EdGrip wrote: ↑28 Feb 2018
One of Reason's selling points is that it's a complete "virtual studio" package that doesn't need any additional purchases to start making good music (especially electronic music.)
Potential new customers expect the inbuilt Instruments to be broadly competitive with current electronic music software instruments. Thor was not. Europa and Grain are. Simple. New devices should not only be optional purchases in the shop - that would be silly. By that logic
ALL the devices in Reason should be optional purchases, and young newbies should have to work out from an uninspiring pallette of fuck-all what devices they need to buy before they can actually have fun, having never so much as programmed a 4/4 kick. By that logic there would be some arbitrary cut-off date - say 2009 - after which no new devices are ever added.
First off, what gorgon just said above - there's plenty, has been plenty, and they don' t have to be "Cutting Edge" as you are suggesting - the ecosystem is built and there's no reason to pile on synths they think you should use: we could purchase what we need or want ourselves via RE or VST.
Stuff selling these days are crappy remakes of prehistoric synths that died off ages ago for nostalgia factor, you couldn't pay me to use them but they're certainly popular! The early Subtractor is still, by far, one of the most capable "synths" out there, and if its not fat/slim/cool/different/creative enough slap it in a combi and go wild! I can combi some subs and older devices and blow-the-fuck-away any "modern" synth-or-otherwise sounds with pure creativity alone, and likely so could most of you.
Not to mention thor mael, samplers, drum machines, a bunch of effects with umpteen REs and VSTs should you feel the vast endless-possibilities-pallet is too meager for your taste. There is absolutely ZERO logic that anyone should have to be fed devices at this point as the "upgrade" strategy for Props or their existing and future customers.
Everyone is better off getting core DAW updates and having the choice of devices to purchase - hell this is EXACTLY what propellerheads designed with the Rack Extensions in mind, and now with VSTs to go along with it there's absolutely no good reason to shovel default devices that many people have no need of.