Storyline 2 pricing

So what your saying is that people who have been early adopters of your product, supported this community and sung articulate praises are now rewarded by having to purchase another piece of software. $699 is fine for corporations but for independent instructional designers this is a substantial chunk of change. Have you thought about giving a special price to people who have purchased articulate 1 at the $1400 price tag? I am very disappointed...

Hi Julie.

Thanks for the comments and sorry to hear that you are disappointed. The pricing for Storyline 2 is the same upgrade pricing we have offered since 2005 with upgrades from Articulate Presenter 4 to Articulate Presenter 5. We also had similar upgrade pricing for the Rapid E-Learning Studio 2nd Edition to Studio '09 and then Studio '13. If you purchase the Platinum Membership Plan which includes upgrades, priority support, live chat and free remote assistance.

It goes up to a gazillion dollars so hurry up and upgrade.  How's that?  

Most likely it does not go up in price and will stay at the $699.00 price for the forseeable future.  Of course if you purchased PMP with Storyline 1, the upgrade is at no charge.  

What are you saying, Justin? That we have been dinged so many times in the past that we should just relax. Or as one of the staff more or less said "if you don't like it, just don't upgrade". Nice.

For what it's worth, based on past upgrades for Articulate products (being a long time Articulate customer) $699 is what I expected even before it was announced.

For the number of new features/functionality included in SL2 I believe the price is very reasonable. So far I'm extremely impressed with how polished this new release is - kudos to the Articulate team for releasing a solid product that is truly ready for prime time right out the gate.

Hi Kevin.

We, like many other businesses, charge for products. I am sorry if that is not in line with your expectations. Storyline 2 is a new product. Built with new code, with new features. We released six free updates to Storyline 1 at no cost to the folks who purchased it over the past two years. I understand that you are disappointed by the fact that we are charging for a new product but in order to release that product, we actually had to build the product and now charge for it. We do offer a substantial discount of 50% off to previous owners of Storyline 1 as we have done with all of our products. We don't see that as dinging our customers. We see that as offering a great product at a great price for our existing customers.

Thanks Articulate staff.

Interesting discussion regarding product pricing.

So basically what I hear Julie and Kevin saying is that you expect customers that have bought a product, say an iPhone, in the past, should get a free update every time a new version is released? Or at least get it a a tenth of the price new users would be able to get it?

Hmmmm sounds a bit unrealistic doesn't it

Al joking aside, I'd honestly recommend giving SL2 a proper trial, check out all the new videos to get a feel for the new features and decide if the investment is worth it, for what you do with Storyline. If you decide at this time an upgrade isn't worth it, you've still got the amazing Storyline 1 which is also great.

I posted this on another thread, but perhaps it should be here given Justin's quote above, or maybe in it's own thread. I am extremely dissatisfied but am holding off to see what happens before I build up a full head of steam on this:

Having just had trouble accessing the storyline 2 download I contacted support.
This is what I got back:

"The PMP conversion option mentioned in the email below is no longer available."

You can buy a Storyline 2 upgrade here:
www.articulate.com/store/store.php "

I can tell you that that was not the reponse I was expecting.
What on earth do you mean 'no longer available?

What has happened to Articulate.? You cannot just withdraw something like that - here is the response to the articulate support email I sent :

~~~

Hello Ann,

What do you mean 'it is no longer available'?

When I purchased articulate studio it was specifically with the
maintenance plan that provided the next TWO releases of studio.

When I then paid for the upgrade to switch to the storyline track it
was on the understanding that the maintenance pack upgrade for the
second upgrade switched to Storyline from Studio, otherwise there was
no point in me switching since the whole point of paying for the
maintenance plan was to pay for the upgrade cycle in advance.

You cannot just come along and say:
"The PMP conversion option mentioned in the email below is no longer
available."
That is equivalent to you taking my money in advance and then randomly
deciding that you are not going to fulfil your obligation.

You tone is especially insulting in that you offer no explanation and
effectively are telling me that you tricked me out of the money.

This is not satisfactory.



Regards,

Karl Gunter

~~~


Does this mean that paying in advance for the upgrade cycle is just equivalent to giving articulate money for nothing, because that email from support seems to be saying that.

