- Full version ($299)

- Upgrade version ($199)

Alright.  You see that and you realize “Ok, self, if I have a previous version of Visual Studio, they’ll give me a discount for upgrading.”  But then you look at the “before you buy” note about Upgrade eligibility:

To qualify for upgrade pricing, you must be a licensed user of an earlier version of Microsoft Visual Studio or any other developer tool (including free developer tools, such as Visual Studio Express Editions or Eclipse).

(Emphasis mine.)  So to qualify for the “Upgrade” pricing, all I have to do is download and install free software – and one of the products that qualifies isn’t even Microsoft’s software!  (I guess they’re concerned people are migrating away from Visual Studio to Eclipse, so they want to give those users incentive to come back?)

That being the case, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to offer a “Full” version at all.  The product they ship you is virtually identical; they just change the packaging a bit.

Marketing at its finest.