The S49s have been on sale all year, which also lends to your prediction.
However, I just can’t imagine them ignoring M+/Maschine to launch something completely new. That would be the mother of all slaps in the face to loyal users who invested in their latest “flagship”.
Please amend your prediction to include some love for M+ and Maschine 
lol
Heh. I’m probably Maschine blind because (like you mentioned in your last post) I am an NI software only user, so I’ve never tried it. KK needs a big upgrade and I hope it gets them. I will hope for Maschine too. 
I honestly don’t want to deflate this theory. But the same “social media person” at NI said the exact same thing when responding to a comment on instagram over 6-7 months ago about what is going on at NI.
They also had the same response to another user when they changed the logo however many months ago.
And now they responded again, with the exact same unedited response that you screenshot.
So in the last year they have posted that exact same response a bunch of times
Do you know what products come out when they use that tag line on social media? The last time they used it was when they changed the logo, teased that response to a user, everyone got hyped and the expansion and play series for the Bazzazian dropped. Prior to that it was a play series following that NI response and prior to that was another play series and artist expansion.
This is an NI social media patterns. Not teasing for new hardware. If you go on the NI forum employees of NI have already stated Maschine is far far down the list with no one knowing what is going on. They are working on Traktor right now from what I gather. And since the sale of NI they lost a lot of software people. So it’s only a team that jumps from product to product now.
I also think that it would make sense a Komplete Kontrol standalone, with the possibility to use all the play series instruments, and kontakt libraries. Not sure about Reaktor blocks stuff - almost all of the new products that NI have released has mainly 8 knobs, which is optimal to the komplete kontrol/Maschine hardware. This way they would have a product that would complement and not canibalize Maschine plus. This would be a good thing and would not leave anyone unhappy.
Then they could focus on the komplete kontrol and abandon completely Maschine plus - which is already at NI s mature state, which in reality is half baked - so that they could abandon komplete kontrol - which would be in its already half baked state - 4 years years from now, when a new hardware would be released.
Perfect NI roadmap. Francisco is happy
October 1st they will release kontakt standalone, like maschine + but with keys. Same project manager, very similar software, same architecture but with keys.
So instead of making maschine+ (the mpc copy) a decent device with software updates, they are going to release an mpc keys copy?
If they did that it would sell like crazy I’m sure. Unless they cripple it of course than it will suffer the same problems as Maschine+
One doesn’t exclude the other.
I’ll also bet there’s far more interest in a keys version with pads than something with just pads to which you can hook up a MIDI keyboard. That would bring more money to the bank which would be great for all NI users.
My 2 cents:
Customer services is actually very good now. I used to be NI’s harshest and most vocal critic at one time as it didn’t seem to exist, but now, they’re quick to respond relatively speaking compared to other brands and make it easy to deal with them. Are you speaking of something specific, or just peddling stuff you’ve heard?
Also, M+ is pretty much a finished product. I love mine (have 2 for some reason). Had 2 freezes shortly after buying and didn’t lose my work when I rebooted, which I thought was great, but the crashes/freezes don’t happen for me anymore.
There’s a lot of disdain for NI and I used to get it. They were a nightmare to deal with and shit used to crash and when I couldn’t get any help it used to drive me crazy, but they seem to be the opposite of that now and I think the M+ is close to my perfect all-in-one workstation groovebox, by virtue of the fact I haven’t found anything better for a combination of speedy workflow and being fun to use equaling a LOT of creative output.
I have around 35 grooveboxes currently and i’ve owned a lot more. I’m not claiming to be an authority, but I know what I like and what gets me results and this is the best i’ve found to date. That said, some people need specific features and if this doesn’t have them then maybe that’s your grievance, but maybe you could explain why you think it’s been abandoned?
I refer to Loopop choosing this as the centerpiece for his live rig too and we all know he can use anything he wants too because he’s Loopop…
I guess the problem is NI. That is just the way they are . The good thing with hardware standalone, is that it will survive with or without support. Hardware dependent of computer software, will become obsolete much faster , once unsupported
True that 
Why?
