Is this the same package as seen on USCF Sales, Amazon, etc.? The packaging image is different, so I’m slightly suspicious. But if it is the same . . . ####!
It’s certainly representing itself to be that.
Cover graphics are all wrong. (I suppose that could be a pre-relase graphic… maybe. Or possibly the UK version? “Excaliber” seems to be the publisher of it - and the graphic matches what’s on Excaliber’s website. It doesn’t match the green cover graphic I’ve seen elsewhere.)
My understanding is Fritz 12 gives a 1 year Playchess account, not three months as in the blurb. (Could be wrong about that, though - maybe that was a pre-release offer.)
The typos in the blurb don’t inspire confidence.
Maybe, just possibly, this is some type of operation that makes $1 profit on their wholesale cost or something like that.
Me, I’ll save the nickels to pay the $60.00 or so (seen it a little less outside of USCF) and not take the risk of getting taken (or getting pirated software - whatever.) Not to mention supporting USCF in the process thereby. I still think, mostly, you get what you pay for. 
I think it is a “good” Fritz 12. The reason price is lower is 3 months membership on playchess.com as opposed to 12 months offered by “normal” offerings.
I have not owned Fritz previously but am thinking about getting it. Aren’t there two different versions (independent of the 12-or-so ‘releases’)? What is the difference, i.e., what is not included in the cheaper version, which I suspect this one must be?
I am also looking for a capability to analyze and archive my OWN games, and also to create easily portable graphics of game positions, or problems, that I can share with people electronically. Will Fritz provide this? (After earlier advice from this forum, I did try “SCID” - which as was predicted, has nice features but in some areas is not user-friendly - and does not yield graphics that are easily portable… to me, at least. But it is a nice program and the creators went to the trouble of making it available, for no cost… for that I commend and thank them.)
Will Fritz, in this presumably lower version offering, provide this capability as well?
Also I have seen some posters (elsewhere) with a preference for earlier releases - esp. Fritz 11. Can anyone comment on that, and why one release might be preferred over another, even more ‘current’ one?
Thanks in advance for advice on these points.
Fritz 12 has a new user interface that looks more like Aquarium’s GUI. They also give you the one year of playing on line plus free access to what was previously paid instructional/news commentary on their site. Wait a bit and check the Thursday deal section at wholesalechess.com. They will often put Fritz on sale for 40% to 50% off.
You can use this web site to create diagrams for sharing:
jinchess.com/chessboard/composer/
You can create the position with Fritz, use the “Copy Position” function, and then paste it into the form at the web site (they both use FEN for the position description). The web site will generate a graphics file that you can download to your computer.
Jim