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0 pointsshock3naw13y ago0 comments

Wow. $40,000 to push an update. Microsoft should put this into practice themselves and refund customers whenever Windows needs a patch.

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MattSayar13y ago

I believe this approach raises the overall quality of games in the Marketplace. A developer on Xbox Live Marketplace will be less inclined to rush out a broken game and release updates every day until it works. If they have to pay $40k/update, they have an incentive to do it right the first time, with some leeway to fix unforeseen bugs (the free first update).

Fargren13y ago

That's not very good for small developers that may want to iterate over their games or provide extra content for their users. Developers who simply do not have the resources to test in a wide variety for hardware, or to get their game just perfect for the first update. And as a user, I love having access to games by these developers. Steam would lose a lot of value to me if it wasn't such a helpful platform for small devs.

And that's without even getting into updates that provide extra content. Steam's flagship game, Team Fortress 2, updates at least once a month with extra (free) content. That generates mayor amounts of good will towards the devs, and it would be completely unsustainable if the developers had to pay $40k to update, and another $40k to fix any bugs or imbalances in the update.

dyselon13y ago

MS has pretty strict size restrictions on title updates, since they have to fit in cache for users with no real hard drives. This means you're not going to deliver new content through patches anyway - you have to distribute it through DLC instead. This leads to about a million other problems, primarily when it comes to compatibility between players online who may or may not have the DLC, duplicating content since you're required to not have dependencies between your DLC, and the fact that MS frowns on free DLC.

MattSayar13y ago

I think small developers that use XNA and publish to the Indie section of the Marketplace don't have to worry about $40k patch fees.

recoiledsnake13y ago

>Developers who simply do not have the resources to test in a wide variety for hardware, or to get their game just perfect for the first update

We're talking about the XBox. There's only one hardware device to test against.

Also, the first update is free.

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IsTom13y ago

Or they can ignore patching bugs after the first few weeks. No additional content either.

adrianN13y ago

I'm pretty sure pushing an update to all Windows users costs way more in bandwidth alone.

shock3nawOP13y ago

Excellent point. I wonder what the actual cost is to push a Service Pack update to all users (those that update, at least).

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0 comments

MattSayar13y ago

Fargren13y ago

dyselon13y ago

MattSayar13y ago

I think small developers that use XNA and publish to the Indie section of the Marketplace don't have to worry about $40k patch fees.

recoiledsnake13y ago

>Developers who simply do not have the resources to test in a wide variety for hardware, or to get their game just perfect for the first update

We're talking about the XBox. There's only one hardware device to test against.

Also, the first update is free.

1 more reply

IsTom13y ago

Or they can ignore patching bugs after the first few weeks. No additional content either.

adrianN13y ago

I'm pretty sure pushing an update to all Windows users costs way more in bandwidth alone.

shock3nawOP13y ago

Excellent point. I wonder what the actual cost is to push a Service Pack update to all users (those that update, at least).

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse