I'll weigh in on the evidence at hand. Fact C8.5 is not an update or upgrade, as you are actually rebuying carrara. That leads me to beleve with confidence C9 will be the same, not an upgrade from C8, but rebuying carrara to get C9.

So you can figure; or my assumption, is there will be a 50% off C9 for people that bought C8.5, and possibly a lower discount for those that didn't, say 25 or 30%. But all evedence at hand shows DAZ has taken carraraest off the upgrade path. I have no doubt C9, like C8.5 will be a repurches, not an upgrade.

Any DAZ_ can come on and controdict me, but I find that happening doubtful.

It appears what DAZ is up to; considering that apparently having bought any previous version of carrara from DAZ grants you the 50% off C8.5, DAZ is trying to get all carraraests on the same page, Genesis.

I have no doubt DAZ will make far more off forcing people whom want the update/upgrade to buy carrara again, then to offer an update/upgrade.

I see C8.5 coming with the V5/M5 bundles as DAZ giving you the garage so they can sell you the doors, windows, auto grage door opener, wireing, plugs, lights, heating, airconditioning and you see where I am going. Sales for the V5/M5 bundles has dropped considerably, as has most of the rest of the G1 content. Most dazzers; dazzies{?}, have moved on to G2F. So C8.5 coming with the G1 bundels may be a good thing, but it is still a way to bring in new customers to boost the sales of content for an outdated figure that is no longer in development and which the content sales have slumped drastically.

The $85 for C8.5 isn't too bad of a price, my issue is the way DAZ is going about getting that price. First up you start with the 48% off the repurches of carrara, add to that 40% off for the Pclub{?}, and another 50% off for 2 weeks. That adds up to 138% off, so where is my free C8.5 with the 38% DAZ voucher? Right, that isn't the way the math works.

Personally I'd be far more whilling to spend the $85 if DAZ wasn't using all the smoke and mirrors dicounts to fool people in to believeing having to repurches carrara is a good thing. That is my big issue.