Microsoft forcing developers to make customers pay for MP downloads

Original Thread - http://forums.xbox.com/1/11158911/ShowPost.aspx#11158911

From the April Issue of GameInformer:
"But is there something that Microsoft isn't telling us? Could there be significant free content available in the Market place that the company is withholding?

Game Informer spoke with multiple contacts within the industry about the process that publishers and developers have to go through to get their content on Xbox Live Marketplace. We also found out that there is free content that companies want to offer, but Microsoft's mandating that consumers pay for it.

When a publisher has goods it wants to put up for sale, those prices must first be submitted to Microsoft. As part of an agreement with the company, publishers have signed a document that hands over final say to Microsoft regarding Market place pricing. From here, Microsoft takes a look at the marktet and prices items to maintain a balance among items of similiar value.

Game Informer talked to Aron Greenburg, Xbox Live/Xbox 360 group product manager who denied that Microsoft has final say over Market place pricing. "It's ultimitaly up to the publisher," he told us.

However, according to our sources, it's not up to publishers, and free content is being with held from consumers under the speculated motive of Microsoft wanting to make gamers accustomed to paying money for goods above and beyond wallpapers. Said one industry insider we talked to, "they want you in the store and they want you buying stuff that is at full price. "We've even been told that the rules of the game may vary depending on hoW much clout your company has with Microsoft.

Greenberg denied knowledge of any motive to restrict free content, but admitted that the company does indeed adjust download prices. "there may be some situation or unusual case where there's content that's significant in nature and it would make other content look out of line, but I'm not aware of any case where we've told them that they couldn't offer it for free."

Recently the following post was made over in NEOGAF in light of the recent 1UP podcast:


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147804

Seems MS doesn?t want you to have cool DLC for free: Gears,Epic, & gamers get screwed #1
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PREFACE: This is my GAF editorial, if you find holes in this, have at it.

Bizarre Creations says they wanted Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved to be FREE over Xbox Live, but Microsoft wouldn't let them do this. They ultimately reached a compromise and charged the lowest amount Microsoft will allow, 400 points ($5).

Back in November Pat Wilson, developer at Garage Games, announced that their team had just finished making a FREE downloadable update (that featured bug fixes, 11 new multiplayer maps, and new gametypes) and that it was in Microsoft?s hands for certification. Weeks later in his blog, Pat explained to fans why the free content will NEVER be made available. (The site he blogged at, angrydev.com, is no more, but you can still find the info he posted on numerous sites) On the record, Garage Games says "...we are unable to come to an agreement with our publisher for the Marble Blast Ultra update." Seeing as Garage Games is both the publisher AND developer of Marble Blast Ultra, you need to read between the lines. The gist of Pat?s blog says Microsoft won?t allow them to release free content for their game, but he doesn?t go into what their motivation might be, but allow me to.

Reasons allowing publishers to release free content is BAD for Microsoft:
1.) Microsoft gets a cut of all microtransactions, and doesn?t make anything from free content, the Xbox division wants to make profit this gen
2.) It makes publishers who make pay content (something Microsoft wants to encourage) like EA look bad. Why would I want to buy stadiums for Madden or cheats for Tiger Woods when other publishers make kickass content like map packs for free? Consumers would begin to question the valu

 

can you sum this up in 100 words or less? its 5 am, and i cnt b bothered to read... sounds like it got summat 2 do with ma 360...

 

It's like this Ewok-Kenobi. Let me explain it in a way you can understand.

Jedi GOOD..... Sith BAD..... Jedi GOOD..... Sith BAD.....

comprender???

 

umm... NO! WT[H] does this have to do with Sony??!? You have the concept all wrong. You fail. Go away and DIE!

 

If you can't be bothered to read the post Ewok_Jedi then please visit this site for a summary. kthx.


Edit: LordVader104 you should check it out too.

 

I'm going to have to echo what Apollo is saying. Please post something conducive to the discussion instead of merely saying "tl, dr", which is considered spam.

 

But, you can download stuff for free. See Dead Rising, or Test Drive Unlimited, or Crackdown, or Saints Row... am I missing something here?

 

Keep in mind MS also wants to be able to offer bonus freebies and DLC to it's Gold subscribers, too. So something that might look to be free for you if you have the Gold membership might have a price or not even be offered to Silver members. At least that's my impression of it, but being a total newb to the 360, I could be wrong about that since it's still a few more days before I'm converted over to Silver. MP does offers stuff for free beyond the themes and pics, but limited time promotions is an age-old marketing technique.

On one hand, yeah, it really sucks that MS is forcing DLC to be priced despite the game company wanting to offer it for free. Afterall, it's not like the company can just sell the additional content in stores on a disk for it's 360 customers. MS doesn't allow that and as far as I know they haven't set up the 360 to accept additional content in that fashion (or at least that's what's been said publicly and in forums). It's really going to bite when 360 users have to pay for a DLC that Sony and PC users might get for free...especially if they start getting greedy with the pricing of such DLC. If MS starts making players pay through the nose and players have no other recourse to improve their games but through MP, it only generates ill feelings against MS from both the players and game designers...which ultimately might come back to bite them hard in the rear.

On the other hand, they are using MS's network, bandwidth, and support to distribute that DLC...is it only fair that MS is able to receive some sort of compensation from that? I can also see where it would make sense for MS to govern overall prices in MP, making sure one company doesn't offer everything for free...including content that would normally cost players of other games several hundred MP. At the same time, assumably that also might protect gamers from companies that would want to make their DLC over-expensive. And, of course, like any company that's in business, MS would like to make a profit on their consoles, and this is where they'd likely see the best return in their investment.


So, really, if this is happening is it really a surprise (be it from the generic business point of view or from what we all specifically know about MS's past business practices)? If MS is actually trying to be overall fair and reasonable with the pricing plans (both for themselves and those they interact with), then I don't see so much a problem with it because you KNOW going in they're in the business to make money. But if MS abuses it and starts getting rediculous with how much consumers must pay for basic DLC, then they're only shooting themselves in the foot and opening a door for Sony (once they get their act together) or other companies to exploit.