Microsoft stopping Epic releasing Gears maps for free

[Zeus]

Epic games founder Tim Sweeney has confirmed that MS are encouraging Epic to charge for their next batch of Gears maps. The four forthcoming maps may well have to follow the traditional MS business model, i.e you'll have to pay for them. Listen to the full podcast <a href="http://www.n4g.com/ClickOut.aspx?ObjID=34348" target="_blank">here</a>.

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[Rackerz]

Well Well I can't say it's a suprise, Microsoft need to take a leaf out of Sony's book, YES SONY. It's free there and there is a reason for that. Seriously Microsoft makes enough money off of us when we buy the red light ridden consoles, isn't that enough for them?

[pholly]

This is total BS, there are a lot of cases like this where developers don't want to charge for DLC but MS does since they get a chunk of it. Glad to see how much Xbox Loves Us :p

[gonepostl]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

1up rules. Microshaft, worst company ever they hate you.

[Hawkk]

Well, maybe I'll pay for the maps since I pirated the game. :D :D :D

[mystic54]

Great job MS, you just managed to make thousands more mad with a simple change. Look at what has worked before and go with good past experiences.

[HushangIVVI]

WTF MS U PIECES OF SHYT epic wants to give it away for free **** U GUYS

[Attitude]

Makes you wonder if one day soon, Epic will look at what they are being told to do by MS and then look at what they can do for free on the PS3 and start to shift their games to focus more on the sony console. Glad to see MS can shoot itself in the foot with no help from anyone else.

[narutoramen]

welcome to next gen: microtransactions

[eddy14]

im out raged i say its time for a riot:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[OblivionX]

well this defo sucks. But it is to be expected. Gears of war with 4 million units, if only half buy it theyve made a killing. MS give the choice to other developers. But since they actually published the game, they have the power to say these things. It sucks but at the end of the day we will buy it and they know we will.

[xTONE]

Makes you wonder if one day soon, Epic will look at what they are being told to do by MS and then look at what they can do for free on the PS3 and start to shift their games to focus more on the sony console. Glad to see MS can shoot itself in the foot with no help from anyone else.

Think bout what u just said there! IF Epic wanted to do it free, and m$ isnt going to allow them (which this report didnt say) then Epic would make money. If Epic does release it for free then they make no money! so this would only benifit them! This kinda of decision will not make a company jump ship to another company who is doing the free online gaming thing (make $ with m$ or make nothing with Sony, which would u pick?) Also from m$'s standpoint. They pay for their servers. This game was a huge seller and u can count on way more than half of the gow players to download this content. So some1 is gonna have to pay for the bandwidth used in this, right? Not too mention 2 things. 1. they have already released free DLC for gow. 2. Half the people complaining about this didnt even pay for the game. so show some support to the devs in some way and quit crying bout it. if u dont want to pay then dont. thats the only way to show a company u dont like what they are doing. But something tells me if they do end up charging for the future content. They are going to sell many many many of them. So the only thing M$ is gonna see is huge numbers and huge profit either way u look at it. M$ is a buisness, not any of our friends! They are in this to make money bottom line! Also guys just remember this is why LIVE IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE REST OF YOUR OPTIONS!

[KainXS]

xTONE why don't you go have an orgy with j allard and mr gates you dumb ****

the more free maps the game has the better because potential buyers like the word free

i bet you downloaded the game ya fukin pirarate

you dumb ****

[So-Unreal]

Epic is knew for the free stuff. This is another reason why you should not pay for live. My guess is that MS does not want to pay for the downloads(that stuff is not free or cheap).

[Attitude]

In all fairness xTONE i did listen to the entire podcast and the guy from epic did say he understood why MS had to do what they do. But, and this is the big but, he did also say that EPIC as a company preferred to give stuff such as maps away free to customer who had bought the game. His reason being that it encouraged users to stick to buying EPIC releases and maintained a good fan base of customers. Also take into account the part where it was said that PC Live users would have no such problems getting free content, whereas the console owners such as myself who bought the game had to then pay for just a few maps. If this was something such as an expansion pack then yes i wouldnt have a problem paying for it, but these are maps, designed by EPIC to be free, but held back because MS want to get money anyway they can from console owners.

Im happy with my xbox 360 and see nothing as of yet to persuade me to want a PS3, but given time, if MS continue to take us customers for all we have then im sure i wont be the only one looking at what the PS3 has to offer in the future.

