Chessqueen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:49 pm
I believe that due to the small difference between Komodo 12.1.1 FREE version and Komodo 14.1 in rating and due to the fact that version 2.6.1 was released long time ago and a newer version is on the way Komodo 14.1 should be lower to only $29.00
https://komodochess.com/Komodo14.htm
This thread feels like the appropriate one to express my thoughts concerning the release policy of Komodo.
Komodo 12.1 is actuallly the latest commercial program I‘ve bought, and it doesn’t feel like a long time ago. It came at a reasonable price, but it wasn’t cheap either. It came with a new Fritz GUI that I needed at that time, and I didn’t regret it.
But what is the point of releasing such a program for free at a later point in time? You will probably piss off some customers who paid the full price – the big question: will it get you any new ones? I most seriously doubt it. I think, this is just a bad idea in general.
But these threads with „Chessqueen“ and you are the reason why Dragon 3 will probably be the next program I’ll buy in a few days. And I think there should be a big market for the feature you suggest, namely that the program will play incredibly stong unleashed ( though not quite as strong as Stockfish) , but it may also be a good and credible opponent for yourself at strength 1800-2000 e.g. and make a good sparring partner.
This I want to try. So you probably got yourself a customer by PR – and hopefully also by achievement. But I don’t want to see it as a free download in like 12 months.

Just IMHO – YMMV.
Peter