the companies bare to produce, maintain, update and test the software.

It's because they're professional tools that professionals rely on to produce work for big expensive projects.

The cost of pushing out the software for these companies won't be proportional at all to the asking prices.

Also, go look up 'free market economy' and think about the fact that you would rather use this package, which is expensive, than learn to use blender which is free.
Click to expand...

What has this got to do with anything?
 
I'd assume people do a cost/benefit analysis (albeit an informal one) before they make the purchase, and decided that it's worth the cost vs. the time taken having to learn something else vs. a smaller amount of income generated from an inferior output at the end.

If there were genuine competitors to these packages then people would be using them. Software development isn't cheap.
 
Caged said:
I'd assume people do a cost/benefit analysis (albeit an informal one) before they make the purchase, and decided that it's worth the cost vs. the time taken having to learn something else vs. a smaller amount of income generated from an inferior output at the end.

If there were genuine competitors to these packages then people would be using them. Software development isn't cheap.
Click to expand...

Why assume that something else would result in an inferior output?

That is not at all the case.
 
spoffle said:
I don't think he did choose a word poorly because he used different words in a follow up post.

My point was about people misunderstanding why such software is so expensive, and it's not because of the costs the companies bare to produce, maintain, update and test the software.

It's because they're professional tools that professionals rely on to produce work for big expensive projects.

The cost of pushing out the software for these companies won't be proportional at all to the asking prices.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? Your point, in its entirety, was that he said create and that the things he listed were nothing to do with creation. You are correct, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that the things he mentioned are very real costs for the business, which was my point.

spoffle said:
What has this got to do with anything?
Click to expand...

Put simply - People want. People willing to pay much money. Business allowed to charge what people willing to pay.
 
Linkex said:
What are you talking about? Your point, in its entirety, was that he said create and that the things he listed were nothing to do with creation. You are correct, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that the things he mentioned are very real costs for the business, which was my point.
Click to expand...

I never said there weren't real costs, and point wasn't in its entirety about the word "create". That was an aside.

The reason I responded to that is because he IS correct to say that software is expensive to create, and had they created it from nothing rather than updating existing software, it would have been very expensive for them to do.

I never said that there weren't real costs to the business, my point was that the costs to the business aren't proportional to the asking price of the software.



Put simply - People want. People willing to pay much money. Business allowed to charge what people willing to pay.
Click to expand...

:confused: Yes, this is what I've been saying.
 
spoffle said:
Why assume that something else would result in an inferior output?

That is not at all the case.
Click to expand...

People aren't spending £3k a seat because they don't like having money. If there was a better option then Autodesk wouldn't be as successful as they are.
 
Caged said:
People aren't spending £3k a seat because they don't like having money. If there was a better option then Autodesk wouldn't be as successful as they are.
Click to expand...

You're responding to something I didn't say. I asked why assume something like Blender would result in an inferior product.

Your post is not a response to what I said. I never said free products are better, I asked a simple direct question about *why* it would its output be inferior based on the virtue of it being free.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom