Isn't this extortion?

You don't allow your users to own the product you are selling, and keep it hostage indefinitely unless they pay up? What if I don't have a stable income and do this as a hobby?

I was a longtime user of Construct 2 and liked that quite a lot, but having switched machines I wanted to try Construct 3. I've found I'm really not interested in paying several hundred dollars for software that I only intermittently use.

This practice, I feel, violates basic consumer rights.

You don't allow your users to own the product you are selling, and keep it hostage indefinitely unless they pay up?

It´s not a product, it´s a service.

What if I don't have a stable income and do this as a hobby?

All things considered, that´s your problem.

I've found I'm really not interested in paying several hundred dollars for software that I only intermittently use.

There´s monthly options.

This practice, I feel, violates basic consumer rights.

No

Extortion:

"the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats."

Are you being forced or threatened to acquire C3?

Subscriptions are widely used across the software industry. We are clear about the prices up-front and lots of customers are perfectly happy to subscribe to what I think is a perfectly fair deal and much cheaper than many other options on the market.

This topic has been discussed a lot, and the original post accuses us of a crime for what is standard practice across the entire software industry, so closing this thread.