Epic’s Tim Sweeney stirred up quite an uproar in the Gears of War community when he appeared on a recent Pod Cast with Shawn Elliott...
The turmoil was started when Tim talked about new maps for Gears of War.
Since Epic has been saying all along that they want to release expansion content for Gears of War for free, the notion that Microsoft is making them charge money has ruffled a few feathers in the community.
Gamers have certainly come to expect free content from Epic given their PC history and they kind of set a precedent when they released the first two maps for Gears of War free (sponsored by the Discovery Channel). So it would seem that at least going by what Tim said, Epic and Microsoft are in a bit of a disagreement on how to offer up the maps.
On Easter Sunday, Mark Rein had to do some damage control on the Epic forums. The short of what he said is that they have come to an agreement with Microsoft on the four new maps. They will be offered as a map pack and will cost some amount of Microsoft points initially. If nothing else, it’s so Microsoft can recover the costs of certifying, testing and having the maps ‘occupy’ space in the Marketplace. For those who don’t wish to pay for the maps, they will be offered free of charge a few months later.
Don’t forget the map pack is independent of the other expansion also coming soon. Being packaged as an ‘update’ which will be free, gamers will get a host of bug fixes, some improvements to Assassination and a whole new multiplayer game called Annex.
It looks like Epic is really trying to do the right thing here and honor the expectations they’ve set with gamers while also abiding by the rules of Microsoft. If you have some points to buy or are impatient and need everything now, pay for your map pack. If you’re a patient consumer, you can pick the map pack up sometime a bit later at no cost. It’s a good compromise solution that in the end will give all Gears of War fans an extra game mode and four new maps for free.
[UPDATE 1] Thanks to CottonKing for the update...
"We already released two (maps) and we have four more maps that we've built. We've been wanting to give them but actually Microsoft has been pushing back on us. They're trying to build this business model around selling additional content for games and that's a valid idea, but we would definitely like to release more stuff for free, and we haven't been able to do so yet."
Since Epic has been saying all along that they want to release expansion content for Gears of War for free, the notion that Microsoft is making them charge money has ruffled a few feathers in the community.
Gamers have certainly come to expect free content from Epic given their PC history and they kind of set a precedent when they released the first two maps for Gears of War free (sponsored by the Discovery Channel). So it would seem that at least going by what Tim said, Epic and Microsoft are in a bit of a disagreement on how to offer up the maps.
On Easter Sunday, Mark Rein had to do some damage control on the Epic forums. The short of what he said is that they have come to an agreement with Microsoft on the four new maps. They will be offered as a map pack and will cost some amount of Microsoft points initially. If nothing else, it’s so Microsoft can recover the costs of certifying, testing and having the maps ‘occupy’ space in the Marketplace. For those who don’t wish to pay for the maps, they will be offered free of charge a few months later.
Don’t forget the map pack is independent of the other expansion also coming soon. Being packaged as an ‘update’ which will be free, gamers will get a host of bug fixes, some improvements to Assassination and a whole new multiplayer game called Annex.
It looks like Epic is really trying to do the right thing here and honor the expectations they’ve set with gamers while also abiding by the rules of Microsoft. If you have some points to buy or are impatient and need everything now, pay for your map pack. If you’re a patient consumer, you can pick the map pack up sometime a bit later at no cost. It’s a good compromise solution that in the end will give all Gears of War fans an extra game mode and four new maps for free.
[UPDATE 1] Thanks to CottonKing for the update...
Don't let the lull in gunfire and grenades fool you. Gears of War® is readying its next deadly onslaught with an upcoming title update, currently set to siege Xbox Live® on April 9 at 4:00 P.M. Pacific Time. In addition to the small-arms fire of a few adjustments to the title's multiplayer battles, the Gears of War update delivers an explosive and game-changing new multiplayer mode known as Annex.
