Licenses for sublime text 2 just said “and future updates”. I remember the “lifetime” thing being a selling point on producthunt. This was back in 2013 though, and the weird way the licensing change was handled made me switch to emacs.

Before sublime text 3 all updates were included in the single license, not just major revision updates. This was back in 2012.

Before the one license=one version switch in 2013 the license stated “and future updates” which they did, but they switched to needing to pay for new licenses for some reason. I remember that being the primary reason I switched to emacs.

After having been shafted by sublime text I will never believe anything called a “lifetime subscription” is such.

A “lifetime subscription” is just a “until we decide otherwise” subscription