What's happening with Topaz?

I’ve been a long time customer of Topaz, but I recently been wondering what is happening to them. They were once a rock solid, boundary pushing company and when they released new products they were great right off the bat. They had a fantastic free upgrades for life policy, which offset the very high initial costs of their products.

First of all, they seem to be rush releasing a number of new products that are no way near ready. I’ve never known so many updates for products in such a short space of time. For example Studio 2 has had 15 updates in less than 12 weeks, and Mask AI is already on v1.0.2 only a few days after release. A lot of these updates are for basic things that should have been picked up before release with a decent QA/QC program.

Secondly, what’s happened to their “free upgrades for life” policy? Mask AI is clearly an update in the same vein as Sharpen AI, Adjust AI and DeNoise AI - so why isn’t it free? Well apparently according to a response I received from Topaz Customer Support it’s a new, “from the ground up” release. Could have fooled me I’m afraid! Mask AI is only marginally better than ReMask 5 in my tests and is no way worth the “special price” of $49.99. It seems Topaz are starting to turn their back on their great upgrade policy and ultimately turning their back on their loyal customers.

I’m beginning to lose faith in Topaz, something I’d never thought I’d do. I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, but it’s not like them.

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