I mean more so than usual. How are they brining the hate these days? XBLA. Yeah I know, it’s that spiffy cool service that allows us to buy games online and play demos on our console. That’s cool. Except well, it’s not.
I’ve been reading a lot of stuff recently about how Microsoft forces developers to charge for the stuff they release on XBLA, even if they don’t want to. See that last part? Microsoft forces developers to charge for extra game content, even if the developers don’t want to.
What we have here is simply a difference of opinion on how to maximize the return on Gears of War – something both Epic and Microsoft want to do. While we create products like Gears because we love games, and we have a passion for making them, at the end of the day this is a business for both companies and how we earn our living.
Epic thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to give the maps away for free and Microsoft thinks the way to maximize the return on Gears of War is to sell the maps. So what we’ve agreed to do is to put these maps on sale at a reasonable price then make them free a few months later. They did this with the original Halo2 map pack and it was a huge success. Lots of people bought the maps and lots of people downloaded them when they became free. That’s what is going to happen and it seems like a fair compromise for both companies and a win-win for Gears players.
Well thanks a fucking a lot. A two fold thanks here. One, thanks Epic for going to battle for us. Sorry you lost, but at least we’ll get the stuff you wanted to give away at some point. At least you had the clout to able to stand up for awhile. Two, thanks a lot fucking Microsoft. Thanks for charging us for things the developers wanted to give us for free. Really, I’m so happy about that I can’t even tell you.
This isn’t about entitlement, this about Microsoft wanting to nickel and dime us for something that the creators of the mother fucking game want to give to us, the loyal customers. This is about Microsoft losing sight of the bigger picture. This about Microsoft losing some of the customer love they’ve built up ever since launching Live on the original XBox.
See, this isn’t the only time this has happened. Other developers have mentioned similar problems on message boards here and there.
Great. So now, on the service I pay $60 a year for, I now get jacked of free stuff so Microsoft can make up some of their hardware costs.
Oh, and you think that’s rough, well how about paying for the free stuff we get now on the PC. Microsoft thinks we should.
Taking all of these things that everybody has come to expect for free and now yanking them back and trying to sell them isn’t going to fly with the Windows platform–not with Epic and not with the big publishers.
He’s right, that won’t fly with us PC gamers…but I’m think more than a few publishers would be pretty happy about (I’m looking at you EA).
Microsoft is really missing the point here and looking at this short term. Yeah, in the short term they are making more money. Great. I’m excited. But are they building or alienating a customer base? How do you get people to use your system? By giving them stuff. How do you get people to appreciate your system? By giving them stuff.
It’s that simple. Microsoft just isn’t thinking this through. Sure, charge for some of it. Lovely. But charging for everything? Charging for crap like Horse Armor (an absolute success, sold about a million times…for Horse Armor. Ugh). Charging for things the developers want to give away for free? Over charging for content? That’s not going to work.
So what’s the solution? The PS3. Yeah, I know. But think about it. What’s going to define this generation of consoles? Not graphics, they can both do some amazing things now. It’s going to be content they provide online. It’s going to be that which they give to their consumers on their respective services. So as soon as the PS3′s Home service, or whatever it is, gets up off it’s ass and starts to get things done for real, XBLA will have to pay attention and react accordingly. Hopefully.
Or maybe Microsoft will wake up. And maybe I’ll get that moon pony I’ve always wanted.
What Would Matt Do: Sit Microsoft down and explain longer term view to them.
Recent Comments