Hi Michael,

From our last couple of exchanges it appears that you are very close to releasing V3. Having kept an eye on MoI for a number of years I noticed that you raised the price of MoI from$195 to $295 when you launched the V2 version.

1. Can we expect to see another price rise for V3?

2. Is the upgrade price from V2 to V3 likely to be similar to current upgrade price of $100?

3. If we purchase V2 now I understand the V3 upgrade price will be lower than for those who purchase after the V3 launch. Is this still the case and if so could you give me an indication of how much the discount is likely to be (in percentage terms if you're unable to announce the actual pricing strategy)?

I'm not quite sure on the number of license seats at this stage so volume discount is probably not a consideration but any further clarity you can give ref the points I have outlined would be very helpful.

Many thanks

jm

Hi Jon, yeah v3 is getting pretty close. It's hard to say exactly when it will be out, there will still be one or maybe two more beta releases, and then after that it often takes me a while longer than I usually think to iron out the last details like updating documentation and things like that.

I have not finalized the details for pricing yet. But I think it's likely that the pricing will remain the same as it currently is, $295 for a new license and $100 for an upgrade from a previous version.


> 3. If we purchase V2 now I understand the V3 upgrade price will be lower
> than for those who purchase after the V3 launch. Is this still the case and
> if so could you give me an indication of how much the discount is likely to
> be (in percentage terms if you're unable to announce the actual pricing strategy)?

I don't have any special plans on a difference in price for before versus after V3 launch. If you've heard me talk about any discounted version, that was just referring to the upgrade license, for example the current V2 upgrade version that you can purchase for $100 if you already owned V1, rather than buying a brand new full price V2 license.

If you already own V2 there will be a similar discount upgrade version available for getting v3 as well.

- Michael

>If you've heard me talk about any discounted version, that was just referring to the upgrade license, for example the current V2 upgrade version that you can purchase for >$100 if you already owned V1, rather than buying a brand new full price V2 license.

This is the discount I was referring to. If V3 isn't far away it makes more sense for me to purchase any licenses as and when V3 comes (unless you introduce a grace period for free upgrades as many other vendors do). I'm not sure of the point of purchasing a number of V2 licenses now only to have to pay another $100 to upgrade to V3 in a few months time.

Cheers,

jm

Hrm, yeah that's a mighty good point.

> I'm not sure of the point of purchasing a number of V2 licenses now only to have to pay another $100 to upgrade to V3 in a few months time.

Yeah, but a few months without MoI is like an eternity in hell.... well worth the daux! ;-)

Purchasing now, gets you V3 now. There is a big difference in V2 and V3. If you want MoI, you need to purchase now. If you want/need V3 stuff, you can purchase now, and get it. If you don't want/need either, you can wait the 8 months or so to purchase MoI.


""""""Yeah, but a few months without MoI is like an eternity in hell"""""""

Um, yeah.......

I fully understand your enthusiasm for a product you love but this is a commercial decision based on buying 10 plus licenses for members of my design team so an extra $1000 or so is a major consideration. The reality is that MoI in it's current form is missing a few essential features to make it an essential purchase for our studio but we have fallen many of it's charms. It's not an essential purchase for us right now and I was in no way attempting to pressure Michael into offering us some kind of special deal. I was merely commenting that most vendors of creative software provide free version upgrades when they are close to releasing a new version. It's a sensible commercial decision because sales have a tendency to stall towards the end of a software products version lifecycle.

Cheers,

jm

Hi Jon, I'm not sure if there will be that sort of "grace period" automatic update this time around or not. Since I don't really have a specific fixed release date yet I don't know yet what the cutoff date for that would be, and I'd also need to think about the logistics of how to set that up as well.

At the moment I'm still focused on working on some features and I haven't quite shifted all of my attention to release issues like that quite yet.

- Michael

Well, 2-3 more betas plus cleanup and documentation = roughly 6 months. 1000/180 = roughly 5 bucks a day.

A mickey D's burger!

Hi Burr, hopefully it will be somewhat faster than that but sometimes documentation can be awfully slow going so it's certainly possible for it to stretch out like that. I'm really hesitant to give any particular date because of that.

- Michael

Thanks Michael, useful information to know.

Cheers,

jm

>Well, 2-3 more betas plus cleanup and documentation = roughly 6 months. 1000/180 = roughly 5 bucks a day.

>A mickey D's burger!

Much as I'd like (or more to say my team would like!) and unlimited yearly software licensing budget the powers that be provide me with a finite budget to work with. It's a reasonable budget but I have to stay within it. Spending an extra $1000 in one area will mean cutbacks in another.

You've just reminded me of how much I long for simpler days when I only had one mouth to feed! :)

jm

"""""""hopefully it will be somewhat faster than that""""""""""

I'm looking forward to a couple more tricks up your sleeve, but there's no rush here........

"""""""""""""""Spending an extra $1000 in one area will mean cutbacks in another.""""""""""

You'll be forced to cut back dramatically on the amount of money you pay engineers and designers. I mean, 6 minutes vs. an hour or so... Huge cutback!

"""""""""" You've just reminded me of how much I long for simpler days when I only had one mouth to feed! """"""""""

Yeah I hear you...... Michaels got a special mouth to feed too!