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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Autodesk Acquires Softimage

Hi Mark! You have no idea how funny this is for me... :)
Just 3 years ago I was coordinating a project between AVID and APPLE to port the discontinued Softimage 3D to Mac OS-X and bring it up to speed. Our company was to finance the project, but the talks got stuck between AVID and APPLE. I know Mark Stevens (MD Softimage/VP AVID) personally and I am sure this is for the best of Sotimage, he would not have it otherwise... By the look of it - Apple has just missed the deal of the century...

Thanks for the post! :)
 
Peter Majtan said:
By the look of it - Apple has just missed the deal of the century...

Thanks for the post! :)
Click to expand...

Apple skipped the Alias/Wavefront boat as well ....

Last call Mr. Jobs ... MAXON or LUXOLOGY ..?

Place your bets ... Apple or Adobe ... someone's gonna write the checks ....
 
shit...hope they dont sweep it under the rug. We are a XSI facility and the latest version is a major leap forward. I would look forward to integration with Smoke and Flame.
 
Terrible, terrible, awful news... XSI, Maya and MAX under one roof.

And WTF?? $35M? I would have guessed it'd be worth more than that. IIRC, that's way less than what Avid paid Microsoft for it several years ago. Jeez... Where was Adobe and Apple on this one. Seems like it would have been a no-brainer for either.

I'm all Lightwave, Modo and XSI here... With the internal politics these days at NewTek, Lightwave seems like it's going nowhere. Modo is awesome, but hasn't matured into a full 3D power app yet -- but it's my modeler of choice and I do my surfacing / rendering for architectural and simple animations / stills. I sure hope Luxology finds a way to kick it into high gear and get Modo rolling.

What / who is Autodesk going to go after next? With the three big apps now in one place, I bet they go after Mental Images. Seeing how they hold the bulk of the software that uses Mental Ray.
 
Heh... I forgot about the nVidia / Mental Images deal. OK, they're probably not going anywhere.
 
Peter Majtan said:
Or Apple can just buy Autodesk - now that would be a bomb! They sure have the cash for it... :)
Click to expand...

... and they would kill Maya/MAX Flame, etc. as they killed Shake.
I don't think they would buy Luxology, it would be against their philosophy.

35 mil$ is pretty low for company such as Softimage, mayby this financial crysis is real? :wink:
 
I am wondering why they bought them? To have most percent market chare in small industry as ours? I understand that it is just business, Autodesk now can claim that they have more then 60% of market share in 3D industry but why? Wouldn't be better to improve customer support or spend time and money for R&D on software they already have?
 
This is a sad day...Autodesk is one of the worst companies I know, they`ll definately ruin XSI as well. I was terribly shocked reading it, first thing I thought: today must be april 1st.
 
I don't understand why 1 company would want to ship 3 different products which would compete with each other it's just weird.
It was weird enough when they did both Max and Maya... though Autodesk is a much cooler name than Alias.
 
People are shocked wherever I`m looking. There`s quite nobody seeing anything positive from this...
 
AVID bought Softimage for 180mil and sold it for 35mil. that 35 mil is gonna go to cover the net loss they had this quarter vs last year and still not even it up. i doubt they will flush it into more development. we have Michael P in our corner so theres always that :) .

help us Michael P you're our only hope...
 
I think that in the short-run, the fresh Softimage faces at Autodesk will liberate fresh ideas and "syngergies". (oh shit, did I just use that word?)

I think that effective product development is often about about really smart people sharing ideas about a topic they are passionate about. The "meeting of the minds" of the folks in the two development and product design groups may go through a spurt of innovation that is good for the wend users and the industry.

However, in the medium-term, if this "consolidation" trend continues, it will almost certainly stiffle innovation in the industry. Strong competition for the top spot typically works out best for the state of the art as well as the interests of the consumer. With less serious competition, complacency is a concern.

In the long run, if Autodesk doesn't continue to deliver the "high-end" products that artists & facilities want to use, then the market will be further opened for clever small companies with powerful new tools such as Luxology (MODO) and others to step in and capitalize on the situation.

The free market wins. (?)
 
On the brighter side of things, Softimage won't be on the sinking ship with Avid. Softimage is a good tool provider. Discreet is a a good home, lot's of development and financial muscle. Discreet is very, very focused on the tools and technology. Discreet is pretty grounded in their core competency, so they won't be as distracted (ie Apple).

True XSI and family will have to assimilate and the future incarnations may different. But perhaps Discreet won't pull the rug out from under the Softimage user base immediately. Since the Discreet's aquisition of Alias in 2006, Maya hasn't that changed radically.

High growth and high margin days of the industry are in the rear view mirrow. Discreet will provide the sound financial guidance needed to keep these tools alive and in the marketplace. Which is a very good thing for the professionals that rely on these to make a living.
 
BOXXLabs said:
I think that in the short-run, the fresh Softimage faces at Autodesk will liberate fresh ideas and "syngergies". (oh shit, did I just use that word?)
Click to expand...

Angryseven said:
Discreet is a a good home, lot's of development and financial muscle. Discreet is very, very focused on the tools and technology. Discreet is pretty grounded in their core competency, so they won't be as distracted (ie Apple).
Click to expand...

Sorry having to say this, but nothing could be further from reality than these two of your opinions. Just look back what happened with those applications Autodesk acquired, sometimes I even get the feeling that it is the Discreet part that messes everything up. There was an app called "Frost" for virtual studios, "River" for sound, "edit" for...eh editing, all three disappeared just years after their acquisitions, then comes Illuminaire Paint and Composition which were at least fusioned into Combustion but only crawls forward since two versions back. The big stupidity is Flint/Flame/Inferno which factually runs on the same hardware (except the stone storage) but has a difference in pricing that could easily buy you a luxurious house. But most hilarious are Max & Maya whose only progress are their version numbers (ok, they`ve put "nucleus" into maya...OH, and that navigation cube!!!). And Toxik`s entry was a big joke in my opinion - they advertised the database-centric workflow and "next gen" technology...but where is it on the greater scale? Toxik is nearly meaningless in the industry compared to fusion and nuke.
Mudbox (to finish the rant) is too fresh to judge if the recent improvements in it`s "version 2009" were already in the works before acquisition or not. Summary: Autodesk didn`t do anything good in the past, so this is in no way anything positive. I didn`t even touch their insane pricing and licensing scheme so far which makes my blood boil only thinking about it...and please don`t forget what happened to 5D cyborg - I will not speculate about assimilate...
 
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