Yeah this could be true, hence my venturing to look at max or c4d. Its just typical of a .5 release too.

Happymat:

I was lucky when I bought Maya 5, as a I got a free upgrade to V6 about a month or two after, because of the time I'd bought it V5 was almost obselete. Might be worth asking Autodesk dealers where you stand with this type of option

gster:

There are some good plugins for maya, ie shave and haircut is awsome for a shade under 250 quid and is easy to use, though Syflex cloth is very pricey atm, though is better than mayas cloth system. Maxs plugins are just great all have a good price, but the great thing with it is its inclusion of character studio which sounds great to use and isnt half as much trouble as standard rigging, but dont quote me on it LOL just incase Im talking crap!

Nitroliq: Yeah Vray is STILL being tested in the Beta version for Maya, we checked it out here recently at work, though word is comparing it with MR is as like comparing software, its all swings and roundabouts, but apparently its easier to setup but it renders slower...typical!

Cheers
Jay