Microsoft has officially removed all charges to companies who wish to release updates and patches to their games on the Xbox Live service. This isn’t a new occurrence – apparently these charges had been removed a while back, but the news has finally been released to the public in a report from Eurogamer.
Previously, Microsoft would charge companies tens of thousands of dollars to update games, meaning that some indie developers were unable to bring patches out for their games, leaving them in imperfect states. Games were allowed one update free of charge with subsequent updates incurring fees, but this new policy means no more fees within reason. Microsoft will still charge fees if there is excessive patching, though exactly what constitutes excessive patching still isn’t clear.
This is great news for indie developers on Xbox Live, as this now means they are free to make their games into the best experiences possible. If a game wanted to make additions like new characters and bug fixes, they are now able to do so without having to worry about spending large amounts of money.
Source: GI.biz
