What a chaos… seriously.
Is this a new strategy? Confuse your customers?
It reminds me of Polyend Tracker, which all of a sudden went for 399€ (at
Thomann) just that you could not ‘upgrade’ to anywhere. It just lost value
overnight. If you want to resell your unit now for what reason ever you lose
a lot of money.
Maybe people can decide for themselves what makes them feel happy… 
Nomen est omen… Polyend.
Definitely my last order. Kind of the same price drop out of the blue
happened to the Tracker…
I expect you arent £400 down ovenight on a product you stopped paying for two months ago…
People say things you don’t like to hear… you call it ‘hate’.
How customers are responsible for the absolute disastrous marketing decision
of a company? Just because I bought a product from a small company
doesn’t brand me automatically ‘fanboy’.
The problem here is that it hapoened twice this year that you get this feeling
with Polyend, that they release new products before the old ones are even
really finished.
You can do that with software, with hardware you will hear people complaining…
I’m not against this update.
I was very upset because the original Play would most likely stop updating soon. I would like these two devices to go their separate ways.
The first Play became more sample-based, and Play+ became more synthesizer-based.
I don’t plan to upgrade, I’m quite happy with my device. I just want new features!
Just making sure you all have seen this:
Yes, I saw that, thanks.
I really hope they pay more attention to sample processing!
It’s an amazing update. And there are plenty or reasons why this could all be done for all the right reasons and intentions and yet just happens that so many of the circumstances also make it feel shitty to many existing Play owners.
I just bought one a few months ago and it is very hard for me to get around the feeling that if I were to upgrade via Polyend I would in essence be paying the cost of what I paid for my Play a few months ago, plus the upgrade fee, plus shipping and taxes.
I got my Play on sale from Polyend for $600. So that $600 + $400 + taxes and shipping for a Play+.
It’s not keeping me up at night, but still there is no line of reasoning that makes that not feel bad other than deciding I don’t like enough of the features in the Play+ to not want it. Still I don’t even want to take my Play out to use it right now because it’s a reminder of what feels like a bad situation.
Tracker here, I have two are very very very solid with the latest firmware. And 1.6. And 1.5.
Elektron just released a free feature update for the Analog Rytm that runs on all units including the ones that came out in 2014.
Pay attention if you want to stay in business, Polyend.
Asking me for an additional $400 on a unit I paid $800 for months ago to get the equivalent of a new +?
The math doesn’t work and you won’t be getting another dollar from me.
Will upgrade my AR and cut my losses with Polyend.
Elektron also released Heat Mk2😉 I remember everybody complained about the lack of new features compared to the Mk1.
I do think it’s more nuanced than that. And I think it’s highly unlikely that there was any malice or greed involved in making this update a new physical device.
If you’re a pessimist or a cynic, then clearly Polyend released an entire device rather than a firmware update because they are after the money.
If you’re an optimist then most assuredly they did it because it was the best path and any negative fallout was just an unfortunate accident. Humans make mistakes, and feelings get hurt, even when they are doing their best and have the best of intentions.
If you are a pragmatist or a realist, then at the very least it seems ridiculous to suggest that the primary motivator for the Play+ as a new device was money.
I think it’s hard to argue that, if the existing Play hardware could support these new features, it would not have been more economically viable to integrate these changes into the existing Play hardware as a software update than to develop and release a new device. Even if it is an iteration.
It’s rare these days that I have an experience of buying something where it almost immediately gets superseded by something new without having some kind of an idea that something was in the pipe. I don’t know how Polyend could have done things any differently and I certainly don’t know if it would have been economically viable for them to offer the upgrade at a cheaper cost. This is not intended to be a slight, but I think if they were rolling in dough their products would have far fewer bugs.
For new buyers and a non-trivial portion of existing Play owners I think this Play+ release is totally fine and for that non-trivial portion of existing owners the upgrade path is also probably perfectly fine.
Unfortunately, for some percentage of users it’s also a bit of a shitty experience. However, the more I write/think about it though, the more I feel like it has been blown out of the water a bit including even my own responses.
Then don’t buy the Mk2. They released it years later as a new product. They didn’t ask mk1 owners of less than a year to upgrade for 50% of the original purchase price. Terrible business model for what is currently a mediocre and unfinished product IMHO.
If you like it and it helps you make music, enjoy it. They lost my business. I hope they learn to design longer lasting products.
@christopher.garner I think it’s purely lack of roadmap and business acumen. Trying to sell this as a good thing to existing short term customers who’ve owned Play for months is insulting and Polyend knows it. I just chalk it up to bumbling incompetence.
I upgraded to 11 Suite for a push3 about 1 maybe 2 months ago and now they announce free upgrades to 12 with peoples orders. as my 13 year old tells me it sucks to suck! So sure, I see and agree that it is a raw deal. BUT
If this is the mistake that are trying to overcome how would you deal with it now?
Remember, they are small company, their employees have mouths to feed, and we are agrue on what will be a not so major return for them (as I understand, no affiliations, just really love the products.)
This is not Roland making 5 variations on the TB-303 and being scared and closing down Rebirth. What is a fair and easy path for a small company.
The most interesting part in my perspective, is that if the Play stayed at it’s original price, and the Play+ was $400 more, then there wouldn’t be an issue. Yet that would put the Play+ at a premium price that I don’t think Polyend are fully ready (or perhaps willing) to support.
The Play as it was when launched was an expensive unit. I had a hard time seeing the insane functionality of the Tracker and seeing the Play priced higher than it.
With the firmware updates and the current price drops, the OG Play is insanely good value, but also lands it in a more realistic price range of where it should have been originally.
I get that. Tough place I think their is no great answer for anyone. I total see people scrap together money to get these devices. It is also tough for small companies like PolyEnd.
I hope people find a happy place in all of this. Thank you for your point of view. It helps me see a wider view.
RX, but the Rytm 2 came out in less then a year from the Rytm 1. If I remember correctly. they continue both for updates, but the 2 has more power. The price dropped on the 1, Elekron did give a bit of warning… but there is not upgrade choice in that story, and I believe the upgrade was due to and end of life chip.
I’m totally with you. As I said in another post, I’m not against anyone at Polyend, and I bought the update day 1. I feel comfortable to express how it all makes me feel, but I have zero desire to attack anyone nor do I feel any resentment towards anyone at Polyend. Good people can make less then ideal decisions
In the best case scenario; If Polyend would have said a year and 1/2 ago that this was a pricey experimental and somewhat prototype that they would hope to replace/re-imagine when the chip shortage was over when they could, I still would have bought it and paid for the upgrade. I think it’s the lack of transparency that stings the most.