La noticia saltaba ayer, cuando Tim Sweeny, presidente de Epic, confirmaba que el contenido descargable del juego Gears of War para Xbox360 iba a ser gratis para los usuarios, pero que Microsoft no aceptaba esto y quería cobrar por ellos. Estos contenidos son basicamente para arreglar bugs, 11 nuevos mapas multijugador y nuevos modos de juego.
Pat Wilson, uno de los desarrolladores de este contenido, explicaba en su blog que estaba en las manos de Microsoft aceptar este contenido y colgarlo, pero, semanas más tarde, explicaba el porqué no habrá nunca contenido gratuito.
El contenido ya está listo pero ahora se está discutiendo el precio, Epic quiere sacar todo el pack gratuito, ya que no quiere separar a su comunidad online, y Microsoft parece no dispuesto a sacar algo gratis.
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."
En sus foros oficiales, Team 17 (desarrollador del juego) dice que Microsoft no les deja sacar sus contenidos para el Worms HD gratis, para proteger el `valor´ de otras compañias (¿EA?).
En una entrevista, Bizarre Creations dijo que querían sacar Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved gratis para Xbox Live, pero Microsoft no les dejó, sacandolo, a través de un acuerdo, a 400 puntos.
Fuente
Bueno, parece que a Microsoft no le parece mucho que sus usuarios pagen 60€ al año solo por jugar online, quiere más.