We"ve been waiting to hear from Microsoft about a launch date for Visual Studio 2013 for some time and this week we finally got an answer. The company has revealed it will hold a virtual launch event for the software development tool on November 13th.
While Microsoft is promoting that date as the official release for the software, ZDNet.com reports that MSDN subscribers can download the RTM version on October 18th, the same day Windows 8.1 launches. Visual Studio 2013 will go on sale via volume licensing customers on November 1st and from retail resellers sometime soon after that date, though nothing specific was announced.
The various SKUs will keep the same prices as the current Visual Studio 2012 versions. However, people who own Visual Studio 2012 Professional will be able to purchase a Visual Studio Professional 2013 Upgrade. From November 1st to January 31st, 2014, the price for the upgrade will be $99. After January 31st, the price goes up to $299.
In related news, Microsoft has updated the Visual Studio blog with a look back into recent history at the various start pages that have been developed for the software and a look at the start page for Visual Studio 2013. Microsoft states:
In Visual Studio 2013 we aimed for a cleaner look to the start page that makes the acquisition of information easier. The videos in Premium and Ultimate, for example, use easier to see icons that group related topics. Videos are surfaced through an RSS feed that we can update new videos that could previously only be done as part of a Visual Studio Update.
The start page also uses the system’s default browser instead of the one in Visual Studio for the first time.