Rein defends Microsoft from Sweeney’s “misquoted GoW statements”

This is a follow up to QJ’s report yesterday about Tim Sweeney’s statements concerning Gears of War and Microsoft. The gist of the story is that developer and founder of Epic Games mentioned that they’ve been wanting to release free content for GoW but big MS just wouldn’t let them.

So, logically, fans immediately saw Microsoft as this dollar-hungry corporation. But according to Mark Rein, that is not entirely the case. Posting on Evil Avatar forums, Rein commented that fans are all blowing this up into something bigger than it actually is.

What we have here is simply a difference of opinion on how to maximize the return on Gears of War – something both Epic and Microsoft want to do. While we create products like Gears because we love games, and we have a passion for making them, at the end of the day this is a business for both companies and how we earn our living.

Rein further argued that this had been done before even with Halo 2. Some maps will be sold for a reasonable price then they will eventually become available for download for free. And then Mark Rein said that fans have to remember that Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM) is Microsoft’s store.

Like any retailer, they have the right to figure out what goes on the shelves of their store and what price they sell it at. They spend the money to operate the store and deliver the content. They’ve also spent billions of dollars to create and build Xbox and subsidize it’s the price so you can afford it and we can make games for it.

Rein hopes that this will eventually clear up the confusion. He said that MS has taken care very well of them, spending billions just to market Gears of War.

This is a follow up to QJ’s report yesterday about Tim Sweeney’s statements concerning Gears of War and Microsoft. The gist of the story is that developer and founder of Epic Games mentioned that they’ve been wanting to release free content for GoW but big MS just wouldn’t let them.

So, logically, fans immediately saw Microsoft as this dollar-hungry corporation. But according to Mark Rein, that is not entirely the case. Posting on Evil Avatar forums, Rein commented that fans are all blowing this up into something bigger than it actually is.

What we have here is simply a difference of opinion on how to maximize the return on Gears of War – something both Epic and Microsoft want to do. While we create products like Gears because we love games, and we have a passion for making them, at the end of the day this is a business for both companies and how we earn our living.

Rein further argued that this had been done before even with Halo 2. Some maps will be sold for a reasonable price then they will eventually become available for download for free. And then Mark Rein said that fans have to remember that Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM) is Microsoft’s store.

Like any retailer, they have the right to figure out what goes on the shelves of their store and what price they sell it at. They spend the money to operate the store and deliver the content. They’ve also spent billions of dollars to create and build Xbox and subsidize it’s the price so you can afford it and we can make games for it.

Rein hopes that this will eventually clear up the confusion. He said that MS has taken care very well of them, spending billions just to market Gears of War.