The Right Time To Invest

We at Active Technologies believe that the planned direction of the Amiga and the new Amiga technology is the correct one, but believe that we, as a community, need to invest in software development now, not dream about the future.

"Great!" was our reaction to the press release at WOA 98. "New Amiga Technology, new Amiga's, within our grasp". Let's all start saving now - well, of course it will be the very latest technology and we are all desperate for that. Hm, hold on. Aren't we forgetting something? Future technology, be it developed by Amiga or whoever, is always something to marvel, will always make short-term waves within the industry, but is nothing without software, good quality software. Not software released a few months after the technology, software released at the same time as the technology.

I truly hope that as many 'classic Amiga' developers as possible buy the forthcoming Amiga development machine (or equivalent hardware) and develop for the new OS. However, remember that these companies or individuals need to live, they need to keep in business, they need to justify this development. Although sometimes we seem to work on dreams alone, development requires money. Money obtained from sales from classic Amiga software.

It's no lie that current Amiga productivity software (even Internet software development) is decreasing, classic Amiga developers are becoming disillusioned, whilst piracy is increasing (or remaining static). For instance, we receive more pirated registrations (by email) for NetConnect v2 than real registrations. Many pirate STFax Professional users, who use the unstable cracked version, even email the author complaining that 'their' copy doesn't work, or that they are not able to upgrade. Many users believe that the money they invested in the Amiga hardware they are using today, is enough to 'keep the market alive'. It isn't. I find it funny that these users actually really believe that we, as developers, are 'making a lot of money, so some piracy won't affect their income/development'. Well, perhaps a few years ago sales were good enough to justify this 'excuse', but not now, and it is getting worse.

This isn't yet another anti-piracy speech. All we ask, is that we, along with other current classic Amiga developers, fully intend to support the new Amiga technology, but you guys, the people using classic Amiga's, need to support us now and up until the new technology is released.

We all want to get there, let's get there together.