Clip Studio Paint – Update Pass & Subscription model 2022 (2023)
Clip Studio Paint – Moving to a subscription model for free upgrades.
Whether you are an amateur or a professional, everyone needs a creative outlet from time to time. Even if you don’t know, painting will be your new addiction! The best way to get inspired is to have different examples of different styles and techniques. If you want a great way to get started with art and painting as a hobby, you might have selected Clip Studio Paint (CSP) as a favorite program for drawing & illustrations.
CSP has been around for ten years, and many people using it usually consider it because it has a perpetual license as one of the options. But the perpetual license from CSP has more bang for the buck. Ideally, a perpetual license allows you to own software without any monthly subscription, but the updates/upgrades are usually not free. You either need to pay the full price of the upgrade, or the software vendor may allow a special price for the existing owners of the previous version.
As for CSP, they always allowed free upgrades. Yes, you are right. But from 2023 onwards, things are going to change. So here are some of the crucial points you want to know which come from the announcement CSP made on their website.
Will CSP 1.0 owners be given a free upgrade when a CSP 2.0 is released?
NO. From 2023 CSP is stopping the free upgrades, which it has been doing for the last ten years.
Will CSP 1.0 owners get stability & security fixes?
YES. All CSP 1.0 owners will get stability updates and bug fixes until CSP 3.0 is released. It is unclear when CSP 3.0 will be released, but when that happens, all CSP 1.0 customers will have to get to CSP 2.0 level to qualify for security and stability fixes.
How long can I run CSP 1.0?
You can run CSP 1.0 for as long as possible, provided the OS platform supports it. However, you will not get security and stability updates once CSP 3.0 is released.
Why do I need to pay full for a perpetual license if I want to upgrade from CSP 1.0 to 2.0?
CSP is also releasing Update Pass from 2023 onwards. If you do not want to pay full for CSP 2.0 perpetual license but are interested in some or all of the new features that it came with, then you can buy Update Pass, which will be valid for One year from the date of purchase. During that period, you will get all the new feature updates. The pricing for the Update Pass is not released yet.
Product update flowchart
There are two types of updates:
Feature updates: e.g. 2.0.0, 2.1.0 (the second digit signifies a feature update)
Stability updates: e.g. 2.0.1, 2.1.1 (the third digit signifies a fix for a bug, or support for a new OS update, etc. with no additional features)
Conclusion
There is no need to worry about this announcement, as seems to be the case on Twitter.
This change will allow Clip Studio Paint to develop newer features faster as their development will be fuelled by additional revenue. The artists and hobbyists will be benefitted from this as well. Moreover, it’s not a forced upgrade; if you see value in the new features that you need for your use case or workflow, then you can purchase Update Pass as and when required to get those features.
