Posted on 14th Dec 2011 @ 11:24 AM

EDIT: 01/02/2012 - Update can be found here.

Adobe have just announced a huge and sweeping change to their long held upgrade policy, as part of their attempt to move to a subscription model.  Previously you could upgrade to the latest version from any of the three previous version (so to version 5 from 2, 3 or 4 for the same price, for example).  This has changed.

The short version is that after Dec 31st this year Adobe will no longer offer upgrades for versions older than one previous.  That is - to get CS6 on the vastly cheaper upgrade pricing you must be on Adobe CS5 ot CS5.5 products before the end of this year.

Unless you see yourself moving to the subscription model of $50+/month, upgrade now if you haven't already - use these products.  We can order the entire range so if something particualr you need is not listed then let us know and we will get you the price.

Here's Adobe's direct info on the issue:

 

What is Adobe's upgrade pricing policy?

With the availability of Adobe CS6 solutions in 2012, Adobe will no longer offer upgrade pricing to customers who are on older versions of Creative Suite dating more than one version back. Customers on versions of Creative Suite CS4, CS3, CS2 and older will not be eligible for upgrade pricing for CS6 unless they have upgraded to CS5 or CS5.5 before CS6 is released.

 

Why is Adobe changing its upgrade policy for CS6?

In October 2011, Adobe introduced Adobe Creative Cloud, a complete solution of cloud-based creative services, applications, and community that will enable customers to create, publish, and share across channels and mediums. Creative Cloud will be offered for as low as US$49.99 per month for an annual plan, providing our customers maximum flexibility and lower cost of entry. 

Given this innovative new offering at such an attractive price, we expect that many of our customers will become Creative Cloud members. To that end, we are simplifying our perpetual license offerings for Creative Suite. This change is designed to streamline our offerings while simplifying the choices our customers need to make. Customers may choose to keep their Creative Suite perpetual licenses current in order to receive upgrade pricing when new versions of Creative Suite are released, or move to Adobe Creative Cloud when it becomes available, at an extremely attractive and affordable price.