oh come on behind XSI is avid another big player in that business, not as big as autodesk for sure, but buying xsi would mean buying avid and i don't think this is going to happenthat would be like activision/blizzard is buying ea... wtf
Yeah, not very likely. Avid does good business in the video-industry, I doubt they're hard up for cash, or that Xsi under-performs that much.
I'd like to see xsi become a more valid option in our industry though, but I'm pretty sure Autodesk wouldn't buy it to for anything but to bury it. They've got two competing packages already, that seems enough.
Johny: Avid's a bigger player than Alias, I'm pretty sure
alias was never a big player (compared to the league autodesk is playing in, we are talking here about number 4 of the software developers worldwide) they had maya and... what? alias was almost broke and autodesk owned the whole posteffects market, ok half of it, the rest was avid and adobe
I, for one welcome 3DS Mayaxsi and our new Autodesk overlords!
This is weird, but not necessarily terrible. No one really complains much that apps like Photoshop and Flash are industry standards. If Autodesk finds a way to cram all that graham into an uber 3D app, that's cool.
Okay, I know that's probably not going to happen. But still.
What are they going to do with the THREE major applications? Surely they're planning to kill at least one of them off? Not that Autodesk is a stranger to redundancy, ofcourse.
Let's hope this is good news for the dev team (I'd be inclined to think otherwise, but Avid being so quick to sell them off does paint a clear message.)
and neox - alias was a major player in another market - they made their money with studio tools. seemingly nobody cared about maya in that aquisition, it was just unfortunately a piece of alias's portfolio when autodesk went for studio tools.
Autodesk has a new motto:
If you can't fix your out-dated piece of shit software after 6 new releases...buy someone else's innovation and drag it into the ground.
that was still a very small product palette if you just compare them, avid just sold their 3d segment, it's not avid that's been bought, thats wuite a difference, but i'd never have thought of avid selling that sector, as they've been the only force pushing a little into autodesks 80 percent of the entertainment sector
Yeah got the confirmation just now. This is fucked up. I'm not a big fan of Autodesk. I was a max user from day 1 and a 3dstudio user before that and there really hasn't been a big evolution of that software at all in the last 6 - 7 years. Not compared to that of XSI which saw massive improvements even just between versions 3 to 7. I also disagreed with the motion builder acquisition - which I feel stagnated that software compared to how fast it was growing before the buyout. It's just a really bad thing when one company owns everything. This will buy them all the time they need to build the next uber studio app though i suppose. Fuck.
I love autodesk, since they bought maya, nobody has to get a new version. They are all the same...
They allways include just a few features in every release and they are always broken and get fixed a version later.
Heh, EQ: Lux is probably breaking out the champagne right now I'd guess. This is just the move to drive more customers their way. SideFX too. Houdini is suddenly looking like a much more appealing pipeline package.
I downloaded the trial of Houdini last month, checking it out now
Edit: Luxury, they didn't really do much with Maya 2008, but 2009 has a lot of improvements and some BIG new features (animation layers, for one). Nothing really fundamental though, probably just stuff that should have been in 2008 anyway.
I think all they did between Maya 8.5 and 2008 was just rename the Surface Sampler to Transfer Maps, and changed the splash screen and logo.
Adam: I'd almost bet my salary for a year that the pace of development for XSI slows drastically from here on in. Hard to understand maybe if you aren't a user who got used to actually getting your money's worth with every release.
Serious. They'll either grind it back, or wrap the dev team into another. Either way it would be good to see some of the Soft innovation creep into (certainly) Max...
When a new version of Max is released, nothing new comes around. You can read the threads here...always disappointing. Still plug-in dependent for basic functionality. Nothing new and exciting coming from Maya.
Each release of XSI since version 4 has been an amazing advancement in 3D creation tools. There is excitement with each new version. That is the benefit of competition between markets. Autodesk sucks the cash out of existing customers, Softimage makes new innovations in creativity and workflow. Now, under the direction of one entity...where does the competitive edge go?
As mentioned in the dicussion, new leadership came to Avid earlier this year. And with it, a new (stupid) direction for XSI. First, they without warning, discontinue all Foundation versions of the software, and remove it from purchasing. This was a big slap to the face to all hobbyist and home users. A great community. Now after the release of XSI 7, with the new ICE tools included, they sell themselves to a company that pays little attention to its customers needs.
