Alias|Wavefront Drastically Lowers Price Of Maya

by , 12:10 PM EST, March 28th, 2002

Though rumors that Alias|Wavefront would be announcing a buyout by Apple have been circulating like mad, the company actually announced a major price reduction in its flagship products, Maya Complete and Maya unlimited. Maya is a high-end 3D animation studio that has only recently come to Mac OS X. The price tag of Maya Complete is being dropped from US$7500 to US$1999; Maya Unlimited is falling from US$16,000 to US$6,999. The price drops go into effect on April 4th of this year. From Alias|Wavefront:

Alias|Wavefront™ today announced that it will drastically reduce the standard list prices of its Maya Complete™ and Maya Unlimited™ 3D animation software packages. The new pricing becomes effective April 4th, 2002 worldwide for both the Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited versions of the product. Maya Complete, formerly priced at $7,500 will now sell for $1,999 and Maya Unlimited, which formerly sold for $16,000 will be priced at $6,999*.

Recent studies** indicate that Maya® is the software that the majority of 3D artists desire to use. By positioning this popular software as a volume-market product, Alias|Wavefront expects to make Maya accessible to more people than ever before.

In conjunction with this repricing the company is offering an upgrade special to its current customers on annual full maintenance whereby those with licenses of Maya Complete for the IRIX®, Linux® or Windows® platforms can upgrade to Maya Unlimited for $1,499. Moreover, the company is moving to an operating systems policy more consistent with that of other volume software products. As part of this move, a new licensing policy comes into effect April 4 which, among other things, gives Maya Unlimited customers with floating licenses "right to operate" licensing free of charge.

"The computer graphics community has told us time and time again that Maya is their preferred 3D animation package because it allows them to deliver the highest value to their customers," states Alias|Wavefront President, Doug Walker. "The issue was that not everyone who wanted to use it could afford it. On April 4, we change that."

"Mac OS X is taking off with the creative community and Maya is a great tool that shows professionals what they gain with Mac OS X," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "Maya is a showcase application and the repricing brings it within easy reach of other Mac users."

Pricing and Availability
Maya Complete 4 will be priced beginning April 4 at $1,999 (US) and will include modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Artisan, Paint Effects and Maya Embedded Language (MEL), an open interface for programming and scripting. Maya Unlimited 4 will be priced at $6,999 (US) and include Maya Fur™, Maya Cloth™ and advanced modeling features.

**2001, Computer Graphics World: digital content creation study
**August 2001, 3D ARK™: Software Survey Results

Alias|Wavefront says that it will be adding new support and sales staff to handle the increased volume. Earlier this year, the company closed two US offices and consolidated operations into its Canadian offices.

You can find more information on Maya at Alias|Wavefont's Web site.

Join in the discussion of Maya and Alias|Wavefront in our forums.

The Mac Observer Spin:

The company has been rumored to be in financial trouble for some time, and this is what has fueled the buyout rumors. When the company closed down two of its three offices earlier this year, those rumors were fanned anew. Frankly, a major price reduction like this can only add even more fuel to this fire, but we think it is a move that is going to help the company gain new sales and market share both. Maya is a top-notch product, and the company found that there are many people interested in it.

Recently, Alias|Wavefront made a free personal learning edition of the product available, and the result was 110,000 versions of the product being downloaded (according to the company). That little bit of market research showed the company that there are people who want Maya, if only they could afford it. By dropping the price down below the US$2000 mark for Maya Complete, Alias|Wavefront can reach those people. There are a lot of small graphics houses that can afford Maya now, whereas last week they couldn't. Economics 101.

We see this as a great move for Alias|Wavefront, and very good opportunity for more Mac users to pursue 3D animation.

Alias|Wavefront