US$500 actually, just currently on sale for $300.

I point it out because I do think that's a meaningfully different price point.

Not forgetting your Windows licence or MacBook.

Most features are still free.

And it definitely sucks SOME features went from free to ~$300/y.

Maybe it wouldn't have happened if ALL of its users paid some amount of money to use it. Or even better, it wouldn't have happened if a batch of the free tier users didn't abuse the licensing agreements.

Trust works both ways.

And I completely understand that users may want to move to a different software. But in any case, building software has heavy costs associated with them. Most free and cheaper software would either catch up with the pricing eventually or not have the same features or support to sustain the free tier. Good luck.

> Most personal users will just move to other free or cheaper software.

I keep hearing people—who haven't paid for software and encourage others to not pay—complaining that they will stop using it. What's the downside for Autodesk here?

Remember when Bill Gates started his new life as a philanthropist by donating tons of money to schools? Only it wasn't really money. It was lots of Windows licenses or Office licences that were worth a lot of money. So it arguably didn't cost Gates anything, but just grew future earnings. He kept all these students from gaining familiarity with the competition, encouraging them and their employers to buy licenses later for the product they had learned as a child.

There's the downside.

Short answer: Their software will lose mind share, and therefore market share in the long run.