Major Nelson tries to explain Marketplace content delays
Our good friend Major Nelson noticed the complaining about the fact that Marketplace content like the Prey demo and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting still isn’t available. He has tried to explain the reasoning behind these delays and blames the extensive certification process. The Major doesn’t know when the stuff is released and he asks for sympathy. He draws the comparison between Marketplace contents delays and general games delays, “let me ask you how many times have you gone to a game store or checked your favorite gaming website and found out that the release date of your highly anticipated title was moved?”, he said.
Sorry Major but when a game is delayed I know that in advance, information like that is usually widely available on the internet months ahead of time. We haven’t heard an official word on the Street Fighter II releasedate and we heard that the Prey demo wasn’t showing up on its ‘releasedate’(that was given by 3DRealms) the night before. In fact, we still don’t know when that Prey demo is coming…
This is what the Major wrote on his blog:
There has been a lot of chatter across the internet about upcoming content releases, or to put it more bluntly, where the heck are they? This could be an Arcade title or a game demo on Marketplace. I want to take a moment to help you manage your expectations. First and foremost, it’s important that folks understand that I don’t have complete visibility up the ‘release river’ to see what is on its way down to the Marketplace. When game publishers or developers promise Marketplace content by a certain date…I cringe. Why? Because getting a game through the certification process is very complex, and often those promising the content by a certain date are not fully aware of all the pieces involved in bringing content to the Marketplace..and then when the content does not appear, well you know what happens. To put it another way, let me ask you how many times have you gone to a game store or checked your favorite gaming website and found out that the release date of your highly anticipated title was moved? Similar issues exist in the process of getting content on the Marketplace or in the Arcade. Additionally, it’s not appropriate to compare releasing similar content for a PC with releasing it on an Xbox 360. That is an apples to oranges comparison. (I’ll see if I can get someone from the certification team on my show sometime in the future to discuss how their end of the business works.) To put it another way, there are many departments and processes that the Marketplace and Arcade content must pass through before it hits the Marketplace…and I can only see the last few feet or so. It’s only when content is locked, loaded and on it’s way to the Marketplace that I post about it. Unfortunately it’s not reasonable for me to chase content around because the release dates are so tentative, and things change daily…plus I actually have a lot more work to do..this blog just happens to be the most high profile part of what I do.
We really appreciate the fact that you try to give us reliable announcements on Marketplace content, we appreciate your inside look on the Xbox team and we appreciate that you tried to explain why it’s taking so long but this delays nonsense has to go. Everyone knows there’s a terrible drought in Xbox 360 games this summer, we don’t blame you guys but please try to keep our 360’s from collecting dust by releasing some Marketplace content and Arcade games. That and reliable releasedate announcements is all that we ask for…
Thanks for submitting trj156.
Comparing the delay of the Prey demo to the delay of a regular game is bullshit. In the case of the Prey demo, it’s finished, it’s done. All MS needs to do is certify it and publish it. And the certification process takes WAY TOO LONG. In the case of a regular delay the game just isn’t finished, and thus you really can’t compare it.
I agree with Kabouter, also, Prey has gone gold today. It’s mind boggling that the demo hasn’t showed up yet on the Marketplace.
And that happened with Street Fighter and its many dates, it’s a shame, I hope they learnt from that one and not spread that much hype or uncertain dates because people gets pissed off over nothing. I’m not in a hurry, but there are people that it seems their lives depend on new content in the marketplace, those are the ones that constantly bomb major nelson’s commenting system
Some of those people have a good point, if you pay for a £300 system, that was promised to heave a nice flow of content on Marketplace, you expect that. Instead we’ve got nothing but lies and Major giving us this crap? I think if many people could go back in time, they wouldn’t of touched the Xbox 360 looking at it now.
