3D apps do the-warm-and-cozy-together
Holy smokes - now this is some big, though not specific, Machinima news.
Autodesk, the corporation behind 3D Studio Max, has acquired Alias, the corporation behind Maya. The two 3D applications make up the majority of the 3D software market. From the cost of $182 m for Alias, this is definitely a deal for Autodesk. I would assume that Alias was cash-starved.
My sense of all this is that the 3D app market is still expanding, though very slowly - and its demanding a lower cost product. Softimage's move into the under $500 space is a good indicator of this. Rather than splinter the market for decreasing sales of high-cost product, they'll focus on lower-cost versions - and merge resources (hence, corporations) to handle such market flux. What does it mean for Machinima? It could be that we can expect legacy developers (AutoAlias) to enter the Machinima realm - whether through existing products offering Machinima features or creating new products targeting Machinima filmmakers. Regardless, things are bound to become very interesting.
More as it surfaces. Wonder what Papa Max and Mama Maya's children will look like...
Autodesk, the corporation behind 3D Studio Max, has acquired Alias, the corporation behind Maya. The two 3D applications make up the majority of the 3D software market. From the cost of $182 m for Alias, this is definitely a deal for Autodesk. I would assume that Alias was cash-starved.
My sense of all this is that the 3D app market is still expanding, though very slowly - and its demanding a lower cost product. Softimage's move into the under $500 space is a good indicator of this. Rather than splinter the market for decreasing sales of high-cost product, they'll focus on lower-cost versions - and merge resources (hence, corporations) to handle such market flux. What does it mean for Machinima? It could be that we can expect legacy developers (AutoAlias) to enter the Machinima realm - whether through existing products offering Machinima features or creating new products targeting Machinima filmmakers. Regardless, things are bound to become very interesting.
More as it surfaces. Wonder what Papa Max and Mama Maya's children will look like...
1 Comments:
We use Maya at work, and we're all a bit uncomfortable about this whole situation. There's a very palpable fear that Maya users are going to be left out in the cold.
It's interesting how this whole chess game played out, over the years. Back in the day, Alias|Wavefront was considered to be the bees knees, but they insisted on pricing their product at Hollywood levels, rather than bowing to pressure to price it in game development ranges. Autodesk, on the other hand, saw what was coming, and dropped their prices. Alias realized their mistake way too late. By the time they lowered their prices, Autodesk had already won the war in the game studios.
There's an important lesson to be learned here about accessible pricing. In the meantime, though, I'm hoping that Autodesk will take good care of their Maya users.
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