A big problem that smaller developers have had with releasing games on Xbox 360 is the large sum of money Microsoft charges to patch games. Tim Schafer told Hookshot Inc. in an interview from February 2012 that patching games for Xbox 360 cost $40,000.
It is being reported by Eurogamer that the fee to patch games on Xbox 360 has been dropped. This would be big news for smaller developers that cannot afford to patch their games released for the Microsoft console.
If this report is true, it would put the Xbox 360 on the same playing field as Steam and PlayStation 3, which does not charge developers to patch their games.
Microsoft charged developers for each patch because they wanted to make sure that developers were releasing games with as few bugs as possible. By forcing this charge, it would make sure that developers were not releasing multiple patches to fix their games.
Microsoft has yet to confirm that this report is true, but multiple development sources have told Eurogamer that the fee for patches is no more. If true, it will be interesting to see if this carries over to the Xbox One.
