The age of physicality seems to be coming closer to extinction now that the looming shadow of the almighty CLOUD encompasses our heads. Adobe has announced at their MAX conference that they will focus all their efforts into this omnipotent cloud by backing out of distributing physical copies of their creative suite. The horror.
For now on they won't release updates for CS6, instead you'll have to pay a monthly fee for access to Adobe CC. The whole suite subscription is $50 a month or you could opt for a subscription to Photoshop CC at $20 a month. Both ventures require a one year contract or else it will cost you $80 a month to be contract free. Yikes. What would be the perk of signing up for CC? You get updates as they come out instead of having to upgrade each version and the next version of Photoshop has some upcoming features that some would deem worthy of an upgrade. Adobe has been teasing the public with a new camera shake reduction tool which can potentially save some lost images that have fallen victim to blur. Another feature being introduced is a smart sharpen tool which can automatically reduce noise and haloing caused by over-sharpening. Camera raw is receiving a few new tools as well: An advanced healing brush, radial gradient and an upright tool...these are essentially the new updates to the upcoming Lightroom 5. Speaking of Lightroom, it has been spared of the Cloud treatment for now.
While Adobe is certain that this is the right way to go, many users are outraged that they would resort to this tactic. Where they could usually just upgrade for the flat rate of $199 per licence, they'll have to continue spending $240 year just for access to Photoshop and some free storage. The other thing is the discrepancy of it's style of DRM. While it doesn't require internet all the time, you will have to verify every month. Kind of seems like a ball and chain. Adobe persists that those who have used the subscription service give it rave reviews, but many just see it as an unfortunate way to try to keep it out of hands of the pirate bay. If you've spent money on a copy of CS (version 3 and up) they'll offer you a discounted price for the first year: $30 a month. Lucky you, huh? While this move in a digital direction isn't much of a surprise, it's still going to ruffle the feathers of many users out there. Will Adobe's push towards the cloud have disgruntled users looking for alternatives beyond the industry standard?