Today we're excited to announce a new direction in our product and pricing that we hope you’re going to love. Beginning next Monday the 18th, we’ll be combining Shotgun, Revolver (Review & Approval) and Tank (Asset Management & Pipeline Toolkit) into an integrated package with our API for only $49/user/month.
Why are we doing this? Well, we asked our clients what they needed from us, and this is it.
Seven years ago, we originally focused on production tracking and collaboration. That’s “Shotgun”. But over time, we noticed our clients struggling with other parts of the pipeline and decided to invest in new tools specifically for artists and supervisors: Revolver and Tank. Revolver is focused on making the review process much easier and faster, and Tank is focused on making it easy to hook up all the tools in your pipeline with artist and pipeline dev friendly apps. Both are built right on top of the Shotgun platform.
Revolver and Tank were getting really exciting, with many clients reporting significant changes in how artists and supervisors were able to rock their work. So we started preparing for the official product releases. But how much should we charge? And they should be separate products, right?
We wanted to nail this, so we decided to just ask our clients for their input in case our guts were wrong. First we surveyed over 400 studios. We asked about packaging of the products, what our priorities should be, and then we asked about a fair price, crossing our fingers it wouldn’t be “free” (it would be hard to keep investing aggressively in development and support at that price!).
What we learned surprised us: almost everyone wanted one unified product, priced aggressively so everyone at the studio could use it. It turns out the price point our clients felt would work for them was $49/user/month for all three of our products and the API. So more than zero, but much less than we expected.
After some soul searching and debating and spreadsheet rocking, we decided that following our clients' lead was the best thing to do. We don’t want to nickel-and-dime you by selling add-ons and separate pieces of what really feels like one product. And we hate the idea of some of our clients not being able to use everything we’re building. We recently passed the 400 client mark and are finding ways to pass back efficiencies of scale to the industry as we grow. Plus, getting to work with anyone making content out there is our idea of a great time. So we’re going for it.
We’ll continue to develop each product at the same rapid pace that we have until now (at least 4 big releases a year!), with each new release including a mix of new features and enhancements relating to tracking, scheduling, review, and asset management.
We are going to drop the "Revolver" name though. Partly because going down the path of destruction with our product names is not really what we had in mind when we started the company. But also because the line between production management, collaboration and review is getting really fuzzy. It's pretty awesome to see the work the team is doing when thinking through the schedule. Or pretty efficient to access previous notes or other shot data when reviewing work. It's all connected, so we're going to make sure artificial product or feature names don't get in the way of the best possible user experience.
Revolver's in-app review tools will simply be called Shotgun Review. And the full-screen browser app and RV integration will be called "Screening Room".
Is pricing changing for current clients?
Before today, we had multiple tiers of pricing, and one was less than $49/users/month. So are we going to automatically raise pricing on those clients?
Nope. Because that wouldn't be cool, would it?
We decided the fair thing to do is grandfather in all current clients who are paying less than $49. You can upgrade to the new integrated suite at any time, but we won't force you. And for those paying more, we'll give you a discount on our premium support option to match your current rate, though you're welcome to change your account any time.
We hope you feel these decisions are fair, beneficial and even awesome. But if you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts on what’s coming, let's talk. We're hosting a webinar on Tuesday 9:30am pacific to talk through the details and answer any questions you may have. RSVP here. Or you can just shoot us an email at support@shotgunsoftware.com and we'll talk it through.
Thanks for your continued support. We have a huge year planned for you and look forward to the continued collaboration.