About Creative Cloud pricing, giving up, and screaming into the void

I'm done.

42 years old with over half of it spent using Photoshop. Learned it in the 90's, used it to get into an art school in 2001, worked in the video game industry from 2004 to 2016, worked freelance, started my own indie studio, and I just can't keep paying these ridiculous subscription prices.

My Creative Cloud renewal comes up in January so I just got an email about the price hikes I had apparently missed (I know I'm late to the party, was distracted trying to make a game), and even dropping down to the new "Pro" plan, it's STILL a 66% price hike. WTF!  I had paid annually before at $30/month (which was already way too much as I just use Photoshop and occasionally After Effects to make trailers), with the new prepaid annual cost coming to $50/month, and that's downgrading to the new plan.

Creative fields like the video game industry are so saturated and competitive now that I don't know how the average person, let alone someone new to the field, can afford to pay that each month. I'm not talking about the studios that can afford to pay for multiple seats as roving licenses within the office, that's who Adobe is really squeezing, they don't have an alternative and just have to pay. Hobbyists, freelancers and small studios like mine (1 programmer and 1 artist) who pay for everything themselves out of pocket can't afford to have the very tools they rely on ALSO squeeze as much out of them as possible like housing, food, insurance, gas, medical etc. does.

We just had spent the past year and change making a game that people who play it enjoy, but got lost in the flood of other games/media to the point where 7 months after release it won't cover the costs of the software subscription used to make it.

I'm done, I'm throwing 20+ years of knowledge, tricks and workflows out the window to go use something else, ANYTHING else. Hell, I'd subject myself to Gimp just to avoid Adobe at this point.

I'm the fool for having done things the "right way" and paid for my tools. Time to find a version from before all this crap. I can live without Smart guides and generative fill, the only new features introduced in the past decade I've found a use for.

This is all just screaming into the void.

It doesn't matter, no one of consequence at Adobe will see this, and if someone does they won't care. The people who rely on this software for their livelihoods are powerless in the face of these corporations. Adobe, Valve, nVidia, Epic, Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, etc etc Continue to shove AI features no one asked for into every aspect of our lives. I think this has officially crossed over into rant territory. Oh well.

At least I'm still working in 3D after escaping the 3DsMax / Maya hellhole with Blender. I actually model/rig/animate better than I ever did with the others. Hopefully there's a good replacement for PS, do better than I ever did before without giving another dime to Adobe.

cancelling my subscription after hitting post. Good luck to everyone struggling out there