There are other cheaper alternatives in 3D packages, as I've mentioned before I use Carrara and there used to be cheaper professional packages. Softimage used to have a base package, which was more affordable, Lightwave used to be cheaper (I think Modo is probably about the same price LW used to be) and Maxon still does their base package of Cinema 4D, for £650. But the last time I actually properly looked at Cinema 4D was when version 10 was brand spanking new.
I think it is a shame Softimage stopped their base package, because when it came out Softimage was doing a good job at competing with 3DS Max & Maya and offered a cheaper alternative. But these days, besides the mod tool it's in the high price range. Shame because I may have actually bought it. Still for anybody with a low budget they're expensive, Carrara (even the Pro version) is still pretty cheap though and damn awesome in my opinion. Though my version is version 5, so it exports to fewer file formats, I think version 7 has a .x exporter (maybe as a plugin), so I've never used Carrara with DBP, but glad it has a .fbx for use with Unity.
Blender does compete with its large ranged of file formats, but these other packages are compatible with many file formats and have plugins for where there are gaps, but for more special formats, like say, .mesh for Ogre then you'll probably need a converter to make up for it.
