Software > Cinema 4D | Software
Cinema 4D R21 released with new licensing options
Maxon has announced the latest update to Cinema 4D with new rental options for. In the past Cinema 4D was offered in four flavours starting at $995 for a perpetual license of Prime up to $3,695 for Studio, annual maintenance could be purchased to stay up to date. Cinema 4D R21 will be offered in a new single version (equivalent to Studio) for the new monthly cost of $59.99 – paid annually. A true monthly subscription is also available for a higher price of $94.99 per month. A bundle that includes Redshift will also be available. Perpetual licensing is also still retained for the moment.
The update itself introduces a new Caps and Bevel system, new Field Force dynamics, interface speed enhancements and better integration with popular hardware and software technologies and much more. To see a full list visit the Maxon website and watch a preview on YouTube.
Those rental prices are reasonable compared to ADSK products.
But more importantly, perpetual licensing is still available.
Having options is a good thing.
Maxon is destroying the reseller channel and an ecosystem of customer relationship right now. They drastically cut the margins. For single renewals resellers get no margin at all. The perpetuals are just an unattractive fig leave.
It’s the worst possible move after they stated for years, they will never follow autodesk and adobe. Now it turned out as a simple lie!
Many customers already leave for Blender.
It’s a shame how listed companies destroy communities with their greed and how deeply they disrespect their partners, employees and customers!
yup. Also started learn blender more intesive now after maxon’s statement. Its now pretty sure that they are going to rental only in few years and probably even selling maxon to adobe (look those features: mixamo, substance. And their new license server just like adobe). Maxon is dead to me. r.i.p Cinema 4D and Softimage.
How about MSA? If need to upgrade – you need to buy perpetual software with that about 3600€ price? MSA was about 800€ – rental is 61,49€/m (or 86€/month annual) – 10months will be over 600euros / 800euros – 12months over 700€ / 1000€ and when you stop you got nothing. with MSA you got perpetual license.
https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinema-4d/new-in-release-21/faq/
“Is perpetual licensing still available?
Perpetual licensing for Cinema 4D Studio R20 and R21 will still be available at pricing roughly equivalent to the current pricing of Studio R20. Since the MSA will no longer be available, perpetual licenses do not include subscription benefits (Cineversity and upgrades). Perpetual licensing will be managed by the same activation system as the subscription so perpetual licenses are transportable between computers.” its obvious that they are forcing users to rental only. 🙁 Looks like it is good time to say good bye maxon and artistic life.. 🙁
i actually bought in because of the lie directly. thinking about what recourse i have.
diddly squat most likely…
The perpetual license still requires C4D to phone home every 14 days to “reactivate” the license. Which makes it essentially a rather expensive renting option w/o the benefits of the normal subscription license.
no, the faqs state that RLM is available for wholly offline licensing.
That is not what C4D users are thinking currently, it seems everyone got worse. For example those on perpetual loose access to Cineversity tutorials and tools/plugins.
Yeah. Maxon also stated that they won’t active 3-year old licenses (exactly the same as Autodesk).
Very tricky nowadays for commercial software. There’s always a catch.
Didn’t know that, pretty nasty (ADSK like) move…
Where can I find that info?
In their FAQ webpage, sorry don’t have link at hand.
“Please note, Maxon may retire releases which are 3 years old. Once retired, a release will no longer be available for download from the Maxon User Portal and will not be eligible for support.”
At the end of the FAQ.
https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinema-4d/new-in-release-21/faq/
Not eligible for support doesn’t mean they won’t activate older licenses.
At least, that’s how I see it.
Well, yes, but who knows. Do you trust the company to make that decision? As always, the wording around these things isn’t perfect.
Yes, I agree.
What if activation is part of support in Maxon newspeak?
shady. maxon shows its shady ugly face.
quite clearly, between the lines it says:
we are scumbags.
It looks Adobe ist taking over. The CEO is now the Adobe guy, the Subscriptions are now Adobe style … the last step is to change the “Company Name” into Adobe and announce the Take-Over.
This is what it really looks to be very soon.
New blender 2.8 looks promising and there couldn’t be better timing for 2.8 releasing after maxon’s new ceo’s statements.
And other step will be: acquire insydium before they change name to Adobe.
Yep, adobe is taking over… first the conection with AE, than the adobe guy at maxon, than maxiamo and substance in their portfolio and now the subscription model :-/ . 10 years ago I told adobe in a AE wishlist (forum) that they absolutly need a real 3D tool/engine in their portfolio if they like to complete in the future and they should buy the little company Maxon …they didn’t do it until now … if they would have listen to me they would have saved millions 😉 … So adobe listen to me careful! Next step conect AE and C4D even more and rewrite with your new 3D knowlage the hole 3D environment (20 year old) in AE!!! We need after years of waiting a “real!” and modern 3D workflow in AE for VFX and Motion Graphics!!!.
