US developers chide Microsoft
Favours first parties! The cheek!
Microsoft has come under fire in the States over its treatment of third parties, according to the Financial Times website. Certain game developers, speaking anonymously, have bandied together over the issue of preferential treatment for in-house development teams, and enforced software bundles that focus solely on first party offerings. Apart from motivating retailers to sell its own software by providing additional supplies, the group also alleges that Microsoft's forthcoming online games service will require information exchange with the Redmond based monster corporation, even for third party software. In strict fairness to Microsoft though, a unified online service approach is nothing new. Sega's ill-fated Dreamcast rooted all online play through central servers. Apart from offering Microsoft extra revenue opportunities, it promotes consistency of GUI and implementation. Don't be too surprised if Sony's much anticipated online service works in much the same way. All this within hours of MS chief executive Steve Ballmer's speech in Hannover focusing on responsibility. "We can't have business policies that are capricious or variable. We have to be reliable and consistent." This is part of a new Microsoft approach to business focusing on its relationships with other companies. Related Feature - X Marks The Spot