Hopefully they'll eventually discontinue Max, and XSI will hold the advantage in the game industry...as it already includes tool for integrating and migrating from the other tools software tools. Max's UV mapping tools and Animation come nothing near what XSI is capable of...giving many game artists a better chance to meet their deadlines. They'll now have a controlling market in Japan, where XSI in used in most studios. The future is bright and profitable.
This is going to take a while to get use to. It still angers me to see "Autodesk Mudbox". It's all about profit.
Replies
i sure hope not!!
Yay monopolies!
I'd like to see xsi become a more valid option in our industry though, but I'm pretty sure Autodesk wouldn't buy it to for anything but to bury it. They've got two competing packages already, that seems enough.
Johny: Avid's a bigger player than Alias, I'm pretty sure
alias was never a big player (compared to the league autodesk is playing in, we are talking here about number 4 of the software developers worldwide) they had maya and... what? alias was almost broke and autodesk owned the whole posteffects market, ok half of it, the rest was avid and adobe
erm well wtf ok avid just sold them o_O
why?!
they got bought ..
This is weird, but not necessarily terrible. No one really complains much that apps like Photoshop and Flash are industry standards. If Autodesk finds a way to cram all that graham into an uber 3D app, that's cool.
Okay, I know that's probably not going to happen. But still.
What are they going to do with the THREE major applications? Surely they're planning to kill at least one of them off? Not that Autodesk is a stranger to redundancy, ofcourse.
Let's hope this is good news for the dev team (I'd be inclined to think otherwise, but Avid being so quick to sell them off does paint a clear message.)
and neox - alias was a major player in another market - they made their money with studio tools. seemingly nobody cared about maya in that aquisition, it was just unfortunately a piece of alias's portfolio when autodesk went for studio tools.
If you can't fix your out-dated piece of shit software after 6 new releases...buy someone else's innovation and drag it into the ground.
I'm sick of this business.
THIS JUST IN: Autodesk buys internet, adds ViewCube and SteeringWheels.
Did they change Maya a lot when they purchased that? Or Mudbox?
(This is me actually wanting to know and not being a sarcastic asshole).
I love autodesk, since they bought maya, nobody has to get a new version. They are all the same...
They allways include just a few features in every release and they are always broken and get fixed a version later.
Quick question to those that use Maya - How much has that software changed since they were bought out?
Edit: Luxury, they didn't really do much with Maya 2008, but 2009 has a lot of improvements and some BIG new features (animation layers, for one). Nothing really fundamental though, probably just stuff that should have been in 2008 anyway.
I think all they did between Maya 8.5 and 2008 was just rename the Surface Sampler to Transfer Maps, and changed the splash screen and logo.
...I wonder if they are less interested in XSI, and more interested in Alienbrain and Face Robot?
pwned.
GIMME MEH UBER MAX BABY
You still believe that santa brings you presents, right?
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out."
Max, Maya, XSI, F/R, Alienbrain, Mudbox, Cat... serious.
Each release of XSI since version 4 has been an amazing advancement in 3D creation tools. There is excitement with each new version. That is the benefit of competition between markets. Autodesk sucks the cash out of existing customers, Softimage makes new innovations in creativity and workflow. Now, under the direction of one entity...where does the competitive edge go?
As mentioned in the dicussion, new leadership came to Avid earlier this year. And with it, a new (stupid) direction for XSI. First, they without warning, discontinue all Foundation versions of the software, and remove it from purchasing. This was a big slap to the face to all hobbyist and home users. A great community. Now after the release of XSI 7, with the new ICE tools included, they sell themselves to a company that pays little attention to its customers needs.
Hopefully they'll eventually discontinue Max, and XSI will hold the advantage in the game industry...as it already includes tool for integrating and migrating from the other tools software tools. Max's UV mapping tools and Animation come nothing near what XSI is capable of...giving many game artists a better chance to meet their deadlines. They'll now have a controlling market in Japan, where XSI in used in most studios. The future is bright and profitable.
This is going to take a while to get use to. It still angers me to see "Autodesk Mudbox". It's all about profit.
You're reading this all wrong, Gwot.
This buys them time to do fuck all and not lose much market-share to any competition
HIHIHIHI
Same
But it would be awesome to see them include it along side.
I'd like to see them buy puppetshop and include it also...
*SADPANDA* smiley goes here