Some questions about the STEAM versions of Substance Designer/Painter 2020

[splattenburgers]

So here's my backstory: I bought Substance indie pack a couple of years ago on steam which included the 2018 version of both Painter and Designer. Since then however I moved on to the subscription model which includes access to substance source so I no longer use the steam versions of these programs.

However as of recently I've decided I want to start reducing my monthly expenses which means relying less on subscription based services. In addition, now that Adobe has obtained Substance I'm concerned about the future of these packages. The Creative Cloud isn't actually supported in my country you see unless you use a hacky workaround so if Painter/Designer moves over to the cloud I might not even be able to use them at all in an easy manner. So I have couple of questions:

1. Are there major differences between the new 2020 versions and the 2018 versions I have already? These are expensive pieces of software (300 bucks if I decide to upgrade both) but on the other hand so is paying 20 dollars a month for the subscription method.

2. Are these steam versions permanent licenses? If I buy the latest 2020 versions on steam and then later Adobe moves the substance apps over to the creative cloud will I still be able to keep using the steam versions? And if so how long would they be supported?

[Jeremie Noguer]

You can link your Steam account to your Substance3d account.
That way you'll be able to upgrade your licenses for $75 each. This will upgrade your perpetual license with an additional year of free updates. This offer will be available until October 2020. After that date, new licenses will only be subscription based but your perpetual license will never expire. Your Steam licenses will never expire either.

As for changes, you can refer to these pages in the documentation to have an overview of what was added in the last year and a half: https://docs.substance3d.com/spdoc/release-notes-156565522.html

[splattenburgers]

You can link your Steam account to your Substance3d account.
That way you'll be able to upgrade your licenses for $75 each. This will upgrade your perpetual license with an additional year of free updates. This offer will be available until October 2020. After that date, new licenses will only be subscription based but your perpetual license will never expire. Your Steam licenses will never expire either.

As for changes, you can refer to these pages in the documentation to have an overview of what was added in the last year and a half: https://docs.substance3d.com/spdoc/release-notes-156565522.html

I upgraded the licenses but the steam versions still say they are the 2018 versions. Is there some way to have the steam copies be updated so that I don't have to download newer versions directly from the site?

[Jeremie Noguer]

Unfortunately not, we recommend downloading the Substance Launcher to keep your Substance tools up to date like you would on Steam.