[RetroMUFC]

There is a simple solution to this. If they don't give it away for free don't buy it. MS is really shooting themselves in the foot when tings like this come out. They are just getting over on the PS3 and then **** like this comes out and reminds you once again why everyone hates MS.

[Trashcat]

I listened to that podcast and MS's arguments are complete bullshit, of course I can understand that the guy from Epic couldn't just say what he really thinks because Ms is his business partner and that would make them look bad but we all know the truth: he says Ms did a lot to promote Gears blah blah they spent money blah blah so its fair if they charge for DLC blah blah, but don't forget Gears was the major release of the year and it sold enough to make up for development and any marketing effort Ms could possibly make and bring a shitload of profit. I assume Ms will later deny ever insisting on charging for Gears DLC (that would be a really smart thing to do) and say that its only up to the developers to charge for DLC or give it away, and Epic will probably say it was a misunderstanding. Would be really stupid of Ms to spoil their publicity on a game that brought so much positive feedback to their system in the past.

Makes you wonder if one day soon, Epic will look at what they are being told to do by MS and then look at what they can do for free on the PS3 and start to shift their games to focus more on the sony console. Glad to see MS can shoot itself in the foot with no help from anyone else.
Online service for ps3 might be free, mostly because charging for nothing would be bullshit, but noone said sony will give you free **** on their marketplace.

[redwolf]

Microsoft hates us all... i recall game such as Bulletwitch gets FREE content download in Japan, but rest of the world, yes including Microsoft's home country have to pay for them :mad:

people started bitching in Atari forum for this game, but one developer/mod said it wasn't upto them to decide how the content is distributed :rolleyes:

[krawhitham]

Makes you wonder if one day soon, Epic will look at what they are being told to do by MS and then look at what they can do for free on the PS3 and start to shift their games to focus more on the sony console. Glad to see MS can shoot itself in the foot with no help from anyone else.

Yeah right because they would rather give away what they can charge for, they are just using MS as an escape goat. They will stick with the platform that makes them the most money

[Reset]

I cant begin to decribe how pissed this makes me. I bought gears of war partially because of epics attitude towards in game advertising and free content.

I wont be buying gears of war 2 if this is true (ill be pirating it, and wont feel guilty at all)

simple as that.

the live fee should cover the bandwith. and the most popular online xbox360 game shouldnt segregate its players.

[sseiya]

er... microsoft = worst company in the world end of story, monopolistic jerks, greedy bunch of ****heads, invested tons of $$$ in R&D to stop pirating instead of making their software serves the consumers better, anyway they will charge you every little cents they can get from you.

[Trashcat]

Yeah right because they would rather give away what they can charge for, they are just using MS as an escape goat. They will stick with the platform that makes them the most money
Clearly you don't know **** about Epic, they could easily release UT every year but instead they release lots of free stuff for their games, what they put out for free for one game is probably bigger than the whole freaking Battlefield2525, they also removed CD check in one of the early patches for UT2004, they know that the community feeds them so unlike Valve they treat the community well.

[filmbear]

Ok granted M$ is a cheap a$$ company that gets it's jollies out of squeezing it's loyal customers for every penny they can every chance they can but this sounds a little similar to something that happened before.

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack - $19.99

This got you a minor game update and 9 new maps and a bunch of misc crap to pad out the disc. Granted 2 were free to tease you but you had to pay for the remaining 7 no matter if you bought them through XBLM or on the stand alone disc. Now all 9 are free and actually are a mandatory update to play online.

So they have done this to us before.....why would GOW maps be any different. Personally I think it's a freaking miracle that the two Discovery Channel sponsored maps were free. GOW is still a blazing hot game so M$ knows that we will pony up the money to get the new content. M$ will claim that it has to charge something because of server space or some other BS but they gladly offer other media content for free. M$ knows they stand to make a bundle off this and when has Gates ever passed up a chance to make a buck off anything. They don't see people or even customers. They see wallets they can suck dry.

[Trashcat]

So they have done this to us before.....why would GOW maps be any different. Personally I think it's a freaking miracle that the two Discovery Channel sponsored maps were free.
It can be different because its an Epic game and Ms doesn't own Epic, if they were property of Ms game studios like hell would the first pack be free, now it depends on Epic if they give in to Ms or stay the course.

[Reset]

I just listened to that whole pod and it was an amazing listen, I was really impressed by what epic had to say and it was so nice to see a company that actually showed grit and cared.

Im gonna take back the pirate comment i made earlier (the one about pirating there future games if true) just beacuse I respect them to much after listening. but I wont be able to buy there games if they cant use there leverage to fight the good fight in there struggle vs MS. looks like they may stand strong though, and hopefully Ill be playing epic games on my pc without the games for windows logo.

