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Microsoft's indie developer's still haven't got their September payments.

OnPoint

Member
This is unacceptable that you've had to wait that long for payment. When you say "empty rhetoric", are they saying that payment is on the way or that they just don't know what the issue is?

It boggles my mind when payment issues take this long for major companies. In my job, if something isn't paid out on time, I prioritize that above all else. It's just the right thing to do.

Forgive me, I can't post the actual conversation. But the basic timeline is:

  • We contacted them about still not getting paid
  • They asked us to verify our acct info was right (same day)
  • We did that, no response
  • We then had to email them again a week later to remind them
  • They emailed back saying they didn't forget us and that they're parsing through the sales data (same day)

And that's the last we've heard.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
Jesus christ, I can understand why some indies rather not work with MS at all. This shit is embarrassing
 

nampad

Member
They should know this is a huge fuckup but the PR backlash still seems not big enough for the situation to be resolved...
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
Welcome to February. Where some devs still haven't been paid. Including us.

Here's the official forums for reference's sake.

We've been pretty patient, used the boards to communicate, tried emailing back and forth with them, but nothing of substance ever materializes and we're left with nothing but empty rhetoric.

I don't even know what to do at this point.

Contact a lawyer, see if you have a serious case. Take the premeditated jump into hell. Sue them.
 

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
Looks like only 3 people complaining about payments now. I wonder what's going on with those last few people having issues.
 
So, wait, it turns out that Microsoft's actually done squat about this for some developers? Bad show.

Honestly, I would concur with GnawtyDog, it's probably time to consider lawyering up.
 

ClearData

Member
There is nothing that disgusts me more than people having to ask for money that's rightfully owed to them.

What's more is that many were afraid to speak up about it.

Microsoft is a multi billion dollar corporation. There is no excuse for this other than gross negligence.

For shame Microsoft.
 
Paging ID@XBOX guy.

Sucks they stopped working on this once the backlash died down but it's pretty typical. Are there others that haven't been paid since this started? Either way, I would get a lawyer and have them deal with it. You shouldn't be worrying about getting paid.
 

Heysoos

Member
Paging ID@XBOX guy.

Sucks they stopped working on this once the backlash died down but it's pretty typical. Are there others that haven't been paid since this started?

Going by the forums the guy posted the large majority got paid already. I only see three people on there that haven't gotten paid.
 
Welcome to February. Where some devs still haven't been paid. Including us.

Here's the official forums for reference's sake.

We've been pretty patient, used the boards to communicate, tried emailing back and forth with them, but nothing of substance ever materializes and we're left with nothing but empty rhetoric.

I don't even know what to do at this point.

This is disgusting. Utter bastards. Can you band together with some other small devs to afford legal representation and start a class action lawsuit against MS for withholding payment?
 

Paz

Member
"We here you, keep pushing us to do better."

Haha this is pretty good and I suspect accurate, though it seems on stage//in text corporate robot Phil and real world Phil are a bit different as he was very candid and came across as genuine when I met him in person.

Awful news for devs still waiting on payments though and genuinely terrifying. A lot of indies survive with a razor thin margin of error on their expenses/income so this is the worst group of people to get messed around with when it comes to paying royalties on time :(
 

OnPoint

Member
Going by the forums the guy posted the large majority got paid already. I only see three people on there that haven't gotten paid.

Yes, many people did get paid. And that was a great step forward. But are the three that have spoken up (and whoever else remaining that hasn't) any less relevant or less deserving of our money because of that? Everything is in line on our end -- Microsoft is still responsible for getting us our money.
 

JP

Member
When you get paid late do you receive some sort compensational payment on top of what you're owed? Not that it would excuse it in any way and it doesn't help devs living from day to day but I was just wondering if it did happen.
 

Heysoos

Member
Yes, many people did get paid. And that was a great step forward. But are the three that have spoken up (and whoever else remaining that hasn't) any less relevant or less deserving of our money because of that? Everything is in line on our end -- Microsoft is still responsible for getting us our money.

Huh? I never said they weren't or that you were less relevant. I was simply answering what he asked.

Only 3? One is too many.
And I agree. Please don't take my post of context I was simply answering what the other guy asked. By all reports as of right now only three have said they haven't gotten paid. I'm not saying this is in any way okay so please to stop trying to put extra meaning to my posts.
 
Yes, many people did get paid. And that was a great step forward. But are the three that have spoken up (and whoever else remaining that hasn't) any less relevant or less deserving of our money because of that? Everything is in line on our end -- Microsoft is still responsible for getting us our money.

Yeah. Even if it was just one company that still has not been paid it has no relevance to the issue. Microsoft had 2 months to correct this mistake and they still have not completely solved it. Further more Onpoint barely gets an update on what exactly the issue is, and has to contact Microsoft himself, if he wants to get any information and the only thing he gets from them is that they are working on it, for what i guess is atleast 2 months now.
 

glaurung

Member
Has there been any kind of explanation as to why they haven't transferred any funds to the developers?

