andylama
I do have a practical question though:  As I got this bad news, I was getting ready to reformat my PC with Win10 and reinstall everything fresh.  At this point, will it all still work as if everything was hunky-dory?

During the last week I've built a new workstation and installed Sonar Platinum using Command Center without any problems. It's running well on Windows 10 1709 (16299.192).
 
As for the future, we've been informed that if the servers are switched off we'll receive an offline activation method. There may be better times ahead for Cakewalk, but as it stands the best plan is to download your registered products, keep making music and wait for news

msmcleod


I'm sure any decent developer could get to grips with the code in 3 to 6 months (based on my own experience with having to learn legacy code when joining new companies).

I don't think we are taking about "just" legacy code here. I believe we are talking about Legacy code + new code mixed in to one giant soup. And that's the real difficulty.
 
But to be perfectly honest, I don't anything for sure. so maybe your right.
I actually hope your right and its not that hard. I would love to see this product continue to be developed.

If you follow the link Noel posted (#1664) you will be taken to an article about how to transition a business. It really doesn't talk about going out of business as much as it talks about tying up all the loose ends so that it can be sold or shuttered. That's what the "transition" talk is all about. So actually we know nothing more than we did on day 1.

Thank you for your prompt reply, I really appreciate your time and effort to clear some things up.
I feel strongly that we deserve some assurance that we will be issued a perpetual reg key so that we can at very least have access to the software we own access to outright. As for the circumstantial reneging of our lifetime updates, any grumbles about that matter would easily be appeased by unlocking every cakewalk plugin and instrument for those of us who bought into the lifetime update. It's not a big drama for me but it does seem like 1 strategy to value the contribution of long time committed users. Have a great day man and look forward to following this thread with great interest ✌️

And what will happen with Cakewalk products for Steam users? Will i lose my splat when servers will die? I can't download offline installers for obvious reasons. Or activation goes thru Steam and should not be a problem?

Cakewalk goes down. So sad.
I have used Cakewalk since 1988/89. The DOS Version 1.0 came with a mpu401 ISA card and i was proud to use this in my Atari PC3 8086 with my Yamaha PSR. So sad

TearOfTheStar
And what will happen with Cakewalk products for Steam users? Will i lose my splat when servers will die? I can't download offline installers for obvious reasons. Or activation goes thru Steam and should not be a problem?

I think you should contact Steam. I'm thinking there should be discussions happening between Steam and Cakewalk.

What the heck is Splat?

Sonar PLATinum.

ampfixer
If you follow the link Noel posted (#1664) you will be taken to an article about how to transition a business. It really doesn't talk about going out of business as much as it talks about tying up all the loose ends so that it can be sold or shuttered. That's what the "transition" talk is all about. So actually we know nothing more than we did on day 1.

I took from the link, and the tone of the various messages that Noel has presented, that Noel is not allowed to say more, due to legal reasons. Noel is not in full control of the full content of The Message. It appears he isn't even allowed to tell us if he knows the current status of the company. Any information he reveals has the potential to reduce the value of Cakewalk, so he can't reveal anything.

At least that is what I get from his message. So, yeah, we don't know anything new because anything new could destroy the negotiations, if any, currently taking place. I read between the lines that there are negotiations that haven't ended, otherwise, I believe we _would_ be told about that -- if Gibson had given up selling Cakewalk - at that point there'd be nothing to loose and apparently, at this point, there still is something that could be lost. But I'm just guessing.