No use in running out getting the latest and greatest withARC knowing all of the facts first.         

IK_Multimedia
Thanks for the input on this, folks.  I've certainly relayed it to the team.

Thanks Peter. Everything else about T5 looks great. Personally (I guess I'm in the minority) I use T-racks in standalone mode a lot for mastering or final touch up stuff. I think it's nice to get out of the daw for this step.
 

I had been pushing about the ARC integration issue and have some more information to share that I received from our developers.
 
Apparently the decision wasn't arbitrary nor did anybody want to take away something that was there in v4 and expected.  It was definitely not simply an oversight but there are things that made this decision necessary on the coding side.
 
ARC remains an important product for us and definitely for our users (as you have clearly shown!) and we are working on an exciting new version re-coded and which will be supported far into the future (due to being a completely revamped ARC) and will be a great with T-RackS 5.  They will be a power couple once again, once this new version is available.
 
I hope that helps, at least giving more background to the existing decision as well as laying out the future of ARC and T-RackS 5 together.

Great news Peter. Thanks for letting us know.
 
Now how much and (more importantly) WHEN? OMG!!
 

IK_Multimedia
I had been pushing about the ARC integration issue and have some more information to share that I received from our developers.
 
Apparently the decision wasn't arbitrary nor did anybody want to take away something that was there in v4 and expected.  It was definitely not simply an oversight but there are things that made this decision necessary on the coding side.
 
ARC remains an important product for us and definitely for our users (as you have clearly shown!) and we are working on an exciting new version re-coded and which will be supported far into the future (due to being a completely revamped ARC) and will be a great with T-RackS 5.  They will be a power couple once again, once this new version is available.
 
I hope that helps, at least giving more background to the existing decision as well as laying out the future of ARC and T-RackS 5 together.

Thanks for the update.
 
IMO, the RIGHT thing to do would be to keep the current ARC working in T5 until the new ARC becomes a reality.  THEN do an update to T5 to support the new ARC.  You know, the way ST3 was updated to support Syntronik.
 
At the very least, the loss of ARC support should've been made clear up front.
 
I've been made whole, so this is my last on the subject.
 
 

I took Peter's explanation to mean that Arc 2 old code is not compatible with T5 new code. So they will update Arc 2 to a newer version that will work inside T5.

Will the T4 shell still be available for those that have upgraded--to continue to use the ARC integration, minus the new plugins?

Any word on being able to buy this in the CS?  Will it be available upon release in the CS for 99 credits/dollars?  Thanks

LAGinz25
Will the T4 shell still be available for those that have upgraded--to continue to use the ARC integration, minus the new plugins?

Your T-RackS 4 Standalone will still be available after T-RackS 5 is released.

gmon72
Any word on being able to buy this in the CS?  Will it be available upon release in the CS for 99 credits/dollars?  Thanks

T-RackS 5 is available in Custom Shop but is not available for Gear Credits (the latter is also in the FAQ).  Thanks!