Quote (Zoni @ Jun 19 2012 11:56am)
i was speaking about game mod all the time and it should be clear that you need the original game for it. reason why i pointed it out was that there are companies releasing free stuff and still increasing their sales
Microsoft on the other hand is always trying to cash in on every way possible. inb4, arma 2 is cheaper than any fps for xbox and it's mod (or DLC you could say) is cheaper than map packs for any fps games (and in arma you can also create your own custom maps, so no need map packs ~~)
so original point being: why is microsoft releasing worthless crap with expensive price tag on it? it's not because they are "smart" but greedy
It isn't as basic as "Microsoft is Greedy." Microsoft is a multinational, publicly traded corporation. It has shareholders and a board of directors. It is also subject to various laws that a corporation must abide by. This company you keep wanting to compare it to, Bohemia Interactive is a private company with a minimal number of shareholders.
When it is a publicly traded corporation, the board of directors and decision makers need to make decisions that will help bring in a return on the investment of every shareholder. They have a serious legal duty to do that. If not, they can be liable to the shareholders. So yea, they are going to charge for everything. Would you put your job/money on the line to give away little things like this for free or charge a small fee? Charging a small fee will decrease the possible liability significantly.
We still don't even know the arrangement. There is a strong likelihood that Bethesda is the one making the decision to create the avatar item and charge for it. If Bethesda is the one pushing it, Microsoft can't do much about it anyways.