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August 08, 2005
Flash Professional 8 resources and details
I'm sure this comes as a surprise to nobody reading this, but Macromedia announced today, 8/8 at 8am, the release of Macromedia Studio 8 which includes Flash Professional 8. I thought it might be good to make some sense of all the madness following the launch and point out a few things that some of you may not have noticed.
First of all, the new Studio 8 includes:
- Dreamweaver 8
- Flash Professional 8
- Fireworks 8
- Contribute 3
- FlashPaper 2
And it sells for US$999 (full) and US$399 (upg). Buy it here.
Flash Professional 8 is US$699 (full) and US$299 (upg).
Flash Basic 8 is US$399 (full) and there is no upgrade available.
WHAT'S NEW IN FLASH PROFESSIONAL 8?
Read my article on the Developer Center.
UPGRADE POLICY
New to this release, we have relaxed our upgrade policy allowing users to now upgrade from ANY previous release of the product. So, if you have Flash 3 and you want to upgrade to Flash Professional 8, you can do so for US$299. Also, we've simplified the upgrade process when going from multiple products to the Studio. So now, you can upgrade to the Studio from any single previous release of one of the point products - limited to Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, and Freehand. So you can upgrade to Studio 8 for US$399 from Freehand 5 if you'd like. One upgrade price = simplicity.
That's right folks, we're looking to simplify! (Notice the new names... :-)
FLASH BASIC 8
So who is this product for? Good question.
First of all, we set out to clarify the naming of the two versions of Flash. Instead of Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004, we added a more descriptive name to the low-end product. We decided to call it "Basic" because that's really what it is. It's not the "simplified" or "easier to use" or "beginner" version of Flash, it's the scaled-down version that includes the core Flash functionality: animation, interactivity, and illustration. It has very few of the new features but it does include all of the bug fixes, workspace enhancements, Script Assist, presets only for FlashType (no custom antialiasing), and a few other things.
Flash Basic 8 is designed specifically for the occasional user who does not need the full power and advanced functionality of the Professional version, and is more price-sensitive. This is also why we've lowered the price by US$100. We found that there are a lot of hobbyists and enthusiasts who want to use Flash every once and a while to do simple animations. We offer Flash Basic 8 for them. We don't offer an upgrade to Flash Basic 8 because we want to get existing Flash users into the Professional, full-featured version.
I'll post more details throughout the week as I think of them.
Posted by mike.downey at August 8, 2005 05:38 PM
Comments
One upgrade price = simplicity?
Nope
One upgrade price = horrible dis-loyalty to those who purchased Studio MX 2004 with Flash MX Pro.
From one such grossly dissapointed individual.
Posted by: Rob Spaull at September 13, 2005 03:57 AM
Makes total sense to do this and nice job for releasing them so quickly.Love flash and macromedia products always have always will.
Posted by: Jessica at November 11, 2005 12:30 PM
Well worth price even if it was double the current amount. Started using flash a few years back and have not looked back since.Upgraded to 8 and love most of the new features. Yall get an A for a job well done.
Posted by: Mike at November 11, 2005 03:14 PM
Congrats on launching studio and flash 8. Picked up my copy the next day after it came out and have not stopped playing with it since.Just a quick question any idea on a 9 version ?
Posted by: Alan at November 11, 2005 03:18 PM
Very interested informations, thanks behind info. Flash Professional 8 is very good, well made about wile better from preceding version.
Posted by: Telewizory Lcd at February 16, 2006 12:13 PM
So there is no upgrade to Flash Basic 8 (from earlier versions). But for the occasional user who has now bought Flash Basic 8 and later on finds herself needing the Flash Professional 8: Is there an upgrade from Basic to Professional, or is the only option then to pay the full price for Professional?
Posted by: John at June 14, 2006 02:00 PM