A Land Far Away

http://sourcefednews.com/microsoft-cave ... m-removed/

Not going to make me any more likely to buy the system. Their policies are still horrendous when it comes to indie developers and I cannot trust them not to reintroduce some form of internetwork check later in the consoles life.

The always on Kinect is also a pretty big deal breaker for me.

Swift wrote:Not going to make me any more likely to buy the system. Their policies are still horrendous when it comes to indie developers and I cannot trust them not to reintroduce some form of internetwork check later in the consoles life.

The always on Kinect is also a pretty big deal breaker for me.

Absolutely. Personally, I wont go anywhere near the machine. I just find it funny how they dropped a ton of their "must-have" features.

Although I don't really have time for games anymore, I really hope the Steam Box, or something like it, gains momentum. Consoles can burn in hell, right next to whomever thought Games for Windows LIVE was a good idea.

Swift wrote:Their policies are still horrendous when it comes to indie developers

Jim thinks differently at 6:17, and claims Sony has an "amazing commitment to indie games".

Veilan wrote:

Swift wrote:Their policies are still horrendous when it comes to indie developers

Jim thinks differently at 6:17, and claims Sony has an "amazing commitment to indie games".

They do. Microsoft and the Xbox One do not, which is what we were referencing

FWIW these are the reasons.

Sony: Will allow developers to self publish. Will not charge for patch updates. Have committed to helping indies get onto the platform up to and including giving them dev kits if they think the game is solid, along with all the support that entails.

Microsoft: Will not allow developers to self publish. Charges extraordinary fees for patching Xbox Live games (claimed to be in the region of $20,000). Requires Indie Developers to sign up with a publisher (and thus give a cut of their profits after Microsofts own cut as the platform holder) or sign with Microsoft Studios as their publisher. Microsoft Studios standard contracts include timed exclusivity on the platform, along with a publishers cut.

Minecraft managed to buck the trend and get exceptions to pretty much every rule imposed on Xbox Live simply because it was already bigger than half of the AAA titles that get released for the Xbox 360 anyway.

Swift wrote:Minecraft managed to buck the trend and get exceptions to pretty much every rule imposed on Xbox Live simply because it was already bigger than half of the AAA titles that get released for the Xbox 360 anyway.

Bigger than life, son! Amarite!?

I was thoroughly enjoyed reading about MS back-pedalling on all (well, some) of their anti-consumer policies. The complete erosion of ownership isn't quite there yet, but will be sooner or later. We got a few more years.