Epic's plans to release new Gears of War maps for free have been halted by Microsoft.
Epic has already developed 4 new maps that they were planning to release for free, just like they did to almost all their PC games. But Microsoft, their publisher insisted that the new maps must be sold.
As a compromise, the 2 companies agreed that new Gears of War content should be sold for a few months, then made free.
Epic VP Mark Rein has defended Microsoft's decision. "Quite frankly Xbox Live Marketplace isn't our store. It's 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. As our publisher, they also invested tens of millions of dollars marketing Gears of War, and have done an awesome job for us, so they have a right to a good return on that investment", he said.
On the other hand, Epic has confirmed that the new Gears of War multi-player gametype "Annex" will come in the new Gears of War update this week for Free.