I love grooveboxes. Why i’ve kept so many is because I like digging one out once in a while and having a go, which sometimes leads to me not putting it back for weeks.
I’ve had reasonable support when needed. Generally quick answers are best serviced off the forum, and the folks there know their stuff. Sometimes you don’t get the answer you want; but you normally get one. But compared to other folks I’ve needed to contact (Soundtoys, Ableton) by far the slowest was Ableton. NI was quicker than both.
I guess the issue they’re grappling with is installing libraries is a tad trickier than a single file VST. Moving them around can cause problems and since they have software that is designed to make loads of stuff work together; that can go wrong. Not sure how other lib managers manage this. The slickest I’ve seen is Output Arcade, which seems to download the libraries in a very fast/light way. No deep sampling there so probably easier/lighter to manage, but that does seem to be the way forward.
I sometimes wonder if this is just the bottom of a trough for them. Since I started producing again, I noticed that one brand makes headway then falls back. Ableton got loads of love for Live 11, but then fell back with recent issues with the new warping algorithms, the rush to Push 3 etc etc. So NI is on the back foot, but plenty of composers are still using them, and doubtless many hobbyists (myself included), enjoy the simplicity of the Play Series and have few complaints. If they can simplify the infrastructure around it (and especially install/uninstall/move) that would be a marked improvement on the manual hacking you have to do today. I’d be interested to see how NI compares to other sample library makers, and if there’s any true advantages to be had - or if this sort of thing affects them all.
Unfortunately, for NI standalone and the NI eco-system. Everything even sound packs you buy from them are tied to their servers and NI. You can’t use the item until you register it. The worst part is when they stop supporting hardware. It’s a matter of time before it’s not on the server. Then you have a paper weight. The servers go down or NI and your hardware will as well when you need to use the server.
It’s already been discussed on the NI forum. For example. All it takes is from them to stop support for Maschine. Let’s say they abandon it. If after it is abandoned you have the fatal Maschine+ start-boot loop that happens at the most random of times. The only way to fix is a hard rest. At the end of the hard rest you have to log into you NI account. Well your S.O.L on that one. Same if a few years pass and you buy a used one. You won’t be able to disconnect from their NI account and use yours. Visit the NI forum and the amount of people that buy the Maschine+ and can’t use it out the box because of the authorization process is staggering. It’s sad. A week and a half ago someone from Spain bought it and couldn’t use it for the entire week or weekend. Was on the forum. Trying to get it going. No response from NI for the entirety. By the end He returned the maschine.
Once NI stops support for a hardware product and becomes legacy. It truly does.
The issue for me is I want a product to last. I don’t want to see paper weights and NI is making paper weight hardware.
The bugs in Maschine+ are sad show stopper bugs. It’s half baked. I’ve had it since the beginning. After how many years of having it. I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s not the product it should be.
They have already stated on socials that it is not at all a priority for them. Maschine in general.
When I got my first maschine (the original when it was released. The talk on forums was about how they abandon Komplete Kore. I didn’t understand. Now they have done the same route with Maschine. It’s honestly just sad. And I understand why those customers were yelling to the moon and it was falling on deaf ears. We are in the same boat.
Why I have moved back to the older Mpcs. 1000 and 2500. Because in 3-5 years these machines will still work. Easy to work on. You solder your switches. No VST’s that need to be authorized on a standalone unit. It just works.
I abandoned NI after they stopped Komplete Kore. I was seriously p***ed
You’re tripping 🫠
I’m happy for users that are happy with NI or whatever they use or have purchased.
I don’t know many people with experience with Pro Audio that would say NI makes trash products. Atleast, I wouldn’t agree to that. Most of their goods are good. That isn’t the point nor the reason I created this thread. So, if you love your latest NI product good for you. That’s kind of irrelevant to the discussion.
