Regarding the pricing: I have to say that I think that the Pro Edition is overpriced by today's standards and competitors. I'm here and actively using gamestudio since Feb 2001 and I think I remember that the Pro Edition was even more expensive back then. I've spent a lot of my money on all the Pro Editions over the years and I don't regret it, but I would not be mad at all if the price was lowered anytime soon (addressing jcl's 1st post in this thread) and I'm pretty sure no other Pro user would feel tricked, too.
The competition and the prices for game development suites (btw. google does not show gamestudio when you search for this term, this could be done better)/ engines have changed and I've heard and read multiple times that people choose gamestudio over Unity for the lower price. Still, 899Eur is a lot of cash for most hobby developers (I assume that's the primary target group of A8) and I really think 499-649Eur would be a much better and attractive and reasonable price which IMO (probably) would result in more profit (maybe do this change when 8.5 gets released... and advertise it!).