Good point, but technically, the situation with the video engine was very different. I’m not trying to give an excuse to Steinberg, since I was one of the very vocal critics about this situation (you’ll see me all over those threads very upset, lol). With the video engine, what they had promised was an actual new video engine by a certain time, which they wrote from scratch, including the codecs, and it took a LOT longer to develop than anticipated, and they kept missing their own self-announced timeframes, including failing to fulfill a big promise IMO. Not excuses, but in that process, they never actually set a timeframe for WHEN the specific video export feature itself was going to be included, and it was never mentioned in a big product launch like this as a headline feature. Instead, the video export feature was mentioned as part of the ongoing development and improvements of the new video engine, which was clearly going to take them a lot of time. So there was no “guarantee” that video export would show up in a particular version.
Contrast that to the ARA support, and it is ostensibly easier to implement that building an entirely new video engine from scratch, at least judging by the fact that several DAWs now have it in relatively short order, and the comments from those various developers don’t imply that it is overly complex from my reading. But even if it is very complex to implement in Cubase for whatever reason, Steinberg has definitely PROMISED it as a headline feature in Cubase 10. I think given the heat and embarrassment they took over the long delays for the new video engine, they would be hesitant to repeat the same kind of mistake so soon, when the video engine fiasco is still a fresh wound for some people. So my guess is that ARA is almost certainly coming in the next while. Perhaps a few months, and I’m going to be pretty surprised if Steinberg blows this one.
Having said all that, you have a great point and it’s certainly wise to be cautious expecting Steinberg to deliver on time given their recent track record.
On the other hand, at the very least, the very fact that they are working on it still suggests to me that Steinberg is listening to us, which is a very positive development. Let’s see what happens though!