Magix acquired
Xara, developers of the wonderful
Xtreme graphics package, earlier this year. I, along with many others, were thrilled last fall when Xara began beta testing a more powerful "Pro" version of Xtreme 3 and eagerly purchased a licence in Dec. 2006 when it was released. The Magix takeover was announced about three weeks later and in mid-February a notice went out alerting existing customers that new versions of Xtreme, both Standard and Pro, were due out in March and that these would paid updates (from version 3.02 to 3.2). We were offered a pre-release price of $39 and change. I passed on this offer feeling that being asked to pay for bug fixes to a program that was brand new two and half months earlier, that I had helped to beta test, and that I had paid handsomely for, was "taking the piss". Recently, I decided, for some unfathomable reason, to check the cost of "upgrading" my version - 3.02 - to the current version - 3.2x. It had gone up to $59, although at the moment I note that they are offering a 25% discount on upgrades through October 3, so it would cost me $44. What's alarming is that upgrading from earlier versions of Xtreme is more expensive, up to $127 (
with the discount applied), so that when version 4 rolls out I assume it will cost considerably more money to upgrade. I think that this is an appalling abuse of the existing customer base. I put this down at the time to Magix seeking to recoup as quickly as possible some of the purchase price by gouging Xara's loyal customers and this looks to be the case.
Well, rant over. I figured I might as well earn my reputation for being on a
vendetta 
...
