ugh...no. As a business owner I completely understand the decision here; but this is such a great piece of software, but most importantly the team behind the software is the most valuable asset here. Acquisitions historically have huge implications for teams, and when you're talking about the incredible team at Allegorithmic and the culture established there- that now completely changes the DNA of the company like it or not.
That isn't to say Adobe is a "bad" company, that it is not. However, it is a different company, with a different culture and it will definitely show and affect our favorite texturing software as the acquisition matures over time. To think differently is to be unrealistically optimistic, this is the reality of the software industry.
Not to make this post super long, but humor me because I find this part personally and professionally interesting.
The early adopters of Allegorithmic's software (which is the critical group to win over if you apply the Law of Diffusion of Innovations) successfully helped Alleg move to win over the next key group (the early majority); which has been historically the trail of success that has led Substance software to become the industry leader in CG texturing software (the reason why an "old guard" like Adobe decided not to compete and acquire instead).
The whole reason Alleg has been so successful (if you follow economical theories and principles from people like Simon Sinek), is because Alleg has/had a clear mission that resonated with a key group of equally passionate users/customers, the early adopters. As this group (which includes myself and just about every one of my colleagues in the AAA games industry that textures for a living or hobby) backed the software and spread awareness to the other groups on the bell curve, Alleg went from obscure and unknown startup to the industry leader in texturing. A key part of the success is the "authenticity" of Alleg's message in regards to being a disruptor, indie, underdog, and passionate team of devs changing the texturing software industry- something that all early adopters bought into and supported. There are two key things in regards to authenticity; you have to voice the message of authenticity, and then follow with action.
Actions that Alleg took to prove authenticity to early adopters:
- very flexible licensing terms
- relatively cheap price for great software
- great customer support
- innovation/fast and impressive cadence of updates
- value added through a great subscription model
- great communication with their community (early adopters make up the majority of the comms on the forums- this goes for all software; larger groups like early majority, late majority, and laggards won't make the extra effort to register, sign in, and spend time writing forum posts, etc.)
Once an acquisition happens (in any case, not just this one) the list of actions that "prove" authenticity to the early adopters get muddied and the company's message/mission no longer resonates with this group. For proof of this, just look at the majority negative/disapproval feedback on the forums, which is being voiced by a majority of the "early adopters" group. I'm not saying acquisitions are bad and not beneficial in anyway, but like with anything there are pros and cons. Alleg got a strong following and achieved business/market success due to the company developing a culture and identity as an under dog indie startup, disrupting the CG texturing software industry, creating innovation only possible by both having a clear mission statement of identity AND being independent from the usual red tape and conservative principles that tend to govern large industry titans and corporations, like Adobe (again not bad, just a different way of doing business).
There's a deeper topic here but I don't want to delve into it too far as this wall of text is already pretty high. I just find this part of the business world to be really fascinating and I wanted to break down what this acquisition means and why people (including myself) are reacting the way we are. I think the most passionate of the early adopter group feel somehow "betrayed" because they feel that Alleg has done a 180 of their original mission statement/identity overnight; and people will oversimplify the reasoning to something easily digestible, like the idea that the move was solely motivated by money- which it never is as simple as that.
As an early adopter and happy customer and enthusiast (I'm one of those devs, like many I'm sure, that gathers people around the water cooler at the studio telling people "have you used Substance yet? It's so awesome!") I will continue using Substance products while it continues to "wow" me. But like many others, if there's another group that comes up with a stellar product that is driven by the culture and identity that Allegorithmic originally won me over with years ago, they may end up acquiring my business and loyalty; and so the world continues turning.
Congrats to Allegorithmic and looking forward to a positive and great 2019!
