Super Meat Boy Offers Free DLC Through Loophole

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
0
0
Super Meat Boy Offers Free DLC Through Loophole


The developers of Super Meat Boy have figured out how to release DLC for free on Xbox Live Arcade.

Downloadable content on Xbox Live Arcade usually comes with at least a meager cost, according to Microsoft rules. That won't be the case for the DLC coming to Team Meat's Super Meat Boy though, as the developers have figured out a loophole to provide it for free.

Super Meat Boy is a downloadable platformer coming to PC, Mac, WiiWare, and Xbox Live Arcade, but Team Meat entered into an "exclusive online content" deal with Microsoft to get the particular deal that allowed them to release it on XBLA. This content will be collections of new levels called "Teh Internets" that are provided totally for free through the Xbox 360's Title Managed Storage system. While TMS is not normally used to give DLC to player gratis, Microsoft seems to be okay with what Team Meat calls the "loophole of awesome." The studio says of the free XBLA DLC: "It is nice to have the power to totally say 'fuck you' to that system and go our own way."

According to the developers, nobody has released any kind of DLC in this manner in the history of Xbox Live. Basically, players will get a pop-up saying that they unlocked "Teh Internets," and they'll be able to choose from newly released level packs. Each pack will contain around 20 levels, which may be locked to specific playable characters and their unique abilities. The Butcher Boy pack is up first and will launch with Super Meat Boy on October 20. By the end of the year, The Sewers of Dross featuring Gish [http://store.steampowered.com/app/9500/] is planned, as is Meat Boy, a chapter focusing on Super Meat Boy's flash prototype. In early 2011, Team Meat has Debug World in the works, which "uses the editor in different ways to make insane levels."

Team Meat will continue to release new levels as long as they have new ideas. Though players can't share levels to consoles through a planned PC level editor, the developers are also planning a "best-of user made" level pack for release on the Xbox 360. They also recently revealed that Reggie Fils-Aime was going to be included as a playable character, but Nintendo turned down the idea. Lame!

Permalink
 
Apr 28, 2008
14,634
0
0
So they have to work around MS's system to release free things? That they made? That they want to give away for free?

Wow.
 

theComposer

New member
Mar 29, 2009
576
0
0
"Valve, I'd like you to meet the 'loophole of awesome'. 'Loophole of awesome', Valve."
*shows the two to a small candlelit table in a dim, fancy restaurant*

Seriously, Valve needs to jump on this and update TF2 for Xbox360 before Microsoft closes this up.
 

Sebenko

New member
Dec 23, 2008
2,531
0
0
jwien001 said:
"Valve, I'd like you to meet the 'loophole of awesome'. 'Loophole of awesome', Valve."
*shows the two to a small candlelit table in a dim, fancy restaurant*

Seriously, Valve needs to jump on this and update TF2 for Xbox360 before Microsoft closes this up.
So that the few that do get it before the loophole is closed can't play with anyone who didn't, or anyone who bought the game afterwards?

Also, TF2 is a little more high-profile.
 

boholikeu

New member
Aug 18, 2008
959
0
0
jwien001 said:
"Valve, I'd like you to meet the 'loophole of awesome'. 'Loophole of awesome', Valve."
*shows the two to a small candlelit table in a dim, fancy restaurant*

Seriously, Valve needs to jump on this and update TF2 for Xbox360 before Microsoft closes this up.
My guess is that the loophole is that the DLC is "exclusive content for the XBLA". IE since it's an extra selling point MS doesn't feel bad about giving it away for free.

I dunno if Valve is willing to give exclusives to the Xbox.
 

Anti-Robot Man

New member
Apr 5, 2010
212
0
0
Sebenko said:
Also, TF2 is a little more high-profile.
Not on Xbox it's not, the community for that game has dwindled without any support whatsoever. Valve should just release a seperate fully updated version as an xbla game (which they did for Portal), it would split the community but if they did it for 400/800 (which most are willing to pay for map-packs and the like) points pretty much everyone would migrate and it would bring in/back a ton of players.
 
Jul 22, 2009
3,595
0
0
I still don't get this...

There is loads of free DLC on XBL.

For arcade games and for full games. Not every piece of DLC is charged for.
 

Jkudo

New member
Aug 17, 2010
304
0
0
In order for valve to do that for tf2 it would have to be exclusive to xbl. I really doubt that's going to happen.
 

Kevashim

New member
Dec 12, 2007
14
0
0
Ok, well Dead Rising had free additional costumes. Various Dynasty Warriors games have had free costumes, in-game music and new levels. I believe the first map pack for Exit may have been free. I'm sure there are plenty of other games with free dlc too...

So surely a method for free game DLc already existed and has been used... even if it isn't the same method as is employed here it's hardly groundbreaking.
 

Jkudo

New member
Aug 17, 2010
304
0
0
Kevashim said:
Ok, well Dead Rising had free additional costumes. Various Dynasty Warriors games have had free costumes, in-game music and new levels. I believe the first map pack for Exit may have been free. I'm sure there are plenty of other games with free dlc too...

So surely a method for free game DLc already existed and has been used... even if it isn't the same method as is employed here it's hardly groundbreaking.
Yes dlc can be free and developers pick up the tab. This is just an indy devs way of providing free dlc without having to pay microsoft.
 

Kevashim

New member
Dec 12, 2007
14
0
0
Jkudo said:
Kevashim said:
Ok, well Dead Rising had free additional costumes. Various Dynasty Warriors games have had free costumes, in-game music and new levels. I believe the first map pack for Exit may have been free. I'm sure there are plenty of other games with free dlc too...

So surely a method for free game DLc already existed and has been used... even if it isn't the same method as is employed here it's hardly groundbreaking.
Yes dlc can be free and developers pick up the tab. This is just an indy devs way of providing free dlc without having to pay microsoft.
Valve are hardly an indy dev. Maybe they aren't the promised land of gaming that so many make them out to be after all... :p <\begin Flame_War>
 

wheeman

New member
Sep 15, 2009
70
0
0
Here's the blog post on there site with all the information and stuff; http://www.supermeatboy.com/38/Teh_Internets_/
 

Jkudo

New member
Aug 17, 2010
304
0
0
Kevashim said:
Jkudo said:
Kevashim said:
Ok, well Dead Rising had free additional costumes. Various Dynasty Warriors games have had free costumes, in-game music and new levels. I believe the first map pack for Exit may have been free. I'm sure there are plenty of other games with free dlc too...

So surely a method for free game DLc already existed and has been used... even if it isn't the same method as is employed here it's hardly groundbreaking.
Yes dlc can be free and developers pick up the tab. This is just an indy devs way of providing free dlc without having to pay microsoft.
Valve are hardly an indy dev. Maybe they aren't the promised land of gaming that so many make them out to be after all... :p <\begin Flame_War>
Even though valve are very different from these guys, in order for valve to provide free dlc without paying for it themselves they would have to make it exclusive to xbox. The indy dev i was referring to were the once in this incident.