Microsoft scraps developer fees for Xbox 360 patches - Report

bout freaking time

Why microsoft need to certify anything is beyond me. Why do they even care if a third party game runs like a sack of spuds or has bugs? Let developers sink or swim on their own - they're not babies ffs. If they release a turd of a game riddled with bugs then that's their problem.

Just let people publish things for FREE like PS4 will be doing. The cost of certification is ludicrous. The xbox live publishing scheme needs to be overhauled because the market has moved on (thank you Steam) from where it was back when microsoft devised it. It is now incredibly outdated and tbh just looks retarded in the face of the competition.

Small iterative patches are the mainstay of virtually ALL games, be they AAA, F2P or indie titles. Things get fixed in small batches and then distributed. Punishing any developer for fixing games on your platform is the most retarded and backwards policy ever. Get with the times Microsoft!

This is a good move but will be to little to late. Developers aren't going to trust or even feel like doing business with them if there past experiences were bad. There are so many game I have on xbox arcade that are a little old that need some updates pretty bad and it could never be done because of these fees.

So.... If they never had these charges in place, all of us who bought New Vegas at launch wouldn't have had to wait 6 months for all the game breaking bugs to actually get a patch?

This is so amateur... first MS scraps their DRM policies overnight, and now the update fees... Who's in charge at MS?? This kind of management is laughable, really. This kind of things can't happen in a big corp like this.

Run, Microsoft, run. Sony is clearly terrorizing you.

I think this has been pushed by sony´s policies... and it seems a good step for XBOX... and good for all gamers

good that should also continue for xone

About time. I always hated this practice. It just allowed bugs to remain in the game and the developers blaming Microsoft. Does the Xbox One charge? That's kind of what is important at this point.

oh suddenly they are not a cost covering fee!? what a bunch of liars.

Good move, MS.

So that means that the fees (up to $40,000) they previously charged will all be rebated. Right, RIGHT?

positive step

a little late perhaps though?

This is why competition is awesome, no matter if you're an xbox, nintendo, or sony fans, things like this is great for the business.

Fanboys will probably say this:

"HEY!!!WAIT!!

I GOT A NEW COMPLAIN

FOREVER IN DEBT TO YOUR PRICELESS ADVICE"

I think Microsoft is doing the right thing here, and setting up the future of gaming!

Won't make any difference if they stop supporting it like original Xbox and focus on Xbox One and start charging on it .

I didn't know that they charged Developers for that.

Better late than never it would seem.

Well better late than never. I wonder if the recent love Sony's been giving to indie devs has anything to do with this reversal?

Very good move on MS's part. So many games that were left in the dust as the result of the update fee's/ A good example is a game like TF2. On consoles is pretty much the same as when it launched on PC its whole different animal these days which would have been possible with constant updates something the couldn't and wouldn't have happened before. This well help games stay relevant longer which is what they want right? Also F2P games are gonna be huge this gen with the success stories of games like lol and dota2. They demand constant updates without being bent over by a fee. Anyway MS had made some good moves lately it cant be denied. Now if they just get rid of the mandatory kinect and they will be in a great position for next gen imo.

Well who'd have thought... another reversal.

Should have thought about all of this before their PR team made the XboxOne a train wreck. They've got a lot of making up to do!

Nice for the developers though, about bloody time.

Not sure if this is good or bad news. Money talks and with the fee it forced developers to make their first version of the game as bug-free as possible, but now that updates are free they no longer have that pressure, and are free to release more buggy games.

On the other hand it could be good news because it means they can release patches quicker. I guess this will be a good opportunity to see which companies are more responsible than others.

Watching the "once powerful" squirm now the tables have turned on them is.....beautiful is it not? :D

This is very surprising. It would have been better to see this done much sooner but it's better late then never. Even though Microsoft came out of the gate ready to shoot themself in the head, things are starting to look better. Hopefully they will continue to make better decisions in the coming months.