This has got to be some sort of mistake, although the terse and perfunctory tone of 'that is no longer available' seems at odds with that assessment.

You cannot take money for maintenance plan upgrade cycles and then just change you mind about providing it.

This is absolutely astonishing.

I too am utterly disappointed. I just purchased Storyline this March as a freelancer, along with Engage and Quizmaker (only to find out in the aftermath that Engage templates are not compatible with Storyline (except for Flash imports, which are not suitable for ipad-designed courses).

Nice try, Jeff. No, I don't expect new versions to be free. Looking back, I have now spent $5,800 on various versions of Studio and Storyline. What bugs me this time is having to pay another $700 for what I feel is a version 1.5 of Storyline, even though it is called version 2.

Hi

I too am disappointed, in a similar position and resonate with what Allison and Julie express here.

Storyline 1 was a considerable purchase for me and my first Articulate purchase, made specifically to offer iPad compatible content.

We are still waiting for fixes for major iPad issues and some general issues too.

Whilst SL 1 has great potential in what it advertises, my own experience would lead me to say it was definitely not 'ready out of the box' and to be told before SL1 is truly functional as advertised, that we now have to pay another $700 to upgrade to 2 is very disappointing to say the least.

I am not impressed either. This should have been V 1.5.

I gave up submitting formal requests for problems to be fixed in SL 1 and for what I considered to be important facilities to be added. I must have put in 30 specific, detailed requests and received no feedback or requests for more info.

Some things I asked for I considered really crucial, such as being able to increase the size of text items in the Player Menu, to be able to replace externally referenced content (e.g: audio, video, images, swf animations, etc) without re-publishing (you can't) yet all of those content files are held in separate folders within the published program. The problem is, some smart developer thought it best to rename them from for example 'Red_truck_1.jpg' to '5bdfZLkH1Qb_98_DX1892_DY1892.jpg'. Really clever. Now I can't tell a red truck image from a photo of a sausage. Thank you. You just missed the most brilliant way of enabling highly cost-effective content maintenance without re-programming/re-publishing. And yes, I was doing this with Authorware in 1992. I could list much, more. 

Rant over.

PMP is not withdrawn...See:  http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/56036/299945.aspx#299945

Hi Karl.

I am posting this to both of the threads that you commented on. I have asked that our Sales Support Manager, Sarah Schenone, contact you directly regarding your upgrade. From what I can see is that you had purchased the Rapid E-Learning Studio Second Edition Pro with two eligible upgrades. You upgraded to Studio '09 in October of 2008. In June of 2012 you used your final upgrade for Studio as a way to convert the license to Storyline. That would be the two eligible upgrades. We don't have an upgrade process from Studio to Storyline. The reason that you were able to get Storyline was by using your final upgrade to do so. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks Justin,

It was not a license conversion as we were told that was not possible. Storyline was paid for - I have just responded to your email with transaction details.

I posted this in a seperate thread, because I didn't want to sidetrack this one - but it seems to have jumped the track a bit anyways.  Here's my 2c on the matter.

At the risk of offending some folks, I've seen a bit of criticizing on the boards today about the price to upgrade, and discussion about should it have been and upgrade or patch the current version. With the amount of new things they have added, I feel this was definitely more than just a patch.

In this world of software, we are constantly being charged for new features, and fixes to previous "bugs".  Look at Windows and Adobe - There are new versions of their software about every 2 to 3 years.  And in some of those cases, all we've gotten is a prettier wrapper. Its been 2 years since Storyline went live, so while it feels "early" or "too soon", its right in line with other software updates.  And given the number of changes, I'm fine with a new version.

Did I cringe at the idea of having to ask my boss to pay for the newest version?  You bet.  Especially when she has to pay for 2 licenses.  But I think it is worth it, and the features that it adds is worth the price of admission.

So, as with any software or computer upgrade, you have to ask yourself - can I live with the product I have?  I know many users who continued to work in Studio '09 because they couldn't afford, or didn't want to make the jump to Storyline.  I know some that continue to use Studio '09 even with Studio '13 out.