The discussion is “What’s eating Native Instruments?”. Clearly referring or suggesting that some thing(s) about the brand have changed or been changing for the worst.
We have the facts of sudden and premature EOL (Kore, Jam, iM2), Corporate aquisition, mergers, layoffs, lack of updates, roadmap or transparency to support the question “What’s eating Native Instruments?”
You have to be a new user, new to Pro Audio production or perhaps just not a very discerning individual to not notice that updates are lacking for their flagship products both in terms of fixes and features. You’d also have to be living under a rock, no experience with any competitors or have very low standards if you think NI development support for Maschine, Komplete or M+ has been acceptable.
Sure, this is just my opinion but is it really? Is it really an opinion that NI Dev support for their flagship products is lacking? Really?lol
I cram to see how NI products having piss poor Dev support isn’t a solid indisputable fact at this point. A fact that no new HW launch will change.
In fact, releasing new HW confirms the point of this thread. Especially if Maschine/Komplete software isn’t updated to address the shit users have been requesting for years.
Answering your question seriously (and potentially opening another can of worms here) but here goes…
NI is now part of a VC backed fund which often opens up question marks about how well run a business is likely to be. History tends to show with businesses like this; a lack of interest in the consumer and an eventual exit from the owning business. However sometimes franchise style owners can work well because they have a goal of selling the business, and so these folks invest to ensure the brand is worth what they say it is.
In music things are a bit different. Let’s take the modern equivelant of NI - a brand like Arturia or Ableton. These brands are (seemingly) fiercly independent. They charge reasonably for what they offer. Or you have the unicorn model of something like Apple where the software is paid for by hardware.
As a buyer we know all businesses are typically out there for profit above all; potentially with the exception of small, labour of love boutique makers (Digitalis, Valhalla etc.)
Is it inevitable that all manufacturers end up in the same way as NI, or is it possible to vote with your wallet (for now at least?!) To Benn Jordan’s point in his video - he seems to say that a brand like Focurite is a conglomerate, but it does seem to have a repuation of making reasonably priced products at reasonable quality; so there are companies who don’t have the same fate of underinvestment as say NI. In another video; Benn also pointed out that either consistent friendly customer prices or a rent-to-own model is often a sign of a company that is pro-customer choice fwiw.
Edit: given what a minefield this is, I feel that it would be cool to have some sort of list of companies that are solid places to put your money (if such a list doesn’t exist already.)
I use the M+ most days, got around 150 projects going on it. It’s been absolutely solid for me since around September last year. I’ve pushed the CPU to the max on some projects too and despite hitting the max, it’s super stable.
It requires registration to get it up and running, which needs a user to set up an account and then authorise it and any packs a user owns, but once it’s running it’s, …er, running. I can head into the woods with this, with cable, battery and headphones and jam with it, much like any other hardware that can run from a battery. I don’t need to be connected to wifi.
I’ve got a 100s of gb of my own samples too, so i’m not tied to any expansions that I don’t want and there’s no reason I couldn’t sell those I own even if they do abandon Maschine as they work in any daw.
Also there’s no reason I couldn’t just sell it set up as is, with my expansions, if they do some day abandon it. It’s much like any other hardware really in that respect, especially modern MPCs.
I also have a 2500 and an MPC One and I know they can fail at any time, much like this and if you’d rather use either of those then fine. My 2500 jogwheel has broken from resting a keyboard on it by accident and good luck sourcing one of those for reasonable money.
It’s all hypothetics though. Nobody outside of NI knows the long term plan for Maschine, so predicting the doomsday of the Maschine with no insider knowledge comes across as incohesive ramblings. Better to stick to facts and explain the failings of it as is.
It’s like the internet is determined to destroy the brand after they’ve finally nailed a product that I didn’t know I needed until I bought one. I only bought one because of the sale last year, because I wanted to try it for myself and my personal judgement differs from the naysayers who I sometimes wonder if they’ve actually owned one.