4 ms·

Remarkably, they didn't even need vibe coding to drive their software into the toilet. Their decline started long before AI started writing code for us.

JKCalhoun 3mo ago
Pretty clear marketing killed PS when they went to a subscription model.
- pauldoerwald 3mo ago
  A subscription model isn't needed to kill software. I think Adobe just stopped caring about product quality. They stopped asking "why do people love Photoshop" and instead just chased quarterly numbers.
  - jfyi 3mo ago
    Heh, yeah. They have always been chasing quarterly numbers, they just stopped asking, "what do we have to do to sell the next version" and took their customer base for granted.
    - graemep 3mo ago
      It looks like they can take their customer base for granted: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/06/adobe-q2fy26-financial-results https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/06/adobe-q2fy26-financial-r...
  - XCSme 3mo ago
    With subscriptions, you want to have ways to increase the subscription amount and retain people, which usually leads to adding features no one asks for and bloating the product, trying to upsell users.
  - anonymars 3mo ago
    Adobe and everyone else. Many of those complaints resonated with me outside of Photoshop But as I've said in the past, I think there is a relationship between subscriptions and quality: with a subscription model, feedback signals become decoupled. In the past, if the new version isn't good enough, people won't buy it. Now the calculus is changed to whether the product has become bad enough to unsubscribe Potentially related: trust thermocline (https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01ggz99w9kvpp6yq52abes00eq/ https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01ggz99w9kvpp6yq52abes00eq...)
    - exe34 3mo ago
      You also can't stick to the older version, so the choice is can you afford to do your job without any Photoshop or are you stuck.
    - philistine 3mo ago
      That’s why I love the Nova.app model. You pay for a year of releases, but if you unsubscribe you keep the latest version when your subscription was active. It’s the best/worst of both worlds!
      - lossyalgo 3mo ago
        Same with most (all?) JetBrains products, and for the first 3 years every year gets cheaper!
    - bombcar 3mo ago
      If you were an honest company, you'd have the current version available for $subscription, and past versions available for some amount more - and use that to see how many people still subscribe but refuse to upgrade.
  - AlexandrB 3mo ago
    > A subscription model isn't needed to kill software. It's not needed, but it sure helps!
  - kccqzy 3mo ago
    They stopped caring much about Creative Cloud. They were focusing on Experience Cloud which is their euphemism for their advertisement network (products like Adobe Tags).
  - d3rockk 3mo ago
    True, but the subscription model is what allowed them to stop caring. Subscriptions will likely kill more software companies than AI in the long run.
  - Tanoc 3mo ago
    The rot started with Flash in 2009. Then it hit Illustrator and Dreamweaver. By 2014 everything was an unstable mess. It coincided with their buyouts of a bunch of competitors including Day, Demdex, and Nitobi. They hit "big enough" size and stopped caring.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- sghiassy 3mo ago
  I despise their subscription model, but I bet it’s minting them tons of money. Individuals leaving them (including myself to Affinity) is a drop in the ocean to them
- jkestner 3mo ago
  Now, I thought that going to a subscription model would give them the resources/motivation they needed to improve things regularly, and let us customers pay for just what we need. You're telling me the benefits only went one way? I started with PS2.5. I held onto CS5 until I found Affinity.

JKCalhoun 3mo ago

Pretty clear marketing killed PS when they went to a subscription model.

pauldoerwald 3mo ago
A subscription model isn't needed to kill software. I think Adobe just stopped caring about product quality. They stopped asking "why do people love Photoshop" and instead just chased quarterly numbers.
- jfyi 3mo ago
  Heh, yeah. They have always been chasing quarterly numbers, they just stopped asking, "what do we have to do to sell the next version" and took their customer base for granted.
  - graemep 3mo ago
    It looks like they can take their customer base for granted: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/06/adobe-q2fy26-financial-results https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/06/adobe-q2fy26-financial-r...
- XCSme 3mo ago
  With subscriptions, you want to have ways to increase the subscription amount and retain people, which usually leads to adding features no one asks for and bloating the product, trying to upsell users.
- anonymars 3mo ago
  Adobe and everyone else. Many of those complaints resonated with me outside of Photoshop But as I've said in the past, I think there is a relationship between subscriptions and quality: with a subscription model, feedback signals become decoupled. In the past, if the new version isn't good enough, people won't buy it. Now the calculus is changed to whether the product has become bad enough to unsubscribe Potentially related: trust thermocline (https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01ggz99w9kvpp6yq52abes00eq/ https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01ggz99w9kvpp6yq52abes00eq...)
  - exe34 3mo ago
    You also can't stick to the older version, so the choice is can you afford to do your job without any Photoshop or are you stuck.
  - philistine 3mo ago
    That’s why I love the Nova.app model. You pay for a year of releases, but if you unsubscribe you keep the latest version when your subscription was active. It’s the best/worst of both worlds!
    - lossyalgo 3mo ago
      Same with most (all?) JetBrains products, and for the first 3 years every year gets cheaper!
  - bombcar 3mo ago
    If you were an honest company, you'd have the current version available for $subscription, and past versions available for some amount more - and use that to see how many people still subscribe but refuse to upgrade.
- AlexandrB 3mo ago
  > A subscription model isn't needed to kill software. It's not needed, but it sure helps!
- kccqzy 3mo ago
  They stopped caring much about Creative Cloud. They were focusing on Experience Cloud which is their euphemism for their advertisement network (products like Adobe Tags).
- d3rockk 3mo ago
  True, but the subscription model is what allowed them to stop caring. Subscriptions will likely kill more software companies than AI in the long run.
- Tanoc 3mo ago
  The rot started with Flash in 2009. Then it hit Illustrator and Dreamweaver. By 2014 everything was an unstable mess. It coincided with their buyouts of a bunch of competitors including Day, Demdex, and Nitobi. They hit "big enough" size and stopped caring.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
sghiassy 3mo ago
I despise their subscription model, but I bet it’s minting them tons of money. Individuals leaving them (including myself to Affinity) is a drop in the ocean to them
jkestner 3mo ago
Now, I thought that going to a subscription model would give them the resources/motivation they needed to improve things regularly, and let us customers pay for just what we need. You're telling me the benefits only went one way? I started with PS2.5. I held onto CS5 until I found Affinity.