No matter the version you use, one thing I'm sure we can all agree upon is that the staff and community support for all the Articulate products is amazing, and the answer to any question is just one post away.

Joe, I hope your boss agrees to pay for your upgrade. If I had a boss to pay for mine, I guess I wouldn't be as concerned as I am about the upgrade price (or the $5,800 I have shelled out to Articulate so far).

Hi,

Interesting thread.  I love Articulate for the ease-of-use.  In fact, it's allowed me to build my career in eLearning development.   There is no way I would want to code what I'm able to easily build in Articulate.   And the community, and the blogs?  Priceless.  Articulate cannot be beat for this sort of thing.  

That said, I do have some issues with the way feature requests are handled.

No software can do everything, but there are some things (such as the option to select compression or not) that should not be billed as a new feature--that should of been in Storyline from the start.  To have to pay for something like that is laughable.

There are many similar things that you don't notice until you notice.   And the stock reply is submit a feature request.  And then you hear nothing.  No road-map shared with loyal customers, no word on whether your suggestion will make it to the next release.  Just radio silence from the Articulate Mothership.

To contrast, my LMS vendor (TrainCaster) has implemented numerous feature requests I've suggested--as long as they benefit a majority of their users, they are glad to do it.   THAT is how you provide a software or a service.  My company works in much the same manner.  We have new releases every few months, and we integrate feature requests that make sense for everybody.

I think if Articulate was on more of an agile development cycle, issues would be addressed sooner and people would feel they are receiving better value for the price of admission.

Anyway, I'm grateful for tools like Storyline and Studio.  They make our lives easier and I feel lucky to be working in a time that makes tools like this available.  =)

I love how most people who are freelancers, or small businesses (like myself) are disgusted at the price of Storyline 2. Yes its a new product, with new code etc... but some of the features they implement, like Hiding the Next button dynamically or copy and pasting layers, should be implemented in Storyline 1. There should be a great incentive to upgrade to another product, and the product should differ greatly and offer something totally different, instead of a shiny new border and a few updates. The price tag is unbelievable, and knowing that the small features they upgraded wont be ever implemented in Storyline 1, forces you to upgrade. Instead of making it worthwhile, it makes it necessary.

I'm sorry Ros, but what other product on earth works that way? Most of the software I use is not completely redesigned each time they issue a new release.  

As as a freelancer I just look at this as a cost of doing business and write it off as a business expense. 

First of all I do love Articulate Storyline despite all its glitches and missing features, it's the e-Learning software standard for e-Learning developers much like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator is for graphic designers, but I do feel like SL2 should had been a free software update for SL1 and not a stand-alone product, how would you feel if you had to pay for an upgrade every time Microsoft released new software updates?............ exactly, that's how I feel, and let's face it all those eye candy, time saving features should had been included in SL1 in the first place, and don't get me started with missing features likes issuing and printing certificates, it's just beyond me why this feature is still missing in SL2, after all this is an e-Learning software is it not? Anyway enough of that.....

If you, Articulate, want to increase revenue from an existing product, you could have created an Articulate Storyline Shop where we, users,  could buy plug-ins/add-ons for features like, Motion Paths, Animation Painter and yes creation and printing certificates; and include features like: Undockable/redockable panels, AutoRecovery, Custom bullets and numbering, Sliders etc as free with a software update, it very much feels like you took a look at the "Add a feature request" form and thought, "Lets put all these requests from users in the same SL1 box but we'll paint the box in a different glossy paint and we'll name it SL2"

I kind of feel Articulate as a company is following the same business model of Adobe, where they know they are the industry standard and pretty much can and will do whatever they like, knowing professional users will have no option but to upgrade, just take a look at Adobe Creative Cloud where if you want the new and latest software product you have to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to be able to use their software, and yes I'm not very happy with Adobe either, hopefully it won't come to that with Articulate

I am sure many of you will disagree with me, specially Super Hero users, but in all honesty all the new features don't make for a new stand-alone product, one that is not fully backwards compatible with SL1, at least I can open a file created in Photoshop CS4 with my Photoshop CS6, but I guess this topic is for another thread.

Oscar, you can open a file created in SL1 in SL2. Just not the other way around.

+1