New license model - 2 iterations?

CatMan wrote on 9/14/2025, 10:03 AM

Hi there, one thing that stops me from buying a license for a single version of any software (especially pricier progs), is: is this version the company's testbed for bugs, am l their guinea pig and paying for the privilege to be so? Is the NEXT version going to be the one where it all comes together and blows minds?

 

Of course these fears may be irrational and it's not specific to Vegas, it's a general feeling to all software.

 

One solution might be, from now, to cover two full versions with one license. Or even better, to have it the equivalent of two full versions, but making it point-to-point e.g. 23.2 to 25.2

 

I know this looks bad from a financial point of view but when people delay purchasing, they spend the next few months looking at other programs. It could be a few years before a person commits (l'm not talking about high flying professionals, l'm talking about people looking to get into video editing).

 

A 2 full version license would put an end to that dithering.

Comments

RogerS wrote on 9/15/2025, 6:22 AM

The subscription effectively does that- you don't have to use the latest version but can update whenever you choose.

CatMan wrote on 9/15/2025, 8:32 AM

Hi there, l know there are ways that involve paying {Purchase Price + X} - but for one thing: I would be on the upgrade path from the outset i.e. to get into Vegas Pro 23 Suite.

I was perhaps too vague.

By "I know this looks bad from a financial point of view" what l meant was: for the same price as currently charged for outright purchases and upgrades of one version. I guess you've raised a valid point indirectly: it would mess up subscription pricing if you made outright purchases and upgrade purchases span 2 whole versions [point to point].

 

I guess you could also counterargue: buy 1 version, wait 3 years, buy the 3rd version up from that at an upgrade price. That would potentially be better than 2 versions for current 1 version price. However me personally, l'm not one to upgrade often, like maybe once in 10-15 years, the reason being that a software title is usually packed with a lifetime's features, l feel it hard to justify upgrading if l haven't exhausted the capabilities of the version l own. Only a major major defect would make me upgrade, or, sigh, the breakages that Win 10 brought about with my software collection from various makers.

 

 

RogerS wrote on 9/15/2025, 8:37 AM

VEGAS is in a period of rapid development of core functionality so I wouldn't want to be on anything other than the latest version (with the option to revert to a previous one if something I need breaks or is no longer included). It's a very different situation than something like Word which did everything I needed it to do 20 years ago. GPU hardware is also changing quickly as are the formats cameras are capturing. A few years ago HEVC was an uneditable space saver format; now even phones and action cameras are shooting it. Only cinema cameras had 10-bit log; now just about everything does.

CatMan wrote on 9/15/2025, 8:51 AM

I also want Acid, as part of the suite, not just Vegas Pro.

I used to use Acid Pro a lot in the 2000s, l then upgraded to version 7 (Sony's last?) only to find it can't run on my OS, in fact l'm pretty sure the problem was l was trying to run it on 64-bit Windows 7 (on Acid Pro 7's recommended list), or maybe it was 32-bit Windows XP.

I was originally looking to upgrade to Acid Pro 11 (yes l know it's considered a dead project but l want something to run on my Win 10 OS). Then l saw the Vegas Pro suite so l'm thinking of going into video editing, with my own music compositions as the soundtrack.

So my point is, l'm not planning to upgrade from Acid Po 11 and it doesn't even look like it will go beyond 11. [Edit: of course l have other DAWs apart from Acid: Reaper, FL Studio, Reason, one other l'm truly ashamed to name, l probably have even more DAWs that l clean forgot about; but l just love Acid Pro for sequencing, at least how it was in the 2000s, the middle mouse wheel was wielded to devastating effect]

I wouldn't mind 2 versions of the video editor though, Vegas Pro. Just in case the first is problematic. Also as you say times are changing, so that's actually an argument for the license to cover 2 versions point to point :P

 

 

Dexcon wrote on 9/15/2025, 8:56 AM

l'm not one to upgrade often, like maybe once in 10-15 year

If I went back just 10 years with Vegas Pro, I'd still be using Sony Vegas Pro 12. The difference between VP13 and VP23 is chalk-and-cheese other for the most very basic editing tasks which don't require any FX or rendering formats beyond those offered in VP13. If your projects are easily completed in a 10-15 years' old version of Vegas Pro, then there's really no need to upgrade if you won't be using any of the new features over that 10-15 years period. Also, keep in mind if your current computer and OS are from the same era, it would be questionable if Vegas Pro would successfully run on a legacy computer.

But I note that you haven't mentioned what version of Vegas Pro you are currently using. Is it from 10-15 years ago? if not, which version?

Cameras: Sony FDR-AX100E; GoPro Hero 11 Black Creator Edition; Samsung S23 Ultra smart phone

Installed: Vegas Pro 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 & 23, HitFilm Pro 2021.3, DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.2, BCC 2025.5, Mocha Pro 2025.5, NBFX TotalFX 7, Neat NR 6, DVD Architect 6.0, MAGIX Travel Maps, Sound Forge Pro 16, SpectraLayers Pro 12, iZotope RX11 Advanced and many other iZ plugins, Vegasaur 4.0

Windows 11

Dell Alienware Aurora 11:

10th Gen Intel i9 10900KF - 10 cores (20 threads) - 3.7 to 5.3 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB GDDR6 - liquid cooled

64GB RAM - Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz

C drive: 2TB Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD

D: drive: 4TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD (used for media for editing current projects)

E: drive: 2TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD

F: drive: 6TB WD 7200 rpm Black HDD 3.5"

Dell Ultrasharp 32" 4K Color Calibrated Monitor

 

LAPTOP:

Dell Inspiron 5310 EVO 13.3"

i5-11320H CPU

C Drive: 1TB Corsair Gen4 NVMe M.2 2230 SSD (upgraded from the original 500 GB SSD)

Monitor is 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz

CatMan wrote on 9/15/2025, 9:01 AM

Hi there. I'm not on Vegas Pro yet, l was drawn in when l searched for upgrading to Acid Pro 11. Then l saw the Vegas Pro bundle. I wasn't even interested in video editing until l saw the bundle.

 

I also think the owners should be aware that not only are some people outsiders (not professionals, not even hobbyists) but they might want a nice tax deductible expense, which would be legitimate as it's on a career path. I frequently buy things because they would legally be tax deductible. So a sweetener would be a 2-version point-to-point license.

 

CatMan wrote on 9/15/2025, 9:07 AM

Whilst we're here @Dexcon my PC is fairly dated now, specs:

Mobo: Asrock X99 Extreme 4/3.1

CPU: Core i7 5820k Haswell E

32GB RAM

 

EDIT: DUH, l forgot the GPU: Upgraded from GTX 950 2GB (ran beautifully) to RTX 3060 12GB (top of screen is glitching, possibly due to sheer weight of GPU on ageing PCIe slot). Upgraded purely to get Resolve free version to run! Also probably for the best as l want to shoot 4K on my BlackMagic Production Camera 4K which itself is ancient and l bought used, minus the Resolve license.

Lately added a 2TB PCIe gen 3 NVMe SSD (PCIe 4 wouldn't run at 2TB, plus the mobo would only limit it to PCIe 3 speeds)

OS: Win 10 Pro, can get my hands on Win 7 Pro too, and Win XP Pro SP2. Also running Linux as my daily driver (Win 10 Pro aint touching no interwebs, it's a minute-by-minute security risk).