NI have announced they will no longer activate discontinued products

[Forgotten]

Any software NI are no longer going to support should have the CP removed and be offered for free download.

They are a business, not a charity...

But, in the cases of these products, their business is concluded, no?
They have their money, the customer has their purchase, and now one side of that equation is being left empty, with no more 'business' to be had....

It’s still their intellectual property containing proprietary code.

[goldenanalog]

...

[bharris22]

You are hired Mr Harris...

Do you work pro bono ?

Ha! I'm sure that is probably a factor in their calculations, too - no one individual will suffer enough damages that it would be worthwhile for them to hire a lawyer. Most class action lawsuits would require a very large number of plaintiffs or a very large potential recovery for a lawyer to consider taking the case - neither of which I would presume are present here. We need a rich person who would fund the suit just because it is the right thing to do regardless of cost.

[highkoo]

Any software NI are no longer going to support should have the CP removed and be offered for free download.

They are a business, not a charity...

But, in the cases of these products, their business is concluded, no?
They have their money, the customer has their purchase, and now one side of that equation is being left empty, with no more 'business' to be had....

It’s still their intellectual property containing proprietary code.

But code that is now, as per their own choice, worthless to them as a product.
Anyway, no issue of code or ownership really needs to get in the way of them doing right by the paying customers. Versions could be unlocked and appropriately licensed.
An unlocked version could be provided free to the entire music making community, and it would really only benefit NI. Im not sure what the downsides would be.

[machinesworking]

SC doesn't work on newer versions of macOS, is not secure enough, and doesn't and cannot support RAS3 within its framework and back-end. So no, it couldn't have been kept that way.

OK sue me if I'm gettin this wrong, but NI are stopping supporting older OS users who have older versions of their DAW because?

This is my gripe, I don't expect NI to support Absynth 2 on Mojave and they don't, it's irrelevant to the discussion. What's relevant is that someone running Snow Leopard or XP on an older machine is not going to be able to use their older authorized NI software that's compatible with it, if something goes wrong.

The sad part is this isn't at all surprising to me as a long term NI user, they have a clear history of abandoning older software for even the most trivial of support, and it's always someone or something else's fault.

[machinesworking]

Oh, and the real solution has always been there, on special request hand out unlocked versions with tons of the end users information in it, i.e. a personalized version, so if end user X decides to warz it, they get nailed for it. This eliminates the threat of freeware, and empowers the user, but I don't expect NI to do this, because they would rather hand out vouchers...

[Forgotten]

Any software NI are no longer going to support should have the CP removed and be offered for free download.

They are a business, not a charity...

But, in the cases of these products, their business is concluded, no?
They have their money, the customer has their purchase, and now one side of that equation is being left empty, with no more 'business' to be had....

It’s still their intellectual property containing proprietary code.

But code that is now, as per their own choice, worthless to them as a product.
Anyway, no issue of code or ownership really needs to get in the way of them doing right by the paying customers. Versions could be unlocked and appropriately licensed.
An unlocked version could be provided free to the entire music making community, and it would really only benefit NI. Im not sure what the downsides would be.

The downsides would be taking resources away from development of current projects, and paying those resources to make significant changes to products that undoubtedly have an older codebase, which often makes development tasks much more difficult. If I ran a company that recently downsized, I would not make that decision if I wanted it to stay afloat.

[burnt circuit]

F L A S H B A C K

June 07, 2011

Native Instruments is discontinuing its Kore system, it has said. Following speculation on the company's forum, NI has confirmed that, while maintenance updates will be forthcoming for existing users, sales of Kore products will end from today.

A statement on the Kore page of NI's website reads: "Native Instruments has decided to discontinue the Kore product range, in order to utilize its development resources in the best interest of its wider userbase.

"Kore 2 will be supported through further maintenance updates for the time being, with 64-bit plug-in versions of Kore 2 for Windows and Mac OS X currently in development. Technical support for Kore will also continue to be available.

"All owners of the full versions of Kore 1 or Kore 2 (excluding software-only versions) can purchase Maschine at a special crossgrade price of $449 / €399."

When NI launched the first version of Kore in 2006, it was billed as a 'hub' that would enable you to browse all of your plug-ins in one place and tweak them with the Kore hardware controller. Kore 2 was a slightly different proposition: this shipped with 418 sounds of its own, making it a self-contained workstation.

However, this is as far as the Kore story will go; it seems that NI has decided to shift its focus to Maschine, which will have Komplete-specific sound browsing features from version 1.7 (hence the crossgrade offer).

UPDATE: Native Instruments has now posted a longer statement on its forum. Here's the text in full:
In order to utilize its development resources in the best interest of its wider userbase, Native Instruments has decided to discontinue the Kore product range.

