When I get time today and I'm back at my desk I'll post some thoughts again. I am not about to go nuclear on some of you on my phone.
I need to call you out, Amirox. You'd better have a shitload of links from all these devs on neogaf changing their tune, links and verification that MS does secretly call up every loud dev and interviews with Chris and Phil to back up your claims.
A lot of your rhetoric is bullshit "pile on" to the nth degree. I hate the fucking clause and I even told you a while ago, personally, that I had enough reason from devs to sit back and watch this play out over time. And no - Chris or Phil never contacted me or MANY fucking devs that were loud. I sat back because I'm the guy that needs to be 100% sure before I do or say something publicly. I give people the time of day because that's who I am. When I needed to sit back and watch - I did. I didn't continue my tirade.
I guess not doing anything but yelling at an old cloud is a lot fucking easier than reaching out to people and asking questions eh?
Firstly, you are not the only dev that has complained, and when I made my post I was actually referencing a different indie dev specifically who made such comments. But the general mood is not much different from the way you're now going around telling people to relax, and you shouldn't take it personally.
Because let's say things were fixed? Well then they should start being fully damn open. The reason many indie devs have even stopped engaging is because they still give interviews like this fucking atrocious one in the OP. They say there's no parity clause, and then go on to list a specific example of such a clause. It's ridiculous, and everyone has a right to be furious at this point at how they're intentionally trying to deceive their fans and developers alike..
Because that's the problem right there. You're telling people not to "yell at an old cloud", and yet Phil Spencer and Microsoft are content to continue this atmosphere of secrecy and utter fucking bullshit whilst other companies are far more open and engaging. If they didn't have some nonsense in place, then interviews would not be going down the way they are going down. You may say it's "better", but I don't give a fuck because it's not GONE. It needs to be gone, completely. Devs should never have to ever talk to Phil Spencer at any point except the obvious steps in the process. There needs to be no such things as exemptions.
And it needs to all stop being piled behind the world's most insulting coded language and secrecy, because then everyone is right to assume they're hiding something. Because they are. And if an NDA prevents you from talking about the details, then what value can that have? People are not dumb, they can read these interviews and see between the lines that something bad is still up. And so nobody is going to take at face value anything else until these things stop happening.
Here's the actual answer to this question:
"Hey Phil Spencer, is the party clause still around?"
"Nope. Devs have to do nothing at all in order to release a product on our system (except for the basic stuff like make sure the game runs), even if they have a deal with another company. Ya know, like Sony. The end."
There we go! The problem is solved, Absinthe! This isn't rocket science. No, I'm not going to be kind to these people. They are grown ass adults. They are the one obfuscating the message. They are the one putting barriers in place and answering interview questions like the fucking Iraqi Information Minister. That's their fault.
And so far the way they've been quelling this problem is every time a dev complains about it on neoGAF, suddenly they open doors and make things happen. I'm not saying that is the exact scenario that has played out every time or even in your case, but it has been a big happening multiple times (and was the case with the indie dev I was referencing, which wasn't you). We hear things like "they reached out to me on twitter and..." or "they said my application got lost in the shuffle" and etc etc. It's an extremely common theme amongst all these developers who were complaining. You don't hear this thing about the other parties because they don't have a fucked up system in place.
Edit: You know? Not going to go nuclear at anyone. Instead I'll just say a few things.
Most devs today that still believe the parity clause is hardcore, actually don't know and simply regurgitate what they hear and read online and not actually engaging on their own to get details from the horse's mouth. We've seen this unfold on Twitter as we've seen ID call out several devs who never approached them and said they'd love to have them.
Most of you will probably take that as making one-off exceptions and I can see that. But today is different than even a few months ago.
I'm not bagging on devs, either. We are a busy bunch and the small time (like me) sometimes don't bother even approaching because hey - we're fucking nothing.
It would seem a fool's errand to try and attack that tank with a toothpick.
For transparency I did speak with Phil and Chris EXTREMELY briefly recently. THEY DID NOT APPROACH ME AND WE DID NOT DISCUSS ANY EXCEPTIONS NOR DO I HAVE ONE. I won't go into detail but they get nobody likes the clause (plus there's not many details).
Read the OP and stop reading it through your hyperbole between the lines goggles and take what Phil said at face value. Shit is different and yes - shit falls through the cracks. You can't very well bag on ID for that statement when developers aren't even trying to contact them about it - letting those details "fall through the cracks" and continue the same song and dance because they did not do their due diligence and follow up.
What Phil said at face value is offensive. No goggles required. Sorry, I'm not buying any of their nonsense. This is the simplest thing in the world to fix, and they choose not to. Instead, they continually choose the course of obfuscating the reality. Say there's no parity, and then go on to list a specific example still in that realm.
We want parity clause GONE, full stop. And that includes features that still act as some form of parity even if they decide to pretend it's something else. Enough is enough. This isn't rocket science and I'm not going to treat any one of these soulless corporations as if they're not smart enough to know better.
This isn't your fault, but believe me they know they benefit by sowing disorganization and disunity among this group of people who understand how fucked up it is Microsoft is acting.
But that is yet ANOTHER fucking problem Phil needs to solve. Get that fucking messaging out to developers. If they have no clue the climate is changing - they won't bother to research. Its not about how to deliver that message - its about delivering it in the first fucking place. It should be dead as a doornail and developers still don't know. Consumers still don't know. That's a fucking problem they need to solve. They need to take that on their shoulders and get the word out that it's a much friendlier environment.
And by friendlier I feel they need to step up and lead with the carrot, not the stick. There's a lot they can do go incentivise developers to make exclusive content that might not have anything to do with a moneyhat. It can simply be REALLY going to bat for devs with PR and game announcements, making sure every last Xbox owner knows who the fuck is making Lotion Boy 8: The Lotioning. Or when Super Buttmuncher Prequel is about to drop. The most important thing for any small dev is getting out there and getting known which is very hard. That does a LOT more for devs than free devkits.
Bottom line is they get you, they get devs, they are making changes and they are piss poor at making sure devs know how they are TODAY - because devs still think it's fucking yesterday.
Again, so everyone gets it, I have no exemptions. I was never approached and I never asked for one. I like both indie programs from Sony and MS. Sony's is still better and I don't think MS needs to make theirs "better" as it is really good at the moment - but they can right just this one ship and with a little bit of planning do enough to differentiate themselves from the competition. Again, will be hard to beat Sony from my personal experience but they don't have to - they just have to do right and differentiate themselves a bit and they will be fine.
Peace!
If they got devs and they get me, then they need to stop bullshitting in interviews, end the NDAs on this subject, and end every single element of their "talk to us" clause. It's garbage and it will never be appropriate, ever. Full stop.
