Why is Software so Expensive?
- Thread starter Kosmiche
- Start date
It's nothing to do with "price gouging", it's the value of the software or service to the person using it. If I buy a £3000 piece of software that allows me to produce work that I sell for £30,000 or £300,000 then for me it's reasonably priced irrespective of the actual cost to produce the software in the first place.
It's the same reason you pay more to see a top band in concert than unknowns or any one of a hundred other comparisons where the price charged for something is linked to (perceived) value to the purchaser, not based on the cost of production.
Perceived value could be based on anything from ease of use, to reputation, being an "industry standard" or 101 other influencing factors. Fundamentally like anything else in life a things value is based on what people are willing to pay for whatever reason, that's how a free market works.
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+1
A single trained employee could churn out components that are incorporated into every corporate deal making millions each year for the company. But autodesk would have only sold a single license for that one seat.
You're taking my use as price gouging to be inherently negative in tone.
It's not. I'm not saying that the price they set is wrong or that they are maliciously taking advantage. I'm merely pointing out that they know people need the software and will pay for it, ergo they charge as such.
Blender is very good; worth the effort to learn if it will meet your need.
Which isn't price "gouging", it's just pricing. The same applies for most things, including your labour in return for pay. Just because something is expensive, or sells for a lot more than a direct link to it's cost of production isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on the derived value gained by the customer. Price gouging is setting a price that is unreasonable or unfair, often because a customer has no other choice, even if the value (not price) doesn't justify the cost. By definition the phrase "price gouging" is inherently negative in tone which I somewhat suspect you know full well, my money's on you just being a a tad argumentative for the hell of it.
In this case I'd suggest it's not a case of "knowing people need the software", it's knowing that the software in question has a particular value people place on it and so is priced appropriately to reflect that perceived value.
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I remember when Maya 4 was something like £5000 per seat you should be lucky its gone down in price over the past 10 years.
Blender is a world of difference in its usage but its mostly just as full featured, you will like struggle translating across without learning Blender first.
You can create highend 3D works in Blender that are just a good as Output from Maya, the only limitation is the artist/programmers creativity.
Blender is a world of difference in its usage but its mostly just as full featured, you will like struggle translating across without learning Blender first.
You can create highend 3D works in Blender that are just a good as Output from Maya, the only limitation is the artist/programmers creativity.
http://students.autodesk.com/
All Autodesk kit, including Maya, is free for people who can claim to be students. *hint* *hint*
All Autodesk kit, including Maya, is free for people who can claim to be students. *hint* *hint*
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Poor argument. A lot of very awesome software cost, in money terms, essentially nothing to create. Software can cost a lot, if you pay good money for every developer-hour than goes into it, but a lot of software gets created without doing that.
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Student version had watermarks on the view ports and renders last time I used it.
In the price for Maya you also get full support.
In the price for Maya you also get full support.
I thought it was pretty obvious that we were talking about commercial software.
Nope, you've still not addressed your comments about the output being inferior.
They are bringing out a version for indie game developers called Maya LT which is cheaper but still expensive.
Blender is good and you can get good training here - http://cgcookie.com/blender/
The guy who wrote that book did some Blender training to -
http://www.3dbuzz.com/forum/threads/200726-Blender-Fundamental-videos
Blender is good and you can get good training here - http://cgcookie.com/blender/
The guy who wrote that book did some Blender training to -
http://www.3dbuzz.com/forum/threads/200726-Blender-Fundamental-videos