As an immediate consequence, Kore 2 and all Kore-based instruments and effects will no longer be offered for sale. The Kore Player will also be no longer available for download.

The Kore 2 software will be supported through further maintenance updates for the time being. Two updates that will optimize the compatibility with current setups are currently in preparation: The first update will integrate the latest engine versions of Absynth 5, FM8, Guitar Rig 4, Massive, Kontakt 4 and Reaktor 5, and is scheduled for the third quarter of this year; a further update will provide 64bit plugin versions for Windows and Mac OS X, and is scheduled for the fourth quarter.

Technical support for Kore will also continue to be available.

Future versions of the Komplete bundle and of individual NI instruments might no longer be fully compatible with Kore, and will not include special preset versions for its sound browser.

Development resources will be refocused from Kore to Maschine and its popular instrument hosting features. Maschine will be enhanced with specific preset management and parameter mapping features for Komplete and individual NI instruments in the upcoming free 1.7 update, and will be further expanded in its role as the central NI instruments host in the future.

Owners of the full versions of Kore 1 or Kore 2 (excluding software-only versions) who are interested in Maschine can purchase a special crossgrade price of $449 / €399 until the end of the year.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/na ... ore-457945

[digitalboytn]

Ahh...the Kore debacle....

Yes...I remember it well and my memory is very clear...

I had two Kore systems and two of those controllers...

Kore was the heart of their integrated flagship system, but they decided to axe it because it was getting too hard (ie : expensive) to update...

Wow...

What's the reason given for wanting to stop the older authorisations now ?

Ahh ...that's right

[dune_rave]

they should discontinue all absynth version. it's sad to say, and i tried to keep absynth5 and use it, but today in 2020 its just not enough.

[Local Man]

they should discontinue all absynth version. it's sad to say, and i tried to keep absynth5 and use it, but today in 2020 its just not enough.

The f**k are you talking about?

[ATS]

they should discontinue all absynth version. it's sad to say, and i tried to keep absynth5 and use it, but today in 2020 its just not enough.

please don't give so many details as to why!

[Tj Shredder]

Of course it does, you cannot expect them to go back and manually hack over 60 products (most of which won't even install on latest Macs, for example) and stop the presses on everything else. That is not the only way to resolve this.

Really?! Is that how NI coders work?!
It's a call for one function passing it parameters. This function depending on an algorithm, gives a result and then passing this result to the user. It runs on the server side, make it run locally!
But do you have this code? Do you have capable coders want to work with that? Or do you (the CEO) have the will to pay for that change? This is the latest question is the real question. Now try to cover this with a Trump style won't convince us! You (the CEO) are just deceiving yourself. No, we are not stupid!

If it would be that easy, it would be too easy for those who want to crack it. Fact is you have no idea about the complexity of the problem. Its even that complex, that NI did not oversee it completely themself...
I met Tommy Haas decades ago, after he coded the Spectral Delay. Do you know what kind of agreement they signed with him? How should you, this sort of thing is plastered with NDAs.
I always think it would be the best for all sides to open source abandoned software. It happened with Surge, coded by Claes from Bitwig and is a huge success.
But there are more people involved to sort this out than are on the payroll of NI. Work and time is needed, please acknowledge that before you speak as „we...“!
We are not all stupid...

[ATS]

Of course it does, you cannot expect them to go back and manually hack over 60 products (most of which won't even install on latest Macs, for example) and stop the presses on everything else. That is not the only way to resolve this.

Really?! Is that how NI coders work?!
It's a call for one function passing it parameters. This function depending on an algorithm, gives a result and then passing this result to the user. It runs on the server side, make it run locally!
But do you have this code? Do you have capable coders want to work with that? Or do you (the CEO) have the will to pay for that change? This is the latest question is the real question. Now try to cover this with a Trump style won't convince us! You (the CEO) are just deceiving yourself. No, we are not stupid!

If it would be that easy, it would be too easy for those who want to crack it. Fact is you have no idea about the complexity of the problem. Its even that complex, that NI did not oversee it completely themself...
I met Tommy Haas decades ago, after he coded the Spectral Delay. Do you know what kind of agreement they signed with him? How should you, this sort of thing is plastered with NDAs.
I always think it would be the best for all sides to open source abandoned software. It happened with Surge, coded by Claes from Bitwig and is a huge success.
But there are more people involved to sort this out than are on the payroll of NI. Work and time is needed, please acknowledge that before you speak as „we...“!
We are not all stupid...

OK I gotta know what a "Trump style" is

[Sascha Franck]

SC doesn't work on newer versions of macOS,

This is irrelevant. Once OS changes are the reason for NIs software to not work anymore, NI is off the hook.