Valve To Charge For Console Updates To Team Fortress 2

[SAWYER]

http://www.gamerchip.com/team-...to-charge-for-updates/

PC gamers have long enjoyed for free the types of content that console owners have payed for. This is set to continue beyond the regular DLC like extra maps and armour, and will now includes updates also.

Valve company co-founder Gabe Newell says "The big concern I have right now is our ability to provide updates," said Newell to videogaming247. "On the PC side, we've done as many as four updates in a day, and that's great: we can respond very quickly. If Nvidia puts out a new graphics driver and it changes some way about how texture management works, then before our customers know there's any issue then the problem has gone away. Or we can do the Pyro updates, and the Medic updates [and so on]."


And though Newell expresses his regret about having to cash in on the console business modesl, the restrictions placed upon deveopers are forcing them to take this direction.
"On the consoles, they want us to charge money for them, because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates. That's harder for us."


Hopefully this does not start a trend across the industry. Patches have long been necessary and free. It might not be too long before thse fixes are regarded as DLC and tagged accordingly.

I have not bought it nor will I, but this is BS

 

[Queasy]

I don't understand this. If the Burnout: Paradise devs can get significant updates to their game on the 360 and the PS3 for free, why can't Valve?

There's more to this story that's missing I think.

edit: There are also other instances of DLC that was made available for free for PCs that were made to be free over Live too. Lost Planet immediately comes to mind but there were a couple of others as well.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

I'd buy it but no one plays TF2 on consoles anyway

 

[KeithTalent]

Not sure why you would ever play this game on a console anyway.

KT

 

[SAWYER]

Not everyone likes playing games on a pc, I couldn't care less about pc gaming

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Queasy
I don't understand this. If the Burnout: Paradise devs can get significant updates to their game on the 360 and the PS3 for free, why can't Valve?

There's more to this story that's missing I think.

Agreed. I'm not entirely sure what's going on but I have a feeling it's NOT just the companies behind the consoles doing this. TF2 is a pretty fun game but because it's so limited on the consoles in terms of updates, maps, player count, etc nobody's playing it. If they want this to work then they need to get some free stuff going first to get more interest, and THEN possibly offer some things for purchase if it's good enough to warrant money.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Not sure why you would ever play this game on a console anyway.

KT

Well I'd much rather play it on a console cuz I'm not willing to sit at a computer desk for 8 hours at work then go home and do it on my free time too.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Not sure why you would ever play this game on a console anyway.

KT

Well I'd much rather play it on a console cuz I'm not willing to sit at a computer desk for 8 hours at work then go home and do it on my free time too.

I play games on a console, I just mean this game in-particular. I can't imagine playing it on a console. Sitting at my computer is not much different from sitting on my couch anyway and it's probably better for my posture.

KT

 

[Jack Flash]

Having played the PC version I can't see how this model will work.

The updates enhance characters and provide new maps, so essentially with each update you alienate a growing percentage of the user base. Also, the concept of paying for better weapons has largely been frowned upon.

I'm not buying the "forced to" excuse.

 

[SirJangly]

From what I can see, lots of people are playing this on the 360, although I'm guessing the PC community for it is MUCH MUCH larger. There are bugs in the game that have been prevalent for months now, and I really don't see what has taken them so long to fix it :-\.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Jack Flash
Having played the PC version I can't see how this model will work.

The updates enhance characters and provide new maps, so essentially with each update you alienate a growing percentage of the user base. Also, the concept of paying for better weapons has largely been frowned upon.

I'm not buying the "forced to" excuse.

I don't get it either.

I mean even in the PC version, with the amount of stuff they are adding, they could just wait, accumulate it all, and sell it as an expansion pack or something if they really wanted to make more money. Kind of confusing.

KT

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g
I'd buy it but no one plays TF2 on consoles anyway

I do.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
From what I can see, lots of people are playing this on the 360, although I'm guessing the PC community for it is MUCH MUCH larger. There are bugs in the game that have been prevalent for months now, and I really don't see what has taken them so long to fix it :-\.

yes, like skywalking and placing turrets underground. I always leave a game if idiots are doing either of those.

 

[tk149]

1. I don't understand how Valve is being "forced" to do this. Are the console makers charging Valve extra for creating console patches or something?

2. It's a terrible precedent. How long before Valve (or other software makers) start charging for bug patches? They can put minor new content into a patch, and say "oh, by the way, this new DLC also fixes that one problem that makes the game unplayable." It's very probably that this won't stop at just TF2.

3. As pointed out, it will alienate a user base. If version 1.0 is not compatible with version 2.x, and you have to pay to upgrade to 2.x, a lot of people aren't going to be willing to pay this on top of buying the original game.

 

[mugs]

Yeah I think there's some confusion here, either between Gabe and whomever he was talking to, or between Gabe and Microsoft/Sony. Lots of games have free add-on content, not just patches.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: tk149
1. I don't understand how Valve is being "forced" to do this. Are the console makers charging Valve extra for creating console patches or something?