[sigma8]

he says Ms did a lot to promote Gears blah blah they spent money blah blah so its fair if they charge for DLC blah blah, but don't forget Gears was the major release of the year and it sold enough to make up for development and any marketing effort Ms could possibly make and bring a shitload of profit.
Well, AFAIK, Xbox360 sales still are not bringing in a net profit. Each console sold is still a loss (although, with a year under their belt to optimize production, it's not as bad as Sony's per-unit loss is currently). Most of the money from those GoW sales went to Epic, with MS only getting the standard royalties. So in MS's eyes, Epic caused MS to lose a lot of money by moving all that hardware...thus they do not want Epic to fail to capitalize on a chance to earn some of that back through software sales (and their accompanying royalties to MS).

MS's huge empire of money comes from software sales. In the past, it got its riches by overcharging and/or harassing large companies and computer builders. Now they are trying to learn how to walk gingerly and not totally alienate the general consumer--they're not stupid--while still figuring out a way to extract crazy profits from them.


Online service for ps3 might be free, mostly because charging for nothing would be bullshit, but noone said sony will give you free **** on their marketplace.
So far, the only free stuff is demos, movie trailers, and game trailers. And Gran Turismo HD. Sony will have to find a way to milk consumers too. Both Sony's games division and MS's game division are basically operating at huge losses...so it's just a contest to see who can survive the longest without milking your customers to the point of alienating them. In some ways, this whole Sony vs MS is similar to US vs. Russia.. One may be trying to bleed the other dry of money. MS says it's in it for the long haul, and they are famously loaded with cash.. But there is a lot of evidence that their grip on their profit mainstays is slipping. Vista isn't doing as well as many expected, Apple is consistently edging up in market share--especially among youth (if not with computers, then with iPods), Linux and open-source movements continue to threaten their server markets. MS has a lot to worry about, it can't just continue to dump money into the Xbox if it shows no sign of becoming a self-sustainable and eventually profitable business.

[Reset]

I listened to that podcast and MS's arguments are complete bullshit, of course I can understand that the guy from Epic couldn't just say what he really thinks because Ms is his business partner and that would make them look bad but we all know the truth: he says Ms did a lot to promote Gears blah blah they spent money blah blah so its fair if they charge for DLC blah blah.

he didnt seem to hold back nearly like you imply. What I heard when I listened was epic on a furious rampage about how f'd up microsoft is, and they commented themseleves (almost jokingly luaghing it off) that ms paid alot for marketing so they dont want to talk to bad about them(chuckle chuckle), but they did plenty of trash talking if you ask me.

It was just refreshing for me to hear that epic showed they werent intimidated by MS, and if you listen closely you can even hear a threat to ms that they made the unreal engine and can use it as leverage with other developers if MS isnt careful. (referring to live on pc)

also, mark makes a direct comment about how he feels microsoft is seeing subscription fees and getting greedy. and dont feel they have the right to charge for what has become expected and standard. (again referring to live on pc)

[Trashcat]

Gears did for 360 what Halo did for xbox1, no matter how much Ms pumped into it it was worth it, besides I'm sure that since Ms did the marketing they got that money back too, and even if Ms had made loss on Gears its THE game for 360, advertising it = advertising their console. Its mostly like the guys in the podcast said: Epic giving away free stuff makes other greedy publishers look bad, if you listened to the "Windows Live" part its the same bullshit there, just more so. Linux Mac blah blah, the fact is pretty much every PC is shipped with Windows, Apple is only kept alive by the crappod. Actually 360s are sold at profit as far as I remember since fall, Ms sure does spend a lot on marketing so the Xbox devision might be still operating at a loss but its not a big loss (not for Ms), not like it was with xbox1 or like sony is having with ps3 now.

[xllzerollx]

If WE(i mean you) payd for the game, why pay for maps too?

[Havok154]

If WE(i mean you) payd for the game, why pay for maps too?

I won't be. MS can suck it.

[ku16610]

Online service for ps3 might be free, mostly because charging for nothing would be bullshit, but noone said sony will give you free **** on their marketplace.

to be honest the ps3 online thing is fine , i an dl demos and movies and games the only things i ever did on my 360 on live , but this time i dont have to pay to connect at least.
true its a bit basic atm but for god sake xbox live was shite when it was first shown too.
its taken many fw updates and etc to get to this level.

