Sony expects me to pay $589.95 to upgrade from V12 - the only thing I want is hitfilm 2 Ultimate. Although I think I will stick with BorisFX and GenArts at least you can use them in other programs.
Unless sales of the suite are low and SCS offers a much lower upgrade price.
I only want Hitfilm 2 as well. It costs £450 (incl. VAT) to upgrade to the Suite here in the UK. Better to wait for an FXHome sale or buy Hitfilm 2 full price now rather than upgrade to the Suite. I'm really disappointed.
Hitfilm isn't owned by Sony. If you don't want to spend the $$ you don't need to. There's other options out there.
EDIT: everything it does could be done in Blender. That's free. Perfect price for people who don't want to spend $$ to get $800 worth of additional software for $550.
I wonder if SCS has some kind of special plugin that makes it work inside Vegas better then the stand alone. Otherwise why do they think we will spend that much money?
Ah I think you need to add in the $139 already paid for V12 upgrade, which means you get $800 worth for $689.
I think if you want Hitfilm 2 Ultimate and have V12 then HitfilmU2 sale price $399 looks more attractive than $550. After all DVD 6.0 is free and looks very similar to 5.2 in features and V6 still contains a number of issues and is only x86. Plus if you have sound forge the only reason to "upgrade" and get something new is hitfilm 2 ultimate. So paying $399 for hitfilm direct from their site or $550 form SCS seems to me to be an easy choice. I wonder if SCS got sucked in by FXhome?
Hitfilm 2 opens clips in Vegas Pro 12 for editing so it integrates with Vegas without having to export/import.
The Suite upgrade isn't value for money if you don't need an audio editor or already have one. If the principle of a suite is to bundle software at a discount then it's disappointing that they didn't provide some kind of upgrade to Hitfilm 2 for Vegas owners. Even a $50 discount would have been appreciated. They did that with Titler Pro 2 so why not Hitfilm 2?
As a long time owner of Vegas Pro and other Sony products it seems a shame that the Suite upgrade is geared towards attracting those who haven't bought other Sony products before. If I needed Sound Forge it's much cheaper to buy it from an online retailer than Sony so the Suite upgrade "discount" is cancelled out anyway. I hope Sony plans to make Hitfilm 2 a separate upgrade as well.
The sale price for thanksgiving is $399 forhitfilm 2 Ultimate and includes:
"Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so to celebrate with our American friends we've put together a special VFX pack in collaboration with RodyPolis.com. If you purchase or upgrade to HitFilm 2 Ultimate before December 3rd 2012 you'll get 3D models, sound effects and stock footage thrown in for free!"