2. It's a terrible precedent. How long before Valve (or other software makers) start charging for bug patches? They can put minor new content into a patch, and say "oh, by the way, this new DLC also fixes that one problem that makes the game unplayable." It's very probably that this won't stop at just TF2.

3. As pointed out, it will alienate a user base. If version 1.0 is not compatible with version 2.x, and you have to pay to upgrade to 2.x, a lot of people aren't going to be willing to pay this on top of buying the original game.

I think you're in tinfoil hat territory there.

 

[RandomFool]

Sounds to me like Gabe and co doesn't like not having control over when the updates are released. As much as I like Valve's games their QA needs some work. It seems like just about every time they push a big update it takes another 2 weeks and 3 or 4 updates to iron all the kinks out.

 

[LordGestle]

I own this game on both platforms (PC and Xbox360) and I also find this news disturbing. I think part of the problem is valve likes complete control, and Microsoft has certain policies.

Example the mandatory patch route, I'm sure MS has a cap. I have yet to see a patch for any of my xbox 360 games that take more than 20 seconds to download. Where as on the PC it's pretty common to have a 200+ mb patch. Not that I would be opposed to this on the xbox 360, however MS has a install base without Hard drives. So I'm assuming including all these in a mandatory patch is out the window.

Because including this in an update is out of the question, they are now forced to go back and create an update to allow both versions to interact. This is probably what has Valve upset as instead of just adding features, they need to spend extra effort to allow both versions to exist. I'm unsure if this porting/coding to the xbox was outsourced or internal. Either case they need to spend additional funds to just get this patch in place. Time may also be necessary to seperate the fixes from the upgrades.

The DLC concept I have a hard time believing this argument. I have downloaded many DLC packages that were free, ie map packs for Ghost Recon and Rainbow six come to mind as being 600+mb a piece. However, if EA has a say I'm sure they would like to get money for this DLC.

All I know is from reading other posts that Valve considers a game on release not as the finished product. I encourage this stance as I loved to get upgrades for free, but if this is a small taste of what your console flavors will be like, I think I will stop purchasing them from Valve. Either released a finished product "delayed" with all the planned upgrades or release the content for free.

As this is one of the first major release from Valve on the new platform, I can understand delays. However, I will avoid purchasing future products until they start moving in the right direction.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: RandomFool
Sounds to me like Gabe and co doesn't like not having control over when the updates are released. As much as I like Valve's games their QA needs some work. It seems like just about every time they push a big update it takes another 2 weeks and 3 or 4 updates to iron all the kinks out.

It could be worse, they could be Funcom.

KT

 

[SirJangly]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: SirJangly
From what I can see, lots of people are playing this on the 360, although I'm guessing the PC community for it is MUCH MUCH larger. There are bugs in the game that have been prevalent for months now, and I really don't see what has taken them so long to fix it :-\.

yes, like skywalking and placing turrets underground. I always leave a game if idiots are doing either of those.

I really don't see why people do that :-\ Is it really a lot of fun to piss people off in a way that isn't within the normal gameplay boundaries? The worst thing I've done is go up high in the last control points in well, although those can be achieved by some jumping/dispenser building

 

[DaveSimmons]

According to Penny Arcade's Tycho this is because of the update being 360-only at first, since Valve doesn't do the coding for PS3.

MS tends to charge for DLC on release unless it's available free on the PS3 (like with a Rainbow 6 map pack IIRC). If MS considers this new content instead of a bugfix patch, then points must be paid.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
According to Penny Arcade's Tycho this is because of the update being 360-only at first, since Valve doesn't do the coding for PS3.

MS tends to charge for DLC on release unless it's available free on the PS3 (like with a Rainbow 6 map pack IIRC). If MS considers this new content instead of a bugfix patch, then points must be paid.

Not necessarily true. MS makes content free if it is available on the PC for free as well.

 

[SAWYER]

Not in this case :/

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
According to Penny Arcade's Tycho this is because of the update being 360-only at first, since Valve doesn't do the coding for PS3.

MS tends to charge for DLC on release unless it's available free on the PS3 (like with a Rainbow 6 map pack IIRC). If MS considers this new content instead of a bugfix patch, then points must be paid.

Not necessarily true. MS makes content free if it is available on the PC for free as well.

Not in Mass Effect's case either.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
According to Penny Arcade's Tycho this is because of the update being 360-only at first, since Valve doesn't do the coding for PS3.

MS tends to charge for DLC on release unless it's available free on the PS3 (like with a Rainbow 6 map pack IIRC). If MS considers this new content instead of a bugfix patch, then points must be paid.

Not necessarily true. MS makes content free if it is available on the PC for free as well.

Not in Mass Effect's case.

Yep, just to confuse us the ME DLC being free for PC buyers hasn't moved MS to make it free for the 360.

So maybe the rule is it's free on 360 only if released for both PC and 360 at the same time?

Or maybe MS' strategy is just "we'll charge if we feel like it"