Adobe Doubles Down on Creative Cloud, Adopts Subscription-Only Model

Adobe closed the door on the Creative Suite at its Adobe MAX conference this morning, announcing that it's moving to an all-subscription model and dropping the existing branding of its Creative Suite software products. Starting in June, new versions of Adobe's CS software will be available only online, and only as part of a Creative Cloud subscription.

That's right — say goodbye to After Effects CS6 and say hello to After Effects CC.

You'll still be able to buy CS6 products, if you really want them — for the time being — but you won't get the latest and greatest, such as all of the new features that were showcased at NAB last month. If you want to stay current with Adobe's line-up, you'll be spending at least $49.99/month for an individual subscription to Creative Cloud with 20 GB of cloud storage (existing users of CS3 or later will get a discounted rate of $29.99/month for the first year) or $69.99/month per seat for a "team" version that comes with 100 GB of storage plus "centralized deployment and administration capabilities" (existing users with a volume license get a rate of $39.99/month per seat between now and August 31). The $49.99 month pricing requires a one-year commitment; users who cancel pay a penalty of 50 percent of the remainder of their contract. Note that the fee gets you access to everything, not just the video apps. All subscribers have access to Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and more. (Subscriptions will be available for individual pieces of software, but they're not likely to be cost-effective for pro users.)

The move is almost guaranteed to be controversial, especially among users who try to save money on software by skipping the annual upgrade process, or for those who worry about the security implications of putting high-value assets to the cloud. But for users who already stay up to date with Adobe's product releases, the effective annual fee of $840 per seat on a team will look pretty good, especially if they're looking to take advantage of some of the new Creative Cloud features announced today. Those features include access to what Adobe said is $25,000 worth of professional fonts on the desktop through TypeKit, which should appeal to anyone who's built a logo or a title sequence in Premiere Pro or After Effects. read more...