FMSE Discontinued - FMS Editor 2017-2023 Now FREE

Back in early October 2023, Thanos expressed to me his desire to put an end to FMSE because he didn't want to maintain a product that was essentially on life support. In other words, he wasn't happy with merely updating the app after patch releases without offering any feature updates.

The truth is that the development of the app stagnated after the first couple of years and it has been a struggle for him to deliver timely updates, let alone new features. We all had high hopes for FMSE as it arguably had immense potential, so the lack of progress was frustrating.

Anyway, I publicly communicated that FMSE23 was most likely the last version to let people know. Then the FM24 Beta dropped and Thanos remained uninterested. After the regular FM24 release in November we had another chat and he decided to start working on FMSE24.

However, he didn't want to simply update the app at its current state for FM24. He started from scratch with the ambition and the willingness to create an improved tool that could live up to its potential. The initial plan was to have a public version ready by the end of November, which was quite promising.

That didn't happen, so it got postponed for sometime in December. Unfortunately, that didn't happen either. In fact, I didn't have any news from him for weeks that turned into months. I kept messaging every 1-2 weeks, until I finally heard back around mid February.

In the meantime, since early February I've been seeing messages from users reporting that they were either unable to buy a license or they never received any email after payment. Checking with Fastspring, it appeared that recent orders were stuck at 'Accepted' instead of 'Completed'.

Sadly, the news was disappointing. Due to complete lack of time and funds (license purchases for older versions generated less than the running costs), Thanos ultimately decided to pull the plug. He disabled all FMSE stores on Fastspring, as well as all the servers which were necessary to generate licenses.

Consequently, I removed all FMSE pages on our store here and then updated the downloadables of all FMSE versions to include a free license file each. This way you should be able to freely use the app with all its editing capabilities unlocked at no cost.

Furthermore, I'll do my best to find and cancel any orders which got stuck at 'Accepted'. It would speed up the process if you send an email to [email protected] (that email still works) about it.

Those of you who might need a license resend, it should still be possible if you email the support email above; though I'm not sure for how much longer. If that expires along the way, you can always use the free license file offered in the relevant downloadable.

So, that marks the end of the FMSE project after 7 cycles (FM17-FM23). It was a memorable journey for me and I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who supported it throughout the years. I'd also like to thank Thanos for his effort and commitment that made this journey possible.

I don't know what the future will bring and if there will be a new editor app developed in-house. Time will tell.