From June: Right now, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty isn't coming to Xbox One or Xbox 360 | Eurogamer.net
Definitely a backpedal in the face of criticism.
Looking into it a bit more I’m not sure I agree. Matt Booty’s quote is fairly ambiguous.
“as of right now, yes. We intend to continue to court developers in the ways that we have.”
“I would also expect that for this new generation, that we’re going to continue to explore new business models and new ways of surfacing content. But Microsoft Studios is a publisher that works with a wide range of partners, as do a lot of other people, to bring digital content to the box.”
It certainly would have been better to hint at some upcoming changes, but its not like they said “No, we would never consider allowing developers to self publish”, but people took their ambiguous silence as meaning that.
My guess is that they were still in talks with Microsoft Studios trying to figure out the best way to handle things without completely screwing over Microsoft Studios as a publisher. They had not been given the go-ahead on any announcements and had to stick with the current policy despite the intent to make an announcement eventually.
If you’re right then they still don’t get much credit in my eyes. They stuck to their no self-publishing policy until now and won’t have a clear system in place at launch. Marc Whitten said he hopes it will be ready within the first year.
Either way, they’re going to have a tough time convincing devs to line up for this. Many small studios got burned by Microsoft during the 360 years and as a consequence have vowed not to do business with them again.
They dropped the ball on indie gaming.
The only way Microsoft could get my business would be to dump the fees for XBL.
That said, right now my choice is PS4 or nothing.
That may certainly be the case, but you need to remember that Booty was talked to after Sony announced their focus on indie development. There’s no way that Microsoft could ignore that market without being painted as a bad guy; if anything, Booty’s comments strike me as damage control in the face of adversity. And, further, they wouldn’t have needed to change the policy if they had simply made that decision from the get-go. I don’t want to sound too much like a naysayer but, frankly, I think you’re giving them too much credit.
Regardless of the timeline, Microsoft made initial decisions that hindered, harmed or otherwise prevented equitable development by independent parties and were then forced to seek out alternative policies to appease an increasingly aggressive and vocal majority that disagreed with their stated actions. Especially when they were being actively and unfavorably compared to Sony and their support for independent developers with the PS4. It’s all damage control, my friend. Every last bit, and it makes me sick.
After reading the new front page article, I had no idea just how many developers hated working with Microsoft on the Xbox 360.
Btw, the reason i asked about who’s responsible is to know if Mattrick was a fall guy, or if all of the upper Microsoft hierarchy had such a poor attitude towards its customers and developers. If Mattrick wasn’t responsible, then that adds a big concern as to whether MS will change its mind yet again when sales pick up and they get comfortable.
I see the general Xbone trend as a combination of the Wannabe Apple Syndrome that MS has been suffering for the last few years and that good ol’ MS fuck-them-if-you-can spirit. As in: wouldn’t it be great if we controlled IT ALL? The hardware, the software, the OS, the developers, the user access, the sales channel, access to the living room itself – MWAHAHAHAHA! Then we will feast like Kings!
But they can’t quite get past the integrated Apple hardware/software model to comprehend the evenhanded, laissez-faire attitude Apple has had (mostly, except for porn & certain “competing” apps) regarding the development community and its marketplace access. I question whether MS has the institutional ability to even contemplate allowing such a thing. If they can control it, they must control it.
I disagree with the premise. The Xbox One is NOT looking good. Just because policy is reversed, I won’t discount for a minute the message of what Microsoft wanted to do (or will do once adopters are already financially committed).
Yeah, they lost me. I’m not sure what could bring me back, maybe GTA exclusive (perma, not timed) or a modern day Ultima Age of Enlightenment.
Nothing short of an exclusive bioware RPG or larry holland tie/fighter sequel would get me to purchase a xbone with mandatory kinect. And even then, I’d unplug it as soon as I finished the game.
Yes. I am not wasting $100 for a device that will only be used in a few gimmick sports games.
When microsoft does one of the following, i will seriously consider the xboner:
[ul]
[li]Lower the price below ps4 and remove kinect to make it possible. I’m not paying the same price for a significantly weaker system, much less more.
[/li][li]Lower the price to be equal to ps4 and keep the kinect. If you want to charge the same as the superior ps4 hardware, keep the kinect
[/li][li]Have multiple complete exclusives (ie they are not on PC) that are actually really good
[/li][/ul]
I never had that feeling towards Microsoft until a few years after Bill Gates retired. Despite the D.O.J attacks on MS, I always viewed them as “the good guys” for their very open operating system and hardware accessability vs. Apple and IBM (when IBM was still a player in the desktop/laptop environment). Things seemed to have changed… But maybe they’re on track to go back to the good old days? I don’t care for Ballmer, but his reorganization and changes to review processes might be good? I just hope so.
It’s hard to tell, but maybe the “underpowered” complaint won’t be so great if the ESRAM is as good as some say it is and can help close performance gap?
“Very open” operating system. And after the DOJ just magically dropped the monopoly lawsuit after having won way back when, we today see just how very open it is (and possibly why)! There is no going back to the good old days. MS has shown their hand, and Sony/etc have to know they are now being watched like a hawk too.
As have been proven time and time again, gamers have very short memories. Microsoft just over played their hand this time hugely when (from their point of view) they should have started slowly introducing these things. They should have started selling digital versions alongside physical ones at a discount. Then next generation they could have done the whole “Fuck you gamers, take it or leave” thing with a bit of a stronger hand, since they would be holding your digital library (which seems likely to work with the next console) hostage.