No more $10,000 patches! MS Continues to cave in

On 06/27/2013 at 11:51 AM by Chris Iozzi

HOORAY!!

Another win for gamers thanks to a red-faced Microsoft. That pesky policy that makes developers dish out a hefty $10,000 fee to patch their games, even indie games, has been dropped. This fee came to light when Phil Fish refused to pay for a patch for the Xbox Live version of Fez for a bug that would erase some peoples game saves. This lofty fee kept a lot of great indie games from appearing on Xbox Live out of fear that their games might release with an undetected game breaking bug that might be too costly to fix. Stack this on top of the fact the Indie Games section on XBL Arcade became nearly impossible to find after a recent dashboard update. Microsoft sent signals that they were looking to turn their back on the indie game market. This was bad timing, as gamers like us were just starting to embrace these small but sometimes forward thinking entries to our hobby.

One again Microsoft got the message that gamers want to play games. *SHOCK* Its just sad it took something like this fiasco for them to listen and react. Keep speaking with your wallets, kids!

transmet2033

06/27/2013 at 11:53 AM

Here is the big question. Will Phil Fish even bother to patch Fez at this point?

Chris Iozzi Staff Alumnus

06/27/2013 at 02:35 PM

Fish isn't bringing Fez 2 to XBLA, I'm guessing he is done with SM, no solid word yet but would be nice if he releases the patch, its already completed so would'nt take much.

BrokenH

06/27/2013 at 12:00 PM

It's nice of them. Still not getting an Xbox 1 right away though. Then again, I don't get any new console right away. However, my next this generation console will be a PS4. (eventually) Aka, I'm showing support to the company that supported me first.

06/29/2013 at 10:55 AM

"support the company that supported you first" indeed

daftman

06/27/2013 at 12:07 PM

Holy freakin' crap! $10,000 to patch a game? What the bloody heck were they thinking? Man, I'm glad that policy is gone. Uselessly expensive red tape, that's what that was.

06/27/2013 at 02:36 PM

the thinking was if they have a stiff punishment for updating it will push the devs to release a FINISHED product and not a half baked one to meet a deadline, then spam updates as it keeps failing. Not the way to do it though.

06/27/2013 at 02:46 PM

Yeah, and Nintendo thought that if they made the N64 difficult to program for, then only the best devs would make games for it, and we know how that turned out

Julian Titus Senior Editor

06/27/2013 at 12:15 PM

Has this been dropped across the board? Meaning, does this apply to current gen, or is this a new policy moving into the Xbox One?

06/27/2013 at 12:29 PM

That's a good query,Julian. Hopefully it applies to the 360 as well!

06/27/2013 at 02:37 PM

Havn't heard yet, Julian. My guess is it is. If they re-instate it later they will just piss off more people.

Justin Matkowski Staff Alumnus

06/27/2013 at 01:01 PM

I was unaware about the $10K patch system until I read about Phil Fish's plan to leave Fez unpatched, and it truly is a disgusting business practice. A fee for patches in general is poor form, let alone one that charges indie developers the same fee as a publisher like Activision. I think the reason for this is Microsoft most likely sees indie development as a growing and thriving culture of the industry, and most like the future due to how many developers are shutting down due to bloated AAA budget costs. They are covering their asses for next gen in case the AAA gaming world suffers a crash.

It's a step in the right direction for sure, but a retraction doesn't completely forgive draconian business ethics. Being an independent artist myself, I can't imagine being slammed by such a fee simply for wanting to correct a bug that was unbeknowst to me at the time of launch. A lot of indie developers make little to no money for YEARS while they work to complete a title, and to see M$ bank off of their financial hardship by charging them an unjust fee to keep their title in the marketplace so they can earn a living is complete bullshit. Sorry Microsoft, you've lost me for next gen.

06/27/2013 at 02:40 PM

We both heard about the fee due to the fiasco with Fez, as most of us. Microsoft better be ready to start kissing more butt.

Ranger1

06/27/2013 at 02:29 PM

It's sad when the consumers have to be the watchdog for evil industry practices. However, M$ is learning some very hard, very valuable lessons from its arrogance. May they stay humbled. And this coming from someone whose fave console this gen is the 360.

06/27/2013 at 02:39 PM

Same here. I never had anything against Sony but XB was just more affordable and Xbox Live is great.

SanAndreas

06/27/2013 at 09:59 PM

At the end of the day, Tami, it's all down to the wallet vote. Microsoft - as well as Sony and Nintendo - generally don't change their minds on bad policies until it hits them in the pocketbook, especially if a competitor is offering a better deal. I'm grateful for Sony and the PS4 in the coming generation... but this was only after Sony learned its own harsh lessons on arrogance in the current gen.

06/27/2013 at 10:01 PM

That was pretty much what I was saying, Andrew.

Chunopo

06/27/2013 at 08:19 PM

I never even knew about that cost! Microsoft really are taking the piss recently, they deserve all the backlash they get and more!

NSonic79

07/07/2013 at 09:56 PM

this is great news but in MS defense I can see why the would charge such a fee. Who would want to buy a game off XBLA or XBLIG only to find out it's buggy as hell. Any developer could just dump a game on there for a quick buck and just patch is as many times as they want if the fee was minimal. Developers better make sure they get their title right the first time. And even if they did need an update I'm told the first one was free.

Let's see if what I mentioned above will happen now that the fees are gone. Hopefully not for this would be a case where I'd love to be wrong on.

PixlBit

No more $10,000 patches! MS Continues to cave in

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