How We Ship 2.0 While R&D Moves to 3.0: Parallel Development, Roadmap Delivery, and more.

Some of you have told us you’re unhappy that Gaea 3.0 is up for pre-order while Gaea 2.0 still has roadmap items in flight. That concern is reasonable, and you deserve a clear explanation of how we’re handling development and what this means for you.

Summary

Gaea 2.0 is still the priority: the roadmap will be completed with regular updates, and 2.0 stays supported through end of 2027 (critical fixes, GPU-driver patches, security).
Gaea 3.0 pre-order ≠ dev shift: only the research track started on 3.0 (since June) after 2.0’s major research finished; the main team is still finishing 2.0.
3.0 won’t ship until the community says it’s ready: open testing, bug-fix velocity, and broad consensus will gate “Production Ready.”
Stability plan: 3.0 is a direct upgrade on 2.0’s battle-tested foundation, plus Production Ready vs Bleeding Edge channels (side-by-side installs; features graduate only when stable).
You’re not forced to upgrade: licenses are perpetual; pre-order is optional, and older builds will be accessible (User Area; Support can provide them anytime).
Why not subscription: it would cost more long-term; perpetual keeps costs lower and lets you upgrade only when it’s worth it.

Gaea 2 remains in active development

Gaea 2.0 is not being abandoned

Gaea 2 is and remains in active development. Every feature currently on the Gaea 2 roadmap will be delivered well before Gaea 3 releases. We’re not “moving on” in a way that leaves 2.0 unfinished. The core product you’re using today is still the team’s primary shipping target for the coming months, with regular updates continuing as planned.

Once Gaea 2.0 reaches roadmap completion, the full development team will move to Gaea 3.0 full-time. Until then, the mainline effort stays on 2.0.

And even after that transition, Gaea 2.0 won’t be left behind. It will remain under active maintenance through the end of 2027, including critical bug fixes, GPU driver-related patches, and security updates as needed.

Why you’re seeing Gaea 3.0 now

Gaea’s development isn’t a single straight line where everyone works on one version at a time. Some work such as research requires an extensive lead and needs to start early. We have a small research group whose job is to explore new methods, prototypes, and tooling foundations well ahead of production implementation.

At this point, the major research work for Gaea 2.0 is complete. That team therefore moved on to Gaea 3.0 research earlier this year (they’ve been on it since June). Meanwhile, the rest of the development team is finishing the remaining Gaea 2.0 roadmap items. In other words: research on 3.0 does not mean production on 2.0 has stopped. It means we’re using the time and skills of different people efficiently instead of leaving them idle.

Transparent development, not surprise releases

We’re choosing to talk about Gaea 3.0 early because we believe in transparent development. Showing you what we’re building through Early Access lets you shape it. Your feedback at this stage is how we ensure we’re delivering what you actually want, not just what we think is cool on paper.

Keeping 3.0 quiet until the moment it’s done would remove that feedback loop, and historically that’s not how Gaea has become what it is. You have always been part of the product’s evolution, and we want that to continue.

What we are doing to make Gaea 3.0 Stable

Gaea 3.0 will not be released until YOU tell us it is production-ready

We usually consider several stakeholders' opinions when calling a product ready. The opinion of beta testers and invited guest testers from major studios usually carry the most weight.

This time, we'll make it open to everyone in the community. Until the general consensus is that Gaea is not production-ready, we will keep working on it. Bug reports (and their resolution) will be the main metric we use, along with the overall opinion we hear in the community.

Gaea 3.0 is being built on Gaea 2.0 existing infrastructure

With Gaea 2, we decided to rewrite (and future-proof) the entire application from scratch. This meant that even though Gaea 2's initial release was beta-tested, it was not battle-tested.

However, these issues were addressed in subsequent updates and Gaea 2 now enjoys stability and performance far beyond Gaea 1. Gaea 2 has also been battle-tested in major productions over the last two years.

