Anyone else feel burned by Foundry’s shift from perpetual to subscription?
I’m trying to get a sense of how widespread this is and whether others feel the same way.
A couple years ago, Foundry moved Nuke to a subscription model, but they told existing perpetual license holders we could continue paying for maintenance. They also encouraged people to buy additional perpetual licenses before a cutoff date to “lock them in.”
Now, not long after that, they’re ending maintenance for perpetual licenses entirely. If you want updates or new versions, you have to switch to subscription. That feels like a pretty sharp reversal from the earlier messaging.
What makes this worse is how tied these licenses are to maintenance. Moving licenses between machines has already been a pain without active maintenance, and it raises a big question: what happens long-term if your hardware dies? Are these ~$10k perpetual licenses effectively on a timer?
I’m curious:
• Did anyone else buy additional licenses based on their messaging at the time?
• How are you planning to handle this shift?
• Has anyone already run into issues moving or preserving their licenses without maintenance?
If enough people feel misled here, I’d be interested in exploring options for pushing back in a more organized way.
Would appreciate hearing other experiences—good or bad.