Microsoft criticised for Windows Marketplace update policy

Just how open will Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store be? Some of the terms are provoking criticism from developers, particularly over the cost of submitting apps.

Developers will pay an annual fee of $99 to be part of the marketplace, which allows them to submit five apps for 'free' to the store.

However, developer (and blogger) Long Zheng claims that "application updates will count as new application submissions, and therefore will count towards the first five free submissions, or will cost $99 each after that".

In other words, release one Windows Mobile Game through the store with four updates over the course of the year, and that's your freebies used up. Zheng even suggests that resubmitting an update after a rejection counts as one full submission too.

One way of interpreting this is Microsoft's desire to avoid needless updates on the part of developers, and also to restrict the number of hobbyists on the platform.

But the risk is that it provides one more barrier to smaller independent developers who are thinking of taking their games to WinMo.