Yeah, and I think that’s a valid argument, specially if you are paying for xbox live gold. Back then in the xbox 1 days we only get to play online, but now we expect not only the same smooth and quality experience of live, but also fresh content in a reasonable basis. I agree with you and I’m pretty sure MS know people it’s getting anxious, they really should make a tight calendar for releases, even if they are only videos of crappy artists, but more frequently.
But then, people will complain about shitty hard disk capacity
I already filled mine with videos and demos, so I can see that one coming.
Does that mean that no one certified Call of Duty 2? Does no one remeber the shitty mess it was when it came to online play until it was patched. How about GRAW? Is anyone else having problems with getting kicked out of online games especially the co-op campaigns? Certifiaction my ass!!!!!
Yes, last night we had some problems at GRAW trying the new maps, some guys would just drop out of the match. I think it’s related to wether they have NAT opened or moderated or close. Dunno, but shitty either way.
I could understading NATting being THE problem if more games had the same issues but GRAW is the only one that I am aware of.
Then it must be a bug, they were talking during that match that some of them phone Microsoft support, I don’t know it they are the ones to take care of that or if it is ubisoft. Well, we are certainly paying a monthly fee to MS for play, so I guess they have to at least take notice of complaints.
I think the problem is that the devs send off the demo and don’t realise how long testing takes. When Microsoft test a demo (or game) they are not interested in how it plays, or how many mistakes there are. They are interested in wether any part of the console can be compromised or if XBL can be compromised from the code. There would be more outcry if this happened because testing was not thorough enough. It wasn’t too long ago that ths sort of thing happened simply from a saved game data on the original Xbox.
Microsoft take their time, but with good reason.
That said, it is frustrating that Microsoft do not keep gamers up to date about these things.
Not even George Broussard from 3D Realms knows the status of the demo, he even asked in their forums that someone from Microsoft to get in touch with him for an update of the situation, their publisher doesn’t even reports to them what’s going on.
Now THAT’S bizarre, and I find really cool that they are very open to the community telling this stuff, it goes to show you that maybe something’s not going as smooth as it should on this demo certification process.
I wholeheartedly agree with you Hologuts.
I think his comparison to retail game delays was a little off, too, but I still appreciate Major doing what he does anyway. The poor guy can’t help it.
I don’t even believe what Microsoft says. They say they have such an EXTENSIVE certification process, but problems still happen.
King Kong demo, Kameo tips videos, and others all didn’t work when they came out. The King Kong demo still hasn’t been put back up on Marketplace.
There was also a demo that if you were on high definition, but had your settings for normal tv on PAL 50 wouldn’t work at all, you had to switch the HD switch on the cable to standard, change your PAL settings to PAL 60 and switch back to HD for the demo to work.
Don’t remember what demo was tho.
The Outfit.
prob outfit - that doesn’t work on pal-50
Top Spin 2 did that too I think. I can’t remember, I remember fiddling around on the forum looking for answers
fuck major
Don´t be too hard on him, atleast he’s trying to give us some info. Without the Microsoft blogs (Gamerscore, Major Nelson etc.) we would be screwed even more.
might as well be majornelson.xbox.com, this blog sucks and he gives nothing new that isn’t posted here or elsewhere first. Screw em.
his blog I meant to say.
If the Major cringes everytime a devleoper/publishers announces a release date, then the least MS and he can do is counter those claims as they happen. Don’t stay silent when Prey’s demo realease is inaccurately/unrealistically announcement; your silence simply serves as an implicit affirmation of the incorrect claims. And, in so much as you have not spoken out, you will continue to incur some of the public ire over the delays.
Bottomline: while you can’t manage what the publishers’ say independent of you, you can at a higher levelly proactively adjust expectations and temper the fervor of publishers. IOW, you, and not the publishers, need to manage the perception.
Ok, Major has commented on his own blog in his uber-green comment box: “Thanks for all the feedback here. I want to be clear, this post was meant to provide a glimpse inside the process. My goal was not a STFU post..but to educate folks. Again, look for me to talk more about this issue in my show this Sunday. I am dissapointed that people STILL attack each other and have disregarded my request to be civil.”
