Just got a scattergram form Acoustic Samples. I bought a few of their excellent Kontakt instruments in the past.
 
They have dumped Kontakt and their products are exclusivly for the UVI player. Up side, they use a free player, down side you now need an iLok. It is not totally clear to me if they are compatable with MachFive. But I think a lot of it is already in the MachFive factory library. Does MachFive require an iLok??
 

Unified UVI format and free advanced player.
Today we have big news, you might have seen it on the website already, but all of our products are now in UVI format only and got some very important updates. This means that we now offer Virtual Instruments, all of the libraries come with their own player that support advanced scripts. The UVI Workstation is the equivalent of the MachFive 3 player and is provided for free with every purchase. It works as a VST, AU, RTAS in both 32 and 64 bits and on windows and Mac. Given the little problems we got with megaupload like websites, we now also protect our libraries with the iLok protection. Some people won't like it, but we really had no choice.

Yes it does.

I know. Very disappointing. IMO, of course.

If you're ready to wait... Manufacturers seem to be slowly coming to their sense w/ all that iLock non-sense.

Me I'm done fighting an uphill battle and waiting for another "standard". Kontakt it is, so be it. Let's just hope they don't make me deny my German ancestry. ;)

It's been a long time since we last heard of an established vendor switching TO iLok. The general trend has been to flee in the opposite direction. 

They're probably thinking that this will broaden their potential market, because more people are willing to spend $40 on a dongle than $400 on Kontakt. Sure, iLok is widely despised, but then so is Native Instruments. Kind of a toss-up as to which flavor of evil you want to surrender to.

Personally, I will never buy any dongle-protected software. Ever. But at the same time I welcome any viable alternative to Kontakt-based libraries, because I am done playing NI's upgrade-or-die game. So to that end I wish Acousticsamples well.

I have Mach 5 and a few Acoustic Sample Libraries - whilst no lover of iLok, I have had iLok stuff for some years now and never had a problem so far - in fact when it comes to re installation (as I did recently when I upgraded my main Computer) I hate to say it but it actually makes things easier - however I do agree the world would be a far better place without iLok!!
Mach 5 and Acoustic Samples I think is generally good news (they are certainly exceptionally good quality) - the more Library Suppliers that start to look at this combination, I think the better for us end users - I have recently recommended one of the smaller suppliers (Pendle / Sound Dust) to have  a look at the free UVi player etc and I believe he is doing this - I am still holding off any further upgrades to anything NI - the longer I can make Kontakt 4 last the better - it really would have to be something exceptional Library wise for me to spend anything substantial with NI ever again!
Nigel
 

Interesting. I hate the upgrade game, but I'm no fan of iLok either. I sympathize with these companies because they are put in the impossible position of simply accepting that their products will be pirated (and they will, iLok or not) or forcing their customers to use dongles. I highly doubt their motivation was based on sympathy for NI customers paying high rices for upgrades. I wish them well, but like most, they will see the obvious fact that the same pirate who did not buy the product before is certainly not going to buy the product plus an iLok. Personally, I think it's silly to go through the process of converting all of your product to add something that will not increase your sales and likely lowers profit margin (I'm guessing iLok charges them some kind of licensing fee). I won't buy it, but i certainly wish them luck with that.

bitflipper


Sure, iLok is widely despised, but then so is Native Instruments.

Truer words have never been spoken   

I'm glad I grabbed the libs I wanted before they went iLok.
 
Always thought their libraries were underrated.  Now that they've gone the dongle-way, I doubt their reputation is going to change for the better.
 
There's just too much quality competition that are of excellent sound-quality and dongle-free.
 
I truly wish the best of luck to AS....  they're going to need it.
 
 

JonD


I'm glad I grabbed the libs I wanted before they went iLok. 
 
I truly wish the best of luck to AS....  they're going to need it.
 
 

Its not just iLok, they are now very close to MOTU, many of the products are in the Mach 5 factory library. Logically I suppose their intention is to concentrate their development on the Mach 5 platform. Dropping Kontakt formats and the iLok probably something to do with the deal they got with Motu.
 
Kontakt could do with a bit of competition. Yellowtools mentioned encouraging third party content for Independence a long while back but nothing seemed to come of it, Looks like they are just standing still at the moment, maybe there is a new version with scripting in development but some how I doubt it. Independence could have rivaled Kontakt with the right development.
 
Mach 5 seems to be the only thing that comes close at the moment, with quality developers like Acoustic Samples on board they stand to pick up some business.
 
SampleTank 3 is on the horizon - I wonder how this will fit in to the picture.