Clip Studio Paint is a popular multi-platform app among illustrators. It is so popular that it was even used in the making of Bite, Jay Park’s latest music video.
Beginners especially love the app because of its comprehensive set of features and, more importantly, it is one of the only illustrator apps out there that is being sold with a perpetual license and is not a subscription.
However, today the makers of the app announced that from next year onwards, users will have to subscribe to the Update Pass to receive all future updates.
The move toward turning the app into a service was not well received. It’s also a bit complicated.
Like I'm gonna say at the end of the day SaaS is basically industry standard for any program at this point. However tye biggest draw to @clipstudiopaint was that I could have a perpetual license for my desktop and if I WANTED to, I could buy the SaaS for my tablet.
— DoctorJortsMD (@MorbidQrositea) August 22, 2022
Clip Studio Paint had a complicated past and had many iterations and name changes as it gained popularity outside its homeland in Japan.
Although not without issues, what made Clip Studio Paint popular among students and aspiring illustrators is its perpetual licence.
However, starting next year, those with the Version 1.x Perpetual license will only get stability updates until version 3.x is launched, with no feature updates. For that, they will need the Annual Update Pass.
The same goes for the Version 2.x Perpetual licence holder, but they will get those bug fixes until version 4.x. In other words, the annual Update Pass is a must if you want the latest and the greatest version of the app.
I mean if things are gonna be like this then I should just bite the bullet and switch to Photoshop again since at least that one is an industry standard software :/
— Alix Balica 🇲🇽 (@AlixBalica) August 22, 2022
In Malaysia, the move would affect aspiring illustrators, artists, and art students. They don’t have a lot of money to spend, to begin with, which makes apps as a service like Adobe’s suite of industry-standard apps unattractive.
Now that Clip Studio Paint has begun dipping its toes into the subscription pool, it has effectively removed the main reason why the app was so popular in the first place.
You can check out the announcement by Clip Studio Paint here:
Changes to the Windows/macOS One-time Purchase (Perpetual) Version in 2023https://t.co/OOHq7tT8uD pic.twitter.com/fQ75YRNUKh
— CLIP STUDIO PAINT (@clipstudiopaint) August 22, 2022