That show has some explaining to do.
Nah, I don’t think it has anything to do with the demo being ready. Maybe they want to publish the GRAW and CoD packs / dlc before the Prey demo so they make a bit more money.
It’s completely insane that nobody seems to know anything. I just don’t believe it, someone knows exactly WHY for instance the Prey demo still hasn’t been released…
WE NEED MORE CONTENT!!!! Thats’ all!!!!! HURRY UP MS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The process takes to long, I was hoping the Prey Demo would be out today since its wednesday, but no. It kind of defeats the purpose of a demo if the game is going to come out soon. I’m betting the actual game will come out before the demo. Most of the other demos also came out after the game been out, like the PDZ demo which came out months after the game got released.
Now for Street Fighter, if the game comes out this summer I’ll be happy. I remember when they first said it will be out in March, Its almost July now. I don’t even want to know when Sonic the Hedgehog and Ultimate Mortal Kombat will be out on the marketplace.
The best way to influence MS on this would be to stop buying games until you see the demo.
What exactly is major nelsons job if he cant give any info? To me, if you have “live” in your title, you um, know about things with live.
Also, I think ms is really taking a risk by treating their early buying customers this way (those that are buying now instead of a ps3 later). All the over priced content, delays delays delays, and still NO way to sell our own stuff (or even give it away) is getting old. With all this time between game release dates, I’m starting to rethink the whole “360″ thing, and might be getting back to pc gaming where I dont have to pay 75 dollars for a game (meaning graw with the content that could have made it in when it was pushed to gold).
I’d like to add that it’s funny there is never a shortage of the useless content that exists in the closed system consisting of gamer pics and themes whenever there is a lull or should I say intentional delay between demo releases or arcade releases. It’s getting so old so fast.
How the fuck can he compare this to games?
Is it just me who check the web,friends and people online before going down to a gamestore to buy a certain game.
These people delay a demo by 2 weeks,and then tells us to behave,with no comments about how long more we gonna have to wait.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been discussing this issue with the Microsoft guys over the last 2 days, and they’ve sent links to this post to the marketing peepz stating “alright guys, we look like shit out there with things like this happening, let’s fix this”.
At least they’re fair in acknowledging on screwing up some things, and openly admitting they need to improve on this.
Curry, to me thats the problem, people like larry hyrb avert any control by microsoft in teh matter, when its microsoft thats directly at fault…
The visit by the dev of mad tracks had me very perplexed by how he said things are done at ms, and its clear now that they (ms) are trying to milk us for money instead of releasing things on time. Perhaps I read it wrong, but thats what I got out of it. He even said that ms intentionally will not release things so that it doesnt compete with each other… I’m sure that affects gamerpics and themes releasing with demos etc so on so forth.
Now you’re being unfair. It’s basic economics that they won’t be releasing Halo 3 and Gears of War on the same day and everyone knows why, and they wouldn’t be allowed to do the same on Marketplace? Comeon, they’re spreading it out to make more money obviously and to keep everyone happy that the content is spread out throughout the year and doesn’t all arrive the day before Christmas.
I’m not being unfair
I don’t expect two triple a titles to be released, but damn, when you have a drought of games, its pretty sad that they wont let out anything that they have for fear that it will cut onto useless content- i mean gamerpics and themes sales.
i liked ur post curry that u made on the blog entry. we all tell him that, but i think a fellow recognized blogger like urself got to him. anyways, he posted right after u did that and thanks for the feedback guys. anyways, i agree with u 100%. better management is needed, or at least better communication i should say.
Chromehounds demo up…foe everybody except USA and Canada:
http://www.majornelson.co...28/Chromehounds-Demo.aspx
I’ve already submitted
On gamespot dot com there is a release date standing for tomorrow (june 30th). But i think it will be released july 30th.
Sorry forgot to mention the title of the game “Street Fighter Hyper Fighting”.