Victor Kislyi explained to Polygon that frequent updates are a crucial part of any free-to-play business.
"The good thing is with online games, sometimes if you screw up, you can do frequent updates," Kislyi said.
"But one of the biggest challenges with Microsoft was the frequency of updates because the QA process and certification process take an extremely long time. Totally unacceptable for a meaningful free-to-play. We are working with them to do quicker updates."
Microsoft conventionally tests games and updates thoroughly in order to uphold a level of quality across its Xbox platform. When developers deliver game updates to Microsoft, they must wait as the Xbox quality assurance team tests the content for errors, glitches or unwanted content.
On top of this, developers would usually need to pay as much as $40,000 for the testing and submissions process. However, in June Microsoft scrapped the policy and now allows developers to submit XBLA updates for free.
However, according to Kislyi, the friction of the game update process remains an issue. He said he was unsure whether Microsoft will enact platform-wide policy reform in order to remedy the issue.
"We will see, there is a lot of work on the technically side and on the administrative side which should resolve in the acceptable quality of the product, including updates of the product including speed and rates. So we will see," he said.
Platforms such as iOS and Valve's Steam allow developers to issue updates frequently - in some cases in a matter of days, on some occasions sooner. This has allowed game studios to use the latest player data as a guide for what to add to and remove from the game.
It is believed that around three quarters of iPhone game app business is generated from free-to-play.
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Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/420048/xbox-game-update-policies-totally-unacceptable-for-free-to-play/
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