Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid to Acquire Softimage

#1 I more interested in how this affects Alienbrain. It wasn't in the list of products mentioned in the press release.

#2 @David, "Introducing Autodesk XSI ModTool - $2999.95 + tax" :p

#3 Hehe funny. What would be nice is a more Indie-like licence for the ModTool, than the current "only for bloody modders"

#4 It's nice to see how the big balls are trying to help us providing a more streamlined content creation pipeline ( I think the guy used the term datacentric) but all in all is a scary perspective. It's just another hostile takeover guys, softimage was just too much for them so they had to buy it. I really hope they won't screw it up.

fy, anyone knows that softimage 3d was at one time the property of Microsoft? : ) Fortunately, they haven't done anything to it and sold it after a while.

#5 @Apparatus, interesting fact about SoftImage/Microsoft. Now MS has bought Caligari last summer. Seems they cant make up their mind. But all this takeover has left not much for small companies running their own business. SideFX, Lightwave, and Modo. Must be dog eat dog out there.

#6 @Apparatus

Actually MS only owned SoftImage for the video editing solutions that SI offered at the time. MS bought them only for their failed WebTV initiative (though during the time they did own SI, they ported it successfully to Windows NT, aside from the fact they owned it in the golden age of 3D R&D so they had more influence then we are led to believe).

Coincidentally AVID bought SoftImage from MS for the same reason. They coveted applications like SoftImage|DS (which is now sold as AVID|DS) but sadly had 0 desire to be in the 3d market. As such AVID screwed up and let SoftImage languish, its only by sheer will and determination that the talented developers of XSI were able to do anything cool with it like the ICE system, which has the potential of making people think differently. Now that AVID is apparently in financial straits they needed some quick cash and voila, that's how you get the situation tha we are in. I will be surprised to admit that $35 million for what they got is a really low sum.

With that said Autodesk has done a great job so far with Maya and 3DS Max under one roof, those two applications have gotten bigger and better, then add in the fact theyre the only company pumping serious R&D into 3D DCC and I think the future looks good for all 3 applications.

PS: For the record Autodesk was never intimidated by XSI. Maya outsells XSI and Max pretty much blows out everything combined in sales numbers. It really comes down to the fact that Autodesk covets the character animation in XSI for Max, Maya and a few other projects (like Geppeto). Also if you look at the past few years of take-overs Autodesk has done, its been very centered on Character Animation technologies.

@Don

Perhaps, but the specialized boutique applications like Zbrush and Modo are succeeding because they focus on providing 1 thing and doing that very well. It's the same logic we ahve to apply here as indies if we want to succeed.

#7 Now we can hope that Autodesk reprices Face|Robot for the masses ..... but that might be too much to ask for.

#8 www.streetinsider.com/stock_lookup.php?q=ADSK

I'd watch this for a year or so. Getting this for 35 Mil seems cheap.
They paid almost 300 mil for Moldflow.

#9 35 mil for what? For the parking lots? Now, don't get me wrong, its their decision to sale it or not but to me the biggest 3 apps in industry in one hand sounds too much. Before purchasing both Maya and XSI they should've made a decent 3dsmax UV editor. But hey, it's one of those rare moments in the market when you the big fish eats the small fish. Hunt for the profit, that's all, and it borders pathetic.

#10 Actually by acquiring softimage, it should lower the price, because it is now less of a competition.

#11 @Zakrey, well, that's assuming Autodesk is going to follow the rules of logic. Also, that's the exact opposite of what happened when Adobe acquired Macromedia, for example. I'm dubious :)

#12 Damndamndamn. Following history, this means XSI is doomed. People who already have it will keep maintenance contracts, paying more and more. People who were previously interested will lose interest because of new, higher prices.

#13 Autodesk has not raised Maya's price since acquiring it in 2005, so I doubt they will raise XSI's price very soon.

#14 A video showing the truth behind this agreement ;-)

Autodesk internal discussion about Softimage

#15 Video, sound, script - brilliant; One thing is for sure: they don't care (nor ever will) what the users have to say. There's a word for it I think: GREED.

#16 ....baby, don't fear the Reaper.

You could always write your own program... or become a BLENDER-BOY!

Or wait for another set of authors to come up with a new paradigm....it won't take long.

Or, well, don't use programs that take an army of engineers to write.....embrace the lowEnd.

Hi, Chicken-little, how's the weather out there? LOL

#17 Haha funny clip. Lots of good timing on that. Too bad its as far from the truth as it possibly could be, but I guess if people need a nice security blanket to make their worries go away its better than nothing. One question though, how come it wasn't made with XSI?