Future of Storyline3

Nov 06, 2017

I'm looking to make an investment for my company and was curious on the future of the legacy SL family versus the SL360 solution.  Is Articulate intending to maintain Sl3 and planning to release a SL4 or is it intending to migrate all versions to the 360 platform?

Is there any notable differences currently between SL3 and SL360?

Will Articulate ever release another SDK for SL or is that a thing of the past?

Thanks,

Rick

8 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rick, 

Storyline 3 is the same as Storyline 360 but without Articulate 360 subscription features, such as Content Library and Articulate Review. This means you can open Storyline 3 and Storyline 360 projects interchangeably, which is great when you’re collaborating with other Storyline users.

As Storyline 360 continues to evolve, there will be new features that exist only in Storyline 360. This means you won’t be able to open Storyline 360 projects in Storyline 3 if they include new features specific to Storyline 360. You’ll still be able to open Storyline 360 projects in Storyline 3 if they don’t have Storyline 360–specific features, and you’ll always be able to open Storyline 3 projects in Storyline 360.

As for the future of Storyline, we know that a number of users won't be able to transition to Articulate 360 due to the cloud/subscription set up - so we're continuing to support perpetual. As for what that looks like or if there will be a new version, we don't share information about that piece of our product roadmap. 

Michael Anderson
Ashley Terwilliger
As Storyline 360 continues to evolve, there will be new features that exist only in Storyline 360.

 

That line is a bit disconcerting, as it sounds like some new functionality will not be added to Storyline 3 in the future. If there will be no Storyline 4, then it would be time to start looking at other products. It would be nice if Articulate was a little more transparent about this part of the roadmap, so that customers can plan ahead with their budgets, if they will include the acquisition of and training on new software to replace Storyline.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Michael,

Storyline 360 will always be the most up to date version. There were a few new features added to Storyline 3 after it was released, but the majority of updates you'll see in Storyline 3 will focus on fixes. 

As I said, we're committed to supporting our customers who need to stay on perpetual software.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Kelvin,

If you need something more official than this forum discussion I'm happy to email you with the same information. Just let me know. 

Rick, I understand that completely. As we have more information to share, please know that we'll keep you updated by posting here in the E-Learning Heroes community and sending emails to existing users.

Becca Levan

Thanks for following up, Simantika!

We have no plans to develop a new perpetual version of Storyline (aka Storyline 4). If that changes, we'll let folks know.

For now, we'll continue to stick with our goals of updating Storyline 3 approximately twice a year with bug fixes, security improvements, and enhancements to critical features like accessibility.