At Microsoft’s Ignite 2020 event last week they took the opportunity to announce that a new, perpetual licence version of Office would be released sometime in Q3 or Q4 of 2021.

Whilst details around the release were scarce, including the new name of the product, they did confirm both Windows and Mac users would be able to access it.

Previous thinking was that Office 2019 would be the last perpetually licenced version of the Office suite, with Microsoft pushing people towards Microsoft 365 (a subscription-based licensing model).

However, Microsoft never confirmed or denied those rumours (till now), instead stating they’d always make the decision based on their customers preferences.

Microsoft 365 is their subscription service, offering users the most up-to-date tools with the benefits of users being able to receive support, product updates and security patches from Microsoft as needed.

Office 2019 however is a one-time cost, which means whilst users only have to pay a onetime, upfront cost, they don’t get the benefit of ongoing upgrade options. Instead, they need to buy the next version of Office at full price.

Further announcements to come from Ignite 2020 included information on the next versions of Microsoft’s server products, SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, Project Server and Skype for Business Server which will also be released inf Q3 or Q4 of 2021, and will only be available through a subscription-based licencing agreement.