Spent £116 through the App Store on version 1 of this software not long ago and now I can't upgrade, but instead, have to buy it all again at a "discount". Downloading my versions means looking through the purchase history too.
Similar situation(bought Designer V1 about a year ago, directly from them) but I'm not angry. It makes complete sense from their perspective and makes sense for me too.
I completely agree that continued work needs to be payed and I don't expect to buy a software once and receive updates for it forever. If I was using it in a professional capacity all the time, I would have preferred a cheaper monthly subscription but because I'm using it mostly now and then, pay for the V1 and use it forever and pay again if I would like the newer version works very well for me.
I suspect this move away from the App Store is probably because the App Store _still_ doesn't have a reasonable way to do upgrade pricing. Affinity v3 (whenever that comes out) would be able to offer specific upgrade pricing because they've left the App Store.
Hmm, I bought it about…a couple weeks ago? And they sent me an email with two discount codes: a free copy of Affinity Photo 2, and a heavy discount on the all-apps-all-platforms license.
Depending on what "not long ago" means, that's pretty unfortunate timing. You should reach out to them. They've been pushing updates and features for V1 for a long time and have an established track record for being a company that isn't nickel-and-diming people. The line does have to be drawn somewhere though. Long term users have known this was coming, but I can see how the short/mid term user might feel pinched.
Not happy with that - would advise against it.