Will it be possible to update a game once it's been released? I imagine that many of us will find bugs in our games, or think of some great new feature to add post-release.

There is no way defined yet. As much as they do want bug fixes, the team was very specific about not wanting people to release a crap game and promise they'll add features to it over time. The idea is that you finish a game, test your game, release the game. If there are bugs found, we'll have to see what can be done. But if you want to add new features, roll up a new version and call it 2.0.

I totally agree with that logic (create, test, release) as I'm a SDET by trade. Isn't it a little unfair to people who've purchased v1, when v2 is released? Perhaps something to think about if this model is adopted would be a discount system, where owners of v1 are given a discount of n points when purchasing v2.

 

Just something to think about.  Thanks for the quick reply!

UnSined:

I totally agree with that logic (create, test, release) as I'm a SDET by trade. Isn't it a little unfair to people who've purchased v1, when v2 is released? Perhaps something to think about if this model is adopted would be a discount system, where owners of v1 are given a discount of n points when purchasing v2.

Were you given a discount on Madden 2009 because you bought Madden 2008? Or any other series for that matter? I can't recall a single game where the developer/publisher gave a discount for having purchased the previous version.

I think he's still in the mindset of "updates". Updates (in terms of programs usually, not games) are cheaper than "full" versions.

If there was someway of your newly released game using (and most likely needing) a previously released game, then I could see the justification of a discount. But MS isn't setting this up for Community Games (atleast yet), which is basically what downloadable content is (in the realm of games).

 

I too am really wanting to see the allowance of downloadable content for community games, but we'll just have to wait I suppose...

 

There is a difference between DLC and updates. DLC, referring to things purchased off the marketplace, do not allow code changes. They are strictly, as they say, content. Updates are those mandatory downloads you'll get every once in a while. And while neither are currently set up for XBLCG, the inclusion of one does not guarantee the inclusion of the other. I could see them offering a DLC mechanism at some point as it doesn't affect your game's code and stands to be more profit for Microsoft, but I still highly doubt you'll see a generic update system.

I would hope if your game has a major bug in it and you've got the fix you may (key word: may) be able to work with the team to get that pushed out, but a general update system is just opening the system up to be gamed with people releasing unfinished games and promises of future updates. That is what needs to be avoided at all cost or else the entire platform suffers for it.

You can always say "peer review it", but as we've seen from the peer review so far there are things that get through, games that aren't played all the way through, and other such instances where it's just not practical. On top of that, it becomes incredibly hard to test these patches and things unless the developer has an extensive write up of what was fixed as well as what was in the original game so that reviewers can validate whether new features were added. It's far too hard to manage that system and keep people fully honest.

Of course I would love a general update system so I can bug fix my games. But I'd much rather lose that functionality in order to preserve the integrity of the whole system by preventing the dishonest people from gaming it.

Oh, wow, I thought I read in the FAQ (or around the boards) that we'd be allowed small updates, or resubmissions of our content (resubmissions meaning people who had already purchased the game could thus download it again - but the developer would have to notify the costumers, as it wouldn't do it automatically). Was this just talk/rumors that had been going around on the forums?

 

Either way, I'd still prefer "downloadable content" over "updates" - if I had to choose.

I too would prefer DLC. I think a lot of developers would. I would guess it will come at some point, but they likely want to see how XBLCG does before spending the time and resources developing the system and figuring out all the intricacies of such a system.

As for the small updates, I'm not sure. I remember at Gamefest they said they had no system in place for updates for XBLCG. So I'm not sure exactly how it stands at this point in time or how it will be in the final XBLCG release.

I'll break this down:

• DLC - We'd love to get this in too! Unfortunately it's non-trivial to implement on our end and there are are a whole bunch of unknowns (how do we peer review DLC?). This won't be available for Fall
• Allowing a Creator to update a game -  Thins is currently on the docket and should be allowable
• Informing a user of an update - Think of this like today's popup when you're told "This game has an update". Unfortunately this is non-trivial as well and won't be in for Fall

So users will only know about updates if you guys tell them to redownload them

Ohhhhh, this will be nice. I guess the average person not experiencing the issue which was fixed wouldnt need to download the update, for those experiencing a problem may go and look for an update and then like you say, the developer tells who he can how he can that updates available.

This is a really nice feature to learn about now. Even though i agree mostly with the issues surrounding it, developer taking less care etc etc there are going to be issues and bugs in games the developer just cannot forsee, and offering a way to update their/our games is great :)

 

To inform users, you can use a network session (quiet, in the background), where you ask all the peers for their versions. Once you get a peer that has a newer version, you can present that information to the user. Even if your game is single-user, that would probably work well enough.

 

Surely it would make sense for whatever update process they use to hook into the standard xbox "this title has an update press OK to get it" service.... well thats what I'm hoping for.