Substance Painter: When Did It Become the Standard in the Game and VFX Industry?

Conclusion up front: March 2016 was the video game industry pivot and the cinema VFX industry is june 2 2016. Substance Painter 2.0 launched March 16, 2016 and immediately triggered explosive adoption. Founder Sébastien Deguy called 2016 “a very pivotal year” and 2016-2018 the period it became ubiquitous. Also the official book Allegorithmic, The Company That Brought Substance to the World of 3D by SÉBASTIEN DEGUY on page 336 confirms this.

Interactive user-growth charts

Key timeline

2013 – First private alpha of Substance Painter shown at GDC
May 2014 – Substance Painter 1.0 public release.
Aug 20, 2015 – 0 → 20 000 users in one year (CEO statement), Ubisoft takes a chance and uses Substance for games like published Rainbow Six.
Sept 14 2015 – Desgraff Sherbrooke 3D class starts; Term 1/3 of the one year program: Modeling and texturing taught in Photoshop etc. While Desgraff teachers are comparing Mamoset, Quixel and Substance because of the rise of PBR.
Dec 2015 – Desgraff Internal testing of emergent Substance completed and purchased; new courses written for the new class groups starting for 2016. We were in advance.
March 16, 2016 – Substance Painter 2.0 released → this is the beggining when the video game industry was going to use Substance has the norm.
June 2, 2016 – 50 000 users; Substance Painter 2.1 enters VFX has the norm also starts here. The same day, a AAA studio in Quebec says to one student (from the sept 2015 class that is soon ending) that because she did not have Substance and "that the training I had followed was outdated" she told the director this 2 years later.
Mid 2016 to 2018 – Tool becomes ubiquitous, the norm in games + film VFX.
Nov 2016 – 75 000 users (Alixiv VP interview), Other schools were struggling with changing to Substance.
February 2018 – More than 100,000 users.
Jan 2019 over 150,000 users – Adobe acquires Allegorithmic.

Sébastien Deguy’s exact words (LinkedIn DM)

“and yes, I would say that 2016 has been a very pivotal year […] 2016-2018 are the years it became ubiquitous including outside game dev”

Full transcription of every text element in the screen capture of the LinkedIn conversation (evidence):

[LinkedIn / Messenger chat with Sébastien Deguy]
David Deschenes – 10:14 AM
Just need to confirm something about the evolution of studio production pipeline history for my students: Did PBR artist software like Substance Painter become mainstream production in most studios in 2016?

David Deschenes – 10:26 AM
If 2016, was it at the 2.0 or the 2.1 release that you felt Substance Painter became a mainstream standard software to have for the industry? (Your answer would be very much appreciated)

Sébastien Deguy – 6:59 PM
Hello 
Painter has been a fast growing tool

Sébastien Deguy – 7:01 PM
and yes, I would say that 2016 has been a very pivotal year

Sébastien Deguy – 7:04 PM
but the success already was clear and trajectory incredible in early 2015

2016-2018 are the years it became ubiquitous including outside game dev

hope that helps!

Here is additional evidence and undeniable proof: the official book Allegorithmic: The Company That Brought Substance to the World of 3D by Sébastien Deguy mentions:

36.2 Substance Painter
We released version 2.0 of Substance Painter for GDC in San Francisco, in March 2016.² The level of anticipation was very high in the 3D community and we were carrying out the launch³ with a lot of excitement, and yet two things didn't go as planned [...] Despite this chaotic start, the success of Substance Painter was confirmed, and in the following years, the tool would establish itself as a "must have" in all video game production pipelines in particular, and beyond.

Book cover:

Page 336:

Also these internal emails at Desgraff show we were following the trends (evidence):

[Email from JoXXe Duxx, 3D teacher – Oct 23, 2015 9:51 AM]
Salut David, check l’offre d’emploi chez Campus ADN, ils cherchent du monde qui connaissent Substance et c'Est pour aller avec les engines de jeux.

Exigences particulières
Avoir une connaissance et une expérience en modélisation 3D de jeu vidéo, des logiciels du métier (3ds Max, Substance, Photoshop, shaders, moteurs de jeu, en particulier Unity 5 et Unreal 4). Expérience en production de jeu vidéo essentielle.*

[Email from Sylvain XRenard , associate director Sherbrooke Campus– Jul. 29, 2021, 7:07 p.m.]
Bonjour,
On a essayé Quixel avant Substance. C’est fin 2015 que Willy avait essayé Quixel et utilisant son Gmail perso, ensuite on a enseigné une licence janvier 2016.
Pour substance, je me rappelle que les profs avaient utilisé leurs compte email perso pour les trials versions, avant de l'on choisisse entre Quixel et Substance. Quand on a acheté substance je me rapelle, tu avais fait un chèque de (5000$ me semble) pour un virement car c'était un USD, c'est pour cela que la balance a été faite ensuite.
Les traces de ces test sont dans les courriels que j’ai échangé donc durant le dernier quart 2015.
J’espère que cela t’aidera.

[Email To-do list – David Deschênes, General Manager, Longueuil Campus – Mon, Dec 7, 2015, 5:11 PM]
Je t'envois ma liste basée sur des discussions avec toi et les profs...
- 3 nouveaux étudiants prog (suivi).
- Mur peinture RS, aussi comptoir cafétéria fait ure…
- Affiches descriptives musée
- Budget, claire des paiements par mois pour laisser la place a des nouveaux logiciels et périphériques (Sylvain commande 12 écrans)
- Logiciels (3dsmax 2016 DONE) Quixels, Marmoset ? Substance?

[Statement from Claudio Moura – Enseignant 3D (Lead teacher) Campus de Longueuil]
La mise à jour des programmes de production 3D a été faite à partir des observations des changements apportés par l’industrie du jeu vidéo. Comme ce fut le cas avec des programmes importants comme Substance Painter et Zbrush, remplaçant Photoshop et Mudbox. Le programme du cours a été mis a jour a la lumière de ces changements techniques au fur et a mesure que les enseignants ont assimilés, testés et mis en oeuvre ces changements.

The text on this page is based from screen captures has showed here (evidence):

Original evidence screenshot showing graphs, Sébastien Deguy conversation, emails, and timeline proving 2016 pivot

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