Grievance regarding Komplete Ultimate 12 Update Price

So I bought Komplete ultimate last year (07 Oct 2017) for $1,199. Now Kontakt 12 is being released for the same price I spent on KU11 last year. However, if I want to upgrade to 12, it costs an additional $399, bringing Kontakt 12 to a total price of $1,598 for me. Does anyone else feel as mistreated in this upgrade scheme as I do?

 

What is Kontakt 12? Actual version 5.8.1 - there is a pre-order to Kontakt 6 for € 99.
Or do you mean Komplete 12? I never own a Komplete version - it's way too much. I like fiddling in Reaktor.

 

That's why you wait a few years and update when KOMPLETE 14 comes out so you can upgrade for the same $399,- It's a steal then!
Or you can wait untill the summer sale somewhere probably around june and upgrade for $199,-
Or you can just buy the single new synth/instrument/effect you really, really want for $99,- and sell it later when you're upgrading KOMPLETE.
So to answer your question, no I don't feel mistreated at all.

 

I have a question regarding the same, but a bit more complex.

1. I bought a Maschine mk3, which I don't want to sell. It cam with Komplete Select.
2. I upgraded to Komplete 11 Ultimate.
3. Since then I bought also some Maschine Expansions, all FX packs released this year, plus the TRK-01.
4. I bought a Maschine Jam, which came with additional 6 expansions... interestingly half of them not transferable.

So my question is, if Spitfire Audio (for instance) is able to use an "intelligent shopping form" with user's profile, why it doesn't work for NI. I mean, in my situation, if I'd like to upgrade to Komplete 12 Ultimate, it simply ignores my products and order history.
And this forces, probably not only me but many users, to get rid of some of the stuffs he owns and pay less for the full version, than the upgrade that NI offers... and maybe buy some things back secondhand.

Furthermore, the offer is not even personal, because they offer the same upgrade price for every existing user. I mean, yes, I understand it's relatively "cheap", but this is not a loyal approach...

 

Only Komplete and Kontakt, and some hardware units, qualify for upgrades to other Komplete packages.

NI's recommendation is actually to sell your leftover licences.

(I don't necessarily agree with that, but this is what it says in their FAQ).
https://support.native-instruments....ducts-that-are-Included-in-KOMPLETE-ULTIMATE-

 

So it's "cheap" but not "loyal", what was the question again?

I mean, it's great advice.
I bought Massive, FM8, some Kontakt Piano and Traktor somewhere back in 2009 during sales.
Years later I sold them all easily for around €300,- and bought Komplete 9 with it on sale for the same price. You only have to have some patience and a few braincells to get an awesome value out of NI products imo.

 

So if you have ultimate 11 you have to pay 400$to upgrade to 12? That seems way to expensive after spending full price for 11.... and then to rub salt in the wound owners of 8 get the same price.

I think it should only be 200 for owners of 11. People who update more frequently should get more of a discount.... and then ultimate isn’t even ultimate any more. You have to get ultimate limited edition to get everything???

This doesn’t even include the full versions of the symphony series. I purchased strummed acoustics 2 and sunburst... and no additional discount for that. I also purchased a s61mk2.

People say that Apple is ridiculous with pricing. They are nothing compared to native instruments.


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What many of us do is skip every other year with KOMPLETE until there are sufficient new items to make it cost effective. So, 7 then 9 then 11 then 13.

 

In my case i do want Kontakt update, so might just buy that single update.

 

Yeah. I don’t really want to get stuff when it’s 3 years old and a newer version is about to come out... other plugin makers seem much more reasonable with updates


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I wish NI would consider bringing back the "Komplete Care" solution they had a decade or so ago. A yearly subscription which ensured you would get all updates within that year. I think that's more fair.

 

Wait, you'd rather pay to loan some software for a year than actually own it?
Or are you suggesting paying more so you get updates for a year?
You realise you actually get free updates already, right?
If you bought Massive back in 2008 you'd have had an update LAST MONTH, thats 10 years of free updates..
Are you trolling or what?

 

I meant upgrades, obviously.

A quick google search for «komplete care» would have given you the answer, but you chose to invest your time on a rant instead.

 

But for the first time I realize that I have two different user accounts here...wow. That’s actually quite funny. one from 2003 and one from 2005. Wow.

 

You missed the word “relatively” and also the quotation mark of cheap.

Loyal... imagine you have existing customers who bought your most expensive product and additional softwares (not to mention HW). And then you release an update and you sell that update for the same price for old customers who maybe just bought a Kompete Ultimate 8 second-hand...
...and suggesting the same to me who bought 70% of the new instruments already.

Even a small difference would make a big difference among existing customers. Esteem / incentive approach.

 

FWIW.. I think NI should do something where if you bought K11 after June 2018, they should honor upgrade to 12 free.

 

Wait for the sales
Personally I would of brought a controller and got ku11 discounted that way

 

I agree with you 100%. When we are not selling our old stuff because we use it in a studio where we need to use separate pieces of hardware, we still get the same list of free, "with purchase" items, even though we own, all Maschine MK2, Maschine Studio, Maschine Jam, Komplete Kontrol S6, etc.

I also end up buying most of the Maschine EXPANSIONS immediately because I want them for the same reasons someone said above -- that they get old after a while and I want to keep them current. So when the upgrade sales come, I already have all but two of the Maschine expansions and what they offer with the limited Komplete 12 is no good for me because I own them. The ones I didn't buy were, just ok, hence I'm asking for a morsel, not an expensive software free gift.

I also buy some of the things like the strum guitar instruments and other current MUST-HAVES, and even if I have decided to carefully wait two or three years for the big upgrades, I've already put so much into my NI gear and software that a $600 upgrade/update is way too much for someone who almost has all of the NI arsenal software and hardware. I'm talkin' constant purchases since way back in Komplete 8. They should AT LEAST let us choose the expansions we want. Perhaps even recognize that we are only missing less than a handful of the software pieces and give us a more tailored deal. I think that is what Lipaz means by showing appreciation to loyalty — we, loyal customers who constantly buy.

Another thing that ends up happening, is that if I wait for the next couple of years for a major upgrade, but by the time the upgrade comes. the software I wanted is still. . . cute, but someone else got me excited about a new product (from another company) that I am no longer interested in the items that would make a Komplete Ultimate upgrade exciting. I need to be courted. I need to feel loved. lol. Seriously, I wouldn't mind some loyalty. Oh, good God, I sound like Trump. You guys know what Imean.

 

My advice is to not only wait for the sales but to wait every three years for a sale. The truth is if you already have Komplete ultimate as I do, upgrading will not improve the quality of your music. NI is like Apple, you are only getting a couple new features each upgrade. It’s only necessary to upgrade when the software is too old for your computer.

 

I just thought of something: would people stay with Native Instruments if they switched to a subscription plan like Avid Pro Tools? We’re paying about the same amount of money if not more, to keep our NI software up-to-date.