What a load of crap this whole thing is…
What is the difference if I pay $250 every two years, versus whatever this comes out to be per day? The only real difference is that the subscription model increases the risk of us, the customers, getting screwed. Why? Well, how else would they make more money? The only way to make more money is to charge me more for Cubase. That’s it. It’ll become a chase game to get us to buy into more “features” for a few pennies, until we pay more for the entire package, that used to be $250 every two years (an approximation, but you get the point).
On top of that, I might not be able to continue using an older version of Cubase, depending on “the model”. And if I can, them will we get bugs fixed. All that this ultimately result in, is a higher cost for us, for less features. Because this will be extra, that will be extra, and so on, maybe not a very high cost, but in comparison to what we get now, it will be more. Also, since it appear that quite a few people have problems with these upgrades, imagine what will happen when various options require other options or simple won’t work because an option is non-existent.
My guess is that a whole lot less non-professional customers will quit using Steinberg and go elsewhere. Then it’ll get even more expensive, in order to make up the difference.
Lease and subscription are money making routines that ultimately ends up loosing to better alternatives.