“if they would have listen to me they would have saved millions”.. or what if this is the plan of new ceo’s to get maxon’s stock price down – so adobe can buy them – just same thing that happened to Nokia when Elop stated that they are going to use Microsoft Windows Phone only and in the end they sold phone department to Microsoft.
737.88 Euros exTax is pretty reasonable for Studio C4D. Until they start to force you onto subscription I’ve got nothing to complain about. Some of the work they are doing to the core of C4D is much more welcome than patching in software acquisitions.
Yes it is, but keep in mind that is the 12 month rent cost, paid in one go. The price per month if you don’t commit for a year is near 100$.
That is a fair point. I’m mainly thinking about comparing to Maya or Max though.
Chances are if I am getting a few good jobs/projects a year I can easily justify these kind of licence costs compared to many others. My preference is with perpetual Studio licence though which is what I currently own. One of the main reasons I switched from Maya to C4D was for the perpetual licence and the Octane Plugin.
I am definitely a big fan of Blender though and would definitely consider making the swap one day but C4D is still ticking the boxes at this point.
Totally agree, while they maintain the perpetual licenses I think it’s good to have options, at any moment if you decide you don’t want to continue upgrading you can always purchase the perpetual and stop there while having your files perfectly accesible and while you are still being able to modify them amd keep working without paying a penny.
737.88€ studio?
Studio price is:
EUR 3567
And no more MSA – no possibility to upgrade automaticly in future with lower price. Always need to buy the newest version with that 3567€ price tag (and that CEO called that MSA unfair).
This was so sad news to me… I was big fan.. I trusted that it won’t go this way but it is now clear to me that tehy will go rental only soon.. very soon and msa was fair imo. Atleast when you compare msa to this new licesing options. And feature updates was very dissapointing – they have made that core rewriting 6years now? And sculpting still hasn’t dynatopo.
After using blender 2.8 now for few days intesively i must admit that blender is very advanced now and that coming updates to sculpting does look interesting when i read/watched “Sculpt Branch Status Report” – Blender looks to be very good alternative, just need to fix some UI basics (like objects selections in hierarchy) and more motion graphics tools. For visual effects it will need many things but houdinifx will be great help for now until sidefx will make it rental only – in that point blender should add vfx simulation framework. If sidefx makes their software rental only – there will be only lightwave3D and Modo from big familiar / most popular softwares with perpetual option, I guess Modo will be next rental only and then it would be most likely Houdini but don’t know about LW.
I was mainly talking about rental prices in comparison to the more expensive Autodesk counter parts. However I might need to take back what I said about them not forcing you onto a subscription model….
I recently got in touch with my local reseller about a price to upgrade my perpetual R20 licence that I purchased in March (c4d studio) which I paid over £3000 for. Much to my surprise they told me it would cost just under £1000 to upgrade that to an R21 perpetual?!
That’s a third of my initial investment earlier in the year which would make my single c4d seat cost me over £4000. They have not improved the software enough in one release to justify a third of the value of the software.
It is a pretty obvious attempt to make subscription seem like the best option. To be honest the subscription is okay with me….it would be a reasonable cost but I really don’t appreciate being ripped off for having a perpetual licence. I feel like I am locked into a expensive maintenance of a perpetual licence that I don’t see a very logical way out of now when I could have rented c4d for 6 years for the £4000 c4d could end up costing me.
Jump ship to C4D to avoid rental is working out beautifully?
look at you with your adorable schadenfreude.
how is the corporate autodesk boot tasting? yummy yummy?
fyi, the people switched because autodesk went completely anti-consumer first by turning the screws on maintenance, leveraging the increasing cost in order to push everyone to rental. rental being priced exorbitantly high.
maxon is also a dick here but far less than that rusty autodesk dildo you seem to enjoy. although i am doubting you actually pay for anything..
Maxon, ever heard of title safe area?
You watching this on an old CRT?
Totally overpriced software.
not unexpected but man what a lousy move.
the sales reps actually lied to me too. infact we all had guarantees via the ceo letter and my seller informs me that no policies are in place for R22 so who knows.
the faq is formulated weirdly as always. permament gets some updates, not the other.
jesus christ thank you for blender, is all i can say.
i used it more than the c4d in the last months anyway , but this still bugs the hell out of me.