Monday, July 7, 2014

The cost of professional 3D software

I looked into the pricing of 3DS Max, Maya & Zbrush today.

Initial Cost:
3DS Max: $3675
3DS Maya: $3675
Zbrush: $795

That brings the total to $8145.

Ongoing upgrades are:
3DS Max: $2575
3DS Maya: $2575
Zbrush: unknown

Expect to spend > $5000/upgrade

That isn't happening. This isn't my day job. I thought Photoshop was expensive. That is a drop in the bucket compared to this. This realistically puts the software out of reach for small game developers who want legit software.

I think it is strange that Substance sells an indie pack to any developer who makes less than $10,000 off their games yet assume you've spent that amount on software for just one developer. Serious disconnect there.

Back to Blender...

Reference:
http://www.autodesk.com/store/all-products
http://store.pixologic.com/ZBrush-4R6-Single-User-License

2 comments:

  1. I think each of those packages now have a monthly subscription variety for people that can't shell out thousands at once. Just Photoshop is around 60, not sure about the specifics on the others.

    It's still not super cheap, but it is an alternative.

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  2. Yea, Office and Photoshop have to be bought monthly now. I'm glad I have an older copy of both. I don't think you can even buy a permanent copy any more.

    Epic donated money to blender today to improve their fbx export. I will continue to use blender as long as I can...

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