Unlike Gaea 2, Gaea 3's engine will be a direct upgrade and not a rewrite. This means all the existing tools and technologies will retain their stability and give you a production-ready outcome from day one.

Bleeding Edge Builds

We’re bringing back Bleeding Edge (experimental) builds. Gaea will ship in two channels:

Production Ready: Stable, thoroughly tested, and ready for day-to-day work.
Bleeding Edge: Earlier builds with new functionality, less testing, and occasional rough edges.

Think of Bleeding Edge as a public technology preview. As features mature and as builds prove stable over multiple updates, we’ll periodically promote that work into Production Ready.

Bleeding Edge builds are self-contained and can run side-by-side with Production Ready, so you can try what’s new without disrupting your main setup.

This lets you:

test new tools early,
give feedback that shapes the final implementation,
while keeping Production Ready focused on stability.

New functionality won’t land in Production Ready until we’re confident it’s stable.

Access to Older Builds

We don’t publicly list links to older builds, but we plan to make them available in the User Area soon. If you’re a licensed user, you’ll be able to download older builds on demand, including builds that have reached End of Life.

Note: If you need an older build before this is available, contact Tech Support and we’ll provide access.

Some clarifications and misconceptions

Why pre-orders exist at all

We’re a small, fully self-funded team. Pre-orders help us in two ways:

They let loyal users get the biggest discounts. If you’re excited about where Gaea is going, pre-order pricing is our way of rewarding early support.

They give us stable funding to push development harder. It directly supports more R&D time, more testing bandwidth, and faster iteration through Early Access.

No one is being forced into an upgrade

This part matters: Gaea licenses are perpetual. That means a pre-order is never a forced update. You can stay on Gaea 2.0 forever if that’s what suits your workflow. You’ll still get every promised 2.0 roadmap feature, and you’ll still get maintenance support after 3.0 ships.

Pre-ordering is simply an optional way to join us early on what’s next.

If you’re frustrated, we hear you. The only reason Gaea 3.0 is visible right now is because research has naturally progressed to that stage—and because we prefer being upfront with you rather than operating behind a curtain. Gaea 2.0 remains in active development, remains our shipping priority for the near term, and will be fully delivered as promised.

Gaea would be better as a subscription

Actually, no. We’ve run the numbers many times. Because Gaea is our primary product, we have to be very realistic about what keeps development sustainable without overcharging you.

Today, a Gaea Professional license at $199 works out to roughly $8/month over 2 years. That’s a good balance: it funds ongoing development while keeping the cost reasonable for you.

With a subscription, we couldn’t charge $8/month and stay viable. Once you factor in payment processing, infrastructure, and churn risk, we’d need to be closer to $10/month or more.

Over 2 years, that looks like:

Perpetual license: $199 one-time → ≈ $8/month over 24 months
Subscription (example): $10/month → $240 over 24 months

You’d pay about $41 more for the same 2-year period—and if you keep using Gaea longer (as many do), the gap only grows.

There are users who bought Gaea 1 for $199 in 2019 and are still using it today without paying anything extra. That’s what a perpetual license gives you: the software is yours for life, not a rental that stops working when you stop paying.

A subscription model would also push you into upgrades on our schedule, not yours. With our perpetual licenses, you upgrade only when you decide it’s worth it, and you can keep using any version you’ve paid for as long as it fits your workflow.

We genuinely believe that artists should own their tools, not rent them.

Three-Year Release Cadence

Gaea 1 and Gaea 2 ended up farther apart than intended because the COVID pandemic disrupted development for over two years.

Outside of that anomaly, our model is consistent: roughly a 2-year development cycle with a ~3-year major release cadence.

Year 1: Major release with new tools and big capabilities
Year 2: Refinement, performance/stability work, and features that need longer incubation
Year 3: Next major release

Because every license is perpetual, upgrades are always optional. If a new version doesn’t include what you need—or your current version already does the job—you can simply stay where you are.

We also offer a permanent 30% upgrade discount, available to you any time in the future.

And if you want to skip a version entirely, that’s fine too. Your existing license keeps working.