I can't imagine Redmond not being flush enough to pay a few indie guys.
 

ccharla

Member
Hey,

I'm looking into this now. According to our records everyone should be totally up to date and we changed our internal reporting system for XBLIG to check for the kind of errors that happened last time earlier so this kind of situation never happens again.

OnPoint, I've sent you a PM.

-Chris
 

OnPoint

Member
Hey,

I'm looking into this now. According to our records everyone should be totally up to date and we changed our internal reporting system for XBLIG to check for the kind of errors that happened last time earlier so this kind of situation never happens again.

OnPoint, I've sent you a PM.

-Chris

Thanks Chris for the reply. Response is on the way.
 

ps3ud0

Member
Glad to see OnPoints plea has a reply - shame he had to resort to non-offical forums to get himself heard though - I'm sure that can be remedied...

ps3ud0 8)
 
Hey,

I'm looking into this now. According to our records everyone should be totally up to date and we changed our internal reporting system for XBLIG to check for the kind of errors that happened last time earlier so this kind of situation never happens again.

OnPoint, I've sent you a PM.

-Chris

Glad to see a quick response, but it's a little ridiculous that it takes a post on NeoGAF to make a multi-billion dollar corporation respond to this problem instead of answering the initial emails. This reminds me of trying to get clients to pay when I did freelance work in college.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
Glad to see OnPoints plea has a reply - shame he had to resort to non-offical forums to get himself heard though - I'm sure that can be remedied...

ps3ud0 8)

He is better off sending a message to Charla on this forum than bothering with the official forum and that shouldn't be the case. They've been trying on the forum for months to get the situation resolved, to no avail. You hit up Charla and he is on it a few minutes later.

Who is managing things on that forum?
 
Tweeted this thread @ Jason Schreier, since he already had an interest in this situation back in December.

Hope everyone gets paid post-haste. This is frankly embarrassing for Microsoft that they haven't been able to get every developer paid on time. I know XBLIG is essentially a vestigial organ at this point, but that's not an excuse for missing payment. A more appropriate, proactive response by Microsoft would have been to reach out to each affected developer back in December to confirm that all Q2 payments had been received.
 
This really looks bad on Microsoft's part. Right now, having indie support should be their top priority during slower gaming months but how can you expect to generate support when this is how you treat people? I hope this gets resolved soon, for everyone involved.
 
Yep, it's totally a shortage of money problem.

It's a shortage of fucks to give problem, clearly. At some level, someone is reading the forum, someone is relaying the information, then...nothing. Charla reads a post on GAF, situation is resolved in 20 minutes. Someone didn't do in 5+ months what apparently only takes a few hours. It's embarrassingly unprofessional for a company their size.
 

KidJr

Member
Ridiculous he had to come to GAF to get this sorted. But glad this was able to get resolved (hopefully)
 
They should know this is a huge fuckup but the PR backlash still seems not big enough for the situation to be resolved...

i see this quietly going away just like the indie clause. if news outlets don't report it, it doesn't seem to get very far even with a popular site like gaf.
 
For what it's worth, we got paid Dec 16 IIRC (which is about a month after the deadline for getting paid).

Surprisingly enough, we just got Q4 payments a couple days ago which is ahead of the deadline.
 

H1PSTER

Member
For what it's worth, we got paid Dec 16 IIRC (which is about a month after the deadline for getting paid).

Surprisingly enough, we just got Q4 payments a couple days ago which is ahead of the deadline.

Hopefully they've gotten their act together.

Was great to know you got paid before Christmas too.
 

OnPoint

Member
Just wanted to update everyone and let them know that I've been emailing back and forth with Chris all day and he's working hard to get to the bottom of this.
 
Hey,

I'm looking into this now. According to our records everyone should be totally up to date and we changed our internal reporting system for XBLIG to check for the kind of errors that happened last time earlier so this kind of situation never happens again.

OnPoint, I've sent you a PM.

-Chris

Chris glad this is being looked at but can you also fix whatever is broken with the official forum that meant this didn't get looked at before it hit GAF?
 

Melchiah

Member
This makes the parity clause even worse. Release first on XB1, or go through the trouble of releasing simultaneously on both consoles, but get paid later.
 
Ridiculous that this has continued. At the very least after they thought they were caught up with payments they should have emailed each dev in the program for feedback/confirmation and then assign someone to follow up.


This makes the parity clause even worse. Release first on XB1, or go through the trouble of releasing simultaneously on both consoles, but get paid later.

Didn't know this was occurring for folks publishing on XB1. Can you share any details?
 
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