Well well well...
Creative has [maybe] seen the light. As of the next slated release on
May 18th-19th,
ALchemy which had previously cost
Vista users 10
USD will become free and people who had previously purchased it for their
Creative cards will get a refund.
Has
Creative learned a lesson from the
Daniel_K fiasco or are there deeper and darker reasons?
I have yet to see any specifications for the
X-Fi 2 card but I have heard in multiple places that it will have a designed for
Windows Vista designation. Will it require
ALchemy?
Is
Creative now making
ALchemy free because it won't be needed soon and by doing this they may move the older
X-Fi cards off shelves? Are they doing it because they, surprisingly, really did learn a PR lesson from what happened from
Daniel_K? More importantly, after the
Daniel_K incident, did they notice a decline in sales?
I can't answer any of the questions I have posed but I do wonder about them. I guess time will tell.
Refer
here (
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/08/creative_frees_alchemy/) for the initial report I read that mentioned
ALchemy becoming free.
NOTE: Requests for refunds on
ALchemy are only available until
June 30th, 2008. Go
here (
http://us.creative.com/alchemy/welcome.asp).