[Reset]

to be honest the ps3 online thing is fine , i an dl demos and movies and games the only things i ever did on my 360 on live , but this time i dont have to pay to connect at least.
If thats all you did on your 360 on live, then you wouldnt need to pay to connect. you can do all of those things with the silver membership.

[aic007]

true its a bit basic atm but for god sake xbox live was shite when it was first shown too.
its taken many fw updates and etc to get to this level.


Well it wasn't as full featured as it is now, but I remember playing mechassault and R6BA with a bunch of people and the experience was great. It definately has evolved over the years but the core experience has remained. The single id for all games was great as well as the the voice chat.

The thing is that the PS2 also had some type of online functionality so it's not like they started with no clue with what was going on. They also had a great model in XBL to follow and they couldn't even do that right. The only thing I can see being a positive is that RFoM supports So many people but for me that can be a bit much. I guess it depends on the maps and since I haven't played it I can't say how crowded it feels but most maps on R6 feel claustraphobic with 14-16 people.

Back to the topic though, it definately blows that they would tell them it has to be released for a price, hopefully they will charge the bare minimum or see if they can get the maps sponsored again like the first set. I haven't played Gears online so I probably will wait, maybe get them free from OXM eventually but for the die hard Gears players I feel for ya.

It's like when I first got my 360 at launch and my friends still had the original and were all playing R6BA, If I wanted to play all the new maps I had to pay to redownload them on my 360 even though I had already bought them on my xbox. I just switched the component cables on my tv and booted up on the original system. Not paying another $15 for maps I'll probably play maybe a dozen more times. If you bought it once it should be attached to your id and you should be able to download it again especially on the new system.

[WickedSkin]

GO EPIC!

btw... Screw you microsuck. **** it, from now on, I'll pirate anything that says "Microsoft". And good bye Live!

[sigma8]

Gears did for 360 what Halo did for xbox1, no matter how much Ms pumped into it it was worth it, besides I'm sure that since Ms did the marketing they got that money back too, and even if Ms had made loss on Gears its THE game for 360, advertising it = advertising their console. Its mostly like the guys in the podcast said: Epic giving away free stuff makes other greedy publishers look bad, if you listened to the "Windows Live" part its the same bullshit there, just more so. Linux Mac blah blah, the fact is pretty much every PC is shipped with Windows, Apple is only kept alive by the crappod. Actually 360s are sold at profit as far as I remember since fall, Ms sure does spend a lot on marketing so the Xbox devision might be still operating at a loss but its not a big loss (not for Ms), not like it was with xbox1 or like sony is having with ps3 now.
I totally agree with you on Gears of Wars' importance to the 360's console health.. I'm not sure about MS's production output. I know that they were almost at a break-even, maybe at a break-even. I hadn't heard it was profitable yet. MS is notorious for being tight-lipped and evasive about the truth. But, even if it is a little profitable, they really don't care about those profits, and their whole master plan is software sales...because it's pure profit, and that's what they know best.

Also, Apple isn't "kept alive" by the iPod, it would be doing ok without the iPod. It's put into a position of dominance by the iPod, though. At the school where I work, we survey the undergrads about stuff like that. Mac computer ownership is skyrocketing.. IIRC, it's past 30% now. It goes up like 6-8% every year.

[sseiya]

I totally agree with you on Gears of Wars' importance to the 360's console health.. I'm not sure about MS's production output. I know that they were almost at a break-even, maybe at a break-even. I hadn't heard it was profitable yet. MS is notorious for being tight-lipped and evasive about the truth. But, even if it is a little profitable, they really don't care about those profits, and their whole master plan is software sales...because it's pure profit, and that's what they know best.

Also, Apple isn't "kept alive" by the iPod, it would be doing ok without the iPod. It's put into a position of dominance by the iPod, though. At the school where I work, we survey the undergrads about stuff like that. Mac computer ownership is skyrocketing.. IIRC, it's past 30% now. It goes up like 6-8% every year.

err ??? ??? ??? bla bla bla production output, break even, is this economics here LMAO,

irrelevant, microsoft still sucks, still is ownin our ass by charging us more and insist on every penny they can get. greediest bunch of ***hole in this whole planet, if they can dominate every market share on this planet, they will, and still they won't give a penny back to you, sure some donation once in a while to generate publicity stunt, guess what, Microsoft donates most to the Bill Gates foundation LMAO still we got pawned here LOL LOL, and occasionally it goes to Warren Buffet's charity organizations, for christ sake why donate to another BILLIONAIRE... go figure....