Adobe Edge & Muse to be Subscription/Cloud-Only, Not Part of CS6

[UPDATE (April 24th) — Adobe now says, "we are however still considering other purchase options for Edge"...]

Adobe has two major new products in free public beta right now – Adobe Edge for developing HTML5 animations (like Flash Pro but outputs HTML5) and Adobe Muse which allows designers to create websites as easily as creating a layout for print. Adobe says interest in these betas has far exceeded their expectations.

Both tools will be shipping in their first official release in 2012. And while it’s been known for a while that Muse would be “subscription-only,” we now know too that Edge will likely follow the same path. Furthermore, neither will be included in the Creative Suite.

At a recent Adobe Analyst meeting during the question and answer session, it was revealed that Adobe is planning for both new design tools to be available only via subscription or through their optional “Creative Cloud” software rental offering – and neither will be a part of CS6 – in other words, they will only be sold separately.

Here it is at the 33-minute mark of the Q&A:

Q: You talked about Edge and Muse… Just wondering if those will be included in the CS6 upgrade, or only available through the Creative Cloud?

A: So, we’ve announced Edge and Muse, and they will be available in the CS6 timeframe. They’ll be available as point product subscriptions and through the Creative Cloud; the current thinking is not that we will be adding them to Creative Suite. Again as [CEO] Shantanu pointed out, we do expect and anticipate adding and driving more value into the Creative Cloud, that is the destination that we believe adds the most value to our customers, and we want to continue to drive people in that direction.

So while all current applications in the Creative Suite (like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.) will continue to be available with perpetual/permanent licensing in CS6, and sold either standalone or as part of a larger suite, neither Edge nor Muse will be offered in these customary ways. This is according to Adobe’s shared current thinking, which of course is always subject to change.

See more from this analyst call here.

[UPDATE (January 25th) — Adobe now says that Edge will not be included in the Creative Cloud initially, but is "planned for a future release."]

In other news, Adobe Edge has a new free beta version slated to be out soon available now – the Preview 4 release, and here’s an advance a look:

Get the scoop:

• Read more about Adobe’s Creative Cloud, including the impact on Acrobat & Lightroom.
• See when CS6 is scheduled to be released, with big changes to Adobe’s upgrade policy.
• Watch the latest sneak peek videos for Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and more.