Microsoft has been charging its developers a fee to submit their games to Microsoft’s certification process so the company can poke and prod the game to make sure it won’t do anything funny to the Xbox 360. Patches for games also required a fee to be paid to Microsoft, although the company would offer one title update for free, but Eurogamer is reporting additional patches will now be completely free, saving developers thousands of dollars just to improve their game.
Eurogamer is citing “multiple development sources” in regards to Microsoft’s change of heart to no longer charge for additional title updates, although the company will make some exceptions to its new rule. For example, if Microsoft believes a developer is submitting their title update an excessive amount of times due to its failing certification, they then reserve the right to charge them.
Microsoft’s change in policy for Xbox 360 title updates has us wondering if the company will offer the same policy for the Xbox One when it’s released this November. We can only hope it does as this change would greatly encourage indie developers to start offering their games onto the Xbox One.