GS was required back then when RAM wasn't enough...streaming from disk was their selling point. With RAM dirt cheap and mobos and OS supporting up to 8GB, why would anyone need to stream from disk? What with harddisks soon to be taken over by solidstate drives? And technologies that came out which allows minimal RAM use through on-the-fly data compression?
I'm just surprised GS didn't die sooner, because the ridiculously long time they took to move from version 2.5 (their peak) to 3 cost them the entire market taken over by platforms like Kontakt, who cleverly permeated the market by letting many sample libraries developers integrate their Kontakt player. They basically forgot their product's popularity is still 90% based on the variety and quality of the sample libraries developed for that platform. Nobody needs a soft sampler with the most powerful engine and most simultaneous streams when there is hardly any libraries you can use it with without conversion. And GS3 still did not address the need for a soft sampler within the vst host, not a stand alone application which is a nightmare for file mgmt and archival. They waited until version 4 GVI, by the time, all was over
That's normally the outcome when a hardware company buys over a software company, they know nuts how to perpetuate the lifespan of a software which is the only thing that makes it worth paying for: upgrades and more upgrades without having to sell off first like a piece of hardware. Luckily Yomama bought over Steinberg and did not screw it up yet
They are ceasing devt., but I hope they still continue to provide tech support. I will still be using my V2.5 occasionally just so because I have some libraries that don't convert